This year marks the 35th Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre on 6 December 1989, when an armed man walked into Ecole Polytechnique and killed 14 women, mostly engineering students. Exploring creative responses to this tragedy in monuments, music, and metaphor allows us to reflect on how best to remember those taken from us. For a decade now, I have written poems for Acadia’s annual December 6 ceremony. Every year, in seeking the right words to pay tribute to women who have lost their lives to femicide, I have thought not only of the young women murdered in Montreal, but also of how, three and half decades later, the violence against women continues around the world as does the fight against it. In “The Politics of Memory,” Emma Morgan-Thorp reminds us that feminist memorials “run the risk of serving as a palliative instead of a provocation” and that we must combine commemoration with calls to action.

COFFEE, TEA, AND LIGHT SNACKS WILL BE SERVED!

Made possible by the generous support of the Harrison McCain Foundation, the Faculty of Arts, and the Office of Research and Graduate Studies.

For more information or questions, contact @Chelsea Gardner or @Can Mutlu.