Freedom: International Women’s Week 2026

Monday, March 2

8h30 – 9h45, Auditorium (A-103)
The Illusion of Freedom
In the West and, particularly, in Quebec, we are made to believe that it is the state that gives us all of our freedoms and that laws exist to enshrine and protect our freedoms. However, if we look at who makes these laws, whom they make them for, and how they are applied, does this make sense? Who is the “we”? Who is the “they” that needs their freedom protected? Who actually benefits? During this talk, local community and feminist activist Mubeenah Mughal will focus on the Quebec context specifically and the larger issues that inform what is happening here. Sponsored by MEES.

Mubeenah Mughal is a mother of three boys and has been involved for many years in a variety of feminist and social justice groups in Montreal. She has been involved in the legal challenge against Bill 21 in Quebec and, more recently, navigating being disabled in different ways since having brain surgery in 2022.

10h -11h15, Auditorium (A-103)
Fitting in Isn’t Freedom
Today, everyone technically has the freedom to pursue whatever career they want. With hard work and commitment, the doors are open. And yet, once through those doors, the experience can feel unexpectedly constraining, even painful, for those who bump up against subtle (and not so subtle) exclusion and unspoken norms. In this session, in honour of International Women’s Week, Dr. Ann-Louise Howard draws on her own journey in engineering and her research on women’s lived experiences in the profession to explore this contradiction. Through storytelling, interactive experiences, and research, she invites the Vanier community to notice how engineering and STEM can be welcoming in principle, yet challenging to navigate in practice, especially for women, who are not seen as the “norm.” What looks like freedom on the outside often means regularly watching yourself on the inside: how you speak, how you act, and whether you’re coming across the “right” way. This session is relevant to everyone who is curious about belonging, wellbeing, and what it really means to feel at home as we pursue our careers. While women’s experiences in STEM are the focus, the dynamics explored in this session are not unique to gender or to engineering. They reflect broader patterns of exclusion that affect many students across identities and disciplines. Sponsored by the VCSA.

Dr. Ann-Louise Howard graduated from John Abbott College and went on to study Mechanical Engineering at McGill University. After a career in engineering and program management in the high tech sector, she turned her sights on understanding organizations and helping teams be more effective. She completed a doctorate from Concordia University with a focus on women in engineering and now spends her energy on improving the lives of women in engineering.

12h – 13h15, Auditorium (A-103)
Film Screening & Talk: AIDS NOW
AIDS NOW is a film program and educational discussion forum curated by Mediaqueer. On behalf of the organization, Dr. Dorian J. Fraser will present films from the first wave of AIDS activism alongside director Nancy Pettinicchio’s 2025 short film Ça Va Finir par Finir, a film exploring contemporary queer issues, HIV, and AIDS. Sponsored by Vanier’s Open Door Network.

Mediaqueer is an evolving educational effort to create archival histories and highlight Canadian and Quebecois LGBTQ2SNBIA+ film and media. Dr. Dorian J. Fraser is an art historian with a research practice in queer media from the mid twentieth century through the first wave of the HIV and AIDS crisis. He holds a doctorate in art history and is a professor of Aesthetics and Art History at John Abbott College.

14h – 15h15 pm, Auditorium (A-103)
Girls on the Edge
We’re well into a time where we all know that girls and women can kick ass and be strong protagonists–that girls can grow up to be President or walk on the moon or be a Queen or a Superhero. But there are a lot of old stereotypes that still persist. How do we reinvent and build new characters for the enlightened girl? Join Cecil Castellucci as they discuss the challenges of building and creating modern heroines. Cosponsored by the QWF Writers-in-Cegep Program.

Cecil Castellucci is the award-winning and New York Times Bestselling author of books and graphic novels including Shade, The Changing Girl, Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, Soupy Leaves Home, The Year of the Beasts, Female Furies, Batgirl, and Odd Duck. Her newest graphic novel is Shifting Earth. Her short stories have been published in Strange Horizons, Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine and other anthologies. She has written three opera librettos incorporating comics Les Aventures de Madame Merveille (w/ Andre Ristic) Hockey Noir: The Opera (w/ Andre Ristic) and Metternich! (w/ Charlotte Marlowe). She is guest faculty at VIA University Graphic Story Telling Program at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark. She recently received a Fulbright award to investigate mixing comics, performance and new technologies. They live in Montreal.

