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The pandemic has magnified many issues that we face as a society, including post-secondary programming in the arts, including music. Post-secondary music programs have been criticized in recent years for their lack of equity and diversity, a problem that is undeniably systemic. Changes to post-secondary curricula need to better reflect a diversity of arts-making and makers, as well as support an understanding of the nature and scope of careers within the arts. Without illuminating this pathway, and making it as direct as possible, post-secondary music programs are inevitably excluding many potential students from choosing to study music in post-secondary education. In this talk, we will describe the cultural domains in Canada and the different ways that artists can work within and/or across them. We also highlight some of the challenges faced by the industry and offer some insights about how changes in post-secondary programs could better equip musicians to diversify their craft and/or pivot across domains. We also identify some areas for policy changes that could better support the industry and the individuals that work within it. Dr. Julia Brook is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at the Dan School of Drama and Music, Queen’s University in Kingston. She holds degrees in Piano Performance and Music Education. Her SSHRC and CFI-funded research examines ways to ensure accessible and appropriate music education programs in schools, higher education and the community. Dr. Brook has worked as an elementary and specifically education music teacher, studio piano teacher and collaborative pianist. Dr. Colleen Renihan is Assistant Professor and Queen’s National Scholar in Music Theatre and Opera at the Dan School of Drama and Music. She holds degrees in Voice Performance and Musicology. Her book, The Operatic Archive: American Opera as History, was published this year. Colleen is embarking on a SSHRC and CFI-funded project with Dr. Julia Brook that investigates universal design principles for music theatre performance, and they have just completed a SSHRC funded project examining the scope and nature of work for musicians across Canada’s cultural domains. Ben Schnitzer a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at Queen’s, where he also taught in the School of Policy Studies. After studying voice and performing in Canada and in Europe, Ben completed a Master of Public Service (Waterloo) and worked in cultural policy for the Canadian government. A member of the North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative (NACDI) and was awarded a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from SSHRC to support his research on Canadian cultural diplomacy in the contemporary period. Recorded via Zoom, November 5th 2020

In the aftermath of the so-called “refugee crisis” of 2015-16, the migration regime consolidating in Europe entails the management of newcoming populations through their accommodation in camps. This talk will account for neglected aspects of this process in the case of Greece, focusing on the everyday economic practices, interactions and networks emerging in, around and because of camps. Drawing on examples from recent filed research, it will highlight the “productive” functions and economic geographies of migrant camps. Dr Panos Hatziprokopiou is Assistant Professor at the School of Spatial Planning & development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has studied economics, sociology and human geography in Greece and the UK. His research interests focus on socio-spatial aspects of migrants’ settlement, labour market pathways, housing geographies and everyday interactions. He is currently involved in a European project on transnational figurations of protracted displacement and the role of mobility and connectivity. Dr. Hatziprokopiou gave his virtual presentation on Thursday November 26th at 1 PM for SNID. Content recorded by SNID and provided as is to CFRC with permission of the lecturer.

Kingston Frontenac Public Library, The Black Luck Collective, and Queen’s SNID are pleased to present Eternity Martis, author of the enlightening memoir, They Said This Would Be Fun. A booksmart kid from Toronto, Eternity Martis was excited to move away to Western University for her undergraduate degree. But as one of the few Black students there, she soon discovered that the campus experiences she’d seen in movies were far more complex in reality. Eternity Martis is the author of the bestselling memoir They Said This Would Be Fun, “A powerful, moving memoir about what it’s like to be a student of colour on a predominantly white campus.” The Constellations lectures series encompasses politics and identity, science and technology, arts and letters, and practical skills relevant to contemporary life. This Constellations event was co-presented virtually on October 7th 2020 with Kingston’s Black Luck Collective and Queen’s University’s Studies in National and International Development. Constellations is sponsored by the Friends of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library.

In this first podcast of the new Studies in National and International Development 2020-21 year, Dr. Chery Thompson leads the discussion.  Dr. Thompson explores the mutation of Uncle Tom from 19th C. literary character to the relentless reworking of Uncle Tom into a nostalgic racial metaphor with the power to shape how we see Black men.  How, whey and with what consequences for our society did Uncle Tom morph first into a servile old man (Josiah Henson) and then to a racial epithet hurled at Black men deemed, by other Black people, to have betrayed their race?  Learn more and listen in! This virtual talk was given and recorded October 15th 2020.