Syracuse University’s Future Minority Studies Project presents Canadian writer Dionne Brand April 14

Syracuse University’s Future Minority Studies Project presents Canadian writer Dionne Brand April 14 April 07, 2009Rob Enslinrmenslin@syr.edu

Dionne Brand, a premier Canadian poet, novelist, and essayist, will deliver a special lecture at Syracuse University titled “Inventory: Notes to a Poem.” The event, which is free and open to the public, is Tuesday, April 14, at 7 p.m. in the Room 001 of the Life Sciences Complex.

Brand’s lecture is presented by SU’s Future Minority Studies Project, housed in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies in The College of Arts and Sciences, and is funded by a generous grant from the Office of the Chancellor.

“We are thrilled to be hosting Dionne Brand, one of today’s most lyrical and brilliant writers,” says Chandra Talpade Mohanty, chair of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. “Her writing is notable for its beauty of language and for its commitment to issues of race, gender, class, and social justice.”

Brand is a writer whose work crosses all genres of the art form, from the trenchant social analysis in her nonfiction work, “No Burden to Carry: Narratives of Working Black Women in Ontario, 1920s to 1950s” (Women’s Press, 1991) to her beautiful poetry in “No Language is Neutral” (McClellan & Stewart, 1998), to the riveting, multi-layered fictional tale of migration, urban life, love, pain and family secrets in her latest novel, “What We All Long For” (Vintage Canada, 2005).

The corpus of Brand’s work-18 books (including nine volumes of poetry), contributions to 17 anthologies, dozens of essays and articles, and four documentary films she made for the National Film Board of Canada-underscores her importance to educational settings in Canada and abroad. Brand has garnered all of Canada’s highest awards, and her writing has been hailed for its social and political significance. Two of her novels-“At the Full and Change of the Moon” (Vintage Canada, 2000) and “In Another Place, Not Here” (Knopf Canada, 1996)-also earned notable book awards from The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, respectively.

In addition to being a noted writer, Brand is an accomplished scholar and teacher. She currently lives in Toronto, where she holds the Canada Research Chair at the University of Guelph. She has also served on the literature and creative writing faculties of universities in British Columbia and Ontario, and at St. Lawrence University.

The Future Studies Minority Project focuses specifically on questions related to “minoritized” identities and epistemologies in the context of national and transnational justice and feminist politics. Project co-sponsors include the Department of English; the Department of African American Studies; the Office of Multicultural Affairs; the LGBT Studies Program; the Latino/Latin American Studies Program; the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics; the Writing Program, the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies; and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. For more information about the project and The College of Arts and Sciences, visit http://thecollege.syr.edu.