16h – 17h15, Auditorium (A-103)
“Bad Girls, Deviant Women”: Reconstructing Histories of Women’s Freedom, Surveillance, and Incarceration in Toronto’s Past
Autumn Beals’ talk explores how working-class and racialized women in early-twentieth-century Toronto encountered the carceral system through institutions like the Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women and the Toronto Women’s Court. Drawing on archival records, and public history outcomes, the presentation examines how “freedom” was policed, restricted, and unevenly distributed. It also reflects on how public-facing history, such as walking tours, storytelling, and creative research, can challenge dominant narratives and make space for women’s resistance, survival, and agency. Sponsored by MEES.

Autumn Beals is a public historian and visual artist from Tkaronto (Toronto) and currently resides in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal) while pursuing an MA in History at Concordia University, from which she has also earned a BA in Honours Public History and a Minor in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality. Her interests and work explore incarceration, carceral histories, migration, and intergenerational memory through oral history and public storytelling. Her research highlights the intersections of gender, race, and criminalization in Canada’s past, advocating for more inclusive historical narratives while working towards, and dreaming of abolitionist futures.

Tuesday, March 3

8h30 – 9h45, Auditorium (A-103)
Liberté d’expression ? Liberté académique ?
(En français)
Le mot en n provient d’un crime contre l’humanité : l’esclavage des Noirs. Il déshumanise, partout, toujours : même dans une salle de classe, il a été inventé pour cela. Les Afrodescendants ont exigé d’être nommés avec dignité : Afro-Américain, Afro-Canadian, Africain-Canadien, etc. Alors, quand ce mot a-t-il perdu sa violence ? Quand un mot raciste devient acceptable par le simple changement de lieu ? Sauf dans le déni du racisme. Comment comprendre qu’un mot forgé pour déshumaniser des êtres humains puisse faire encore débat au 21e siècle au nom de liberté d’expression ou académique ? Lorsque les figures d’autorité effacent l’histoire et banalisent un crime, alors les violences raciales se normalisent et continuent. Sexisme et racisme, un même système d’oppression : les femmes, comme les Noirs se sont réapproprié des mots d’injure. Le danger, c’est quand le dominant s’autorise à s’approprier ce qui ne lui appartient pas. La vraie liberté construit des lieux d’enseignement sécuritaire respectueux tourné vers la réussite des étudiants : jamais ne blesse. Dans cette conférence, Danielle Altidor ne soulèvera pas la question de l’usage du mot en n en classe, la réponse est évidente : aucun symbole ou aucun mot fondé sur la haine raciale ne peut être utilisé. Le mot en n provient d’un crime contre l’humanité et a été inventé pour déshumaniser, humilier et opprimer. L’UNESCO ne mâche pas ses mots en qualifiant l’esclavage des Noirs de « barbarie odieuse ». Mme Altidor veut mieux faire comprendre comment le racisme antinoir repose sur la déshumanisation des Afrodescendants, le mot en n en étant l’expression la plus violente, et la plus emblématique. Se nommer et se définir soi-même fait partie intégrante de la liberté surtout pour les Afrodescendants à qui l’on a refusé le droit de parole pendant des siècles.

Danielle Altidor a étudié pour devenir professeure de français au cégep. Toutefois, quand elle est devenue professeure, elle a été bouleversée de voir comment le racisme antinoir est toujours aussi présent qu’à son époque. Par expérience, Danielle Altidor sait que le racisme est un obstacle pour la réussite scolaire. C’est la raison pour laquelle elle a fait son doctorat en sociologie sur la représentation des Noirs dans le milieu scolaire du Québec. D’ailleurs, elle commence son livre Noirs invisibles. L’école et la suite d’une oppression, ainsi : « Quand j’étais jeune, je détestais l’école, je rêvais de ne plus y retourner. Le milieu scolaire m’était pénible et je n’y réussissais pas. […]. Le mot en n retentissait régulièrement, dans la cour comme en classe » (Altidor, 2023).

10h – 11h15, Auditorium (A-103)
Lancement du livre au Vanier : Fantasmer ma réinvention–Parcours d’un corps (im)parfait, par Tanya Déry-Obin
(En français)
Fantasmer ma réinvention–Parcours d’un corps (im)parfait retrace le parcours fragmenté ayant façonné l’identité d’un corps gros, noir, anxieux. Partant de la quête de minceur qui s’est enclenchée dès l’enfance de la narratrice, cet essai personnel raconte le cercle vicieux et les postures impossibles dans lesquels se retrouvent les corps qui perdent au pari des diètes à répétition. Il rend compte des expériences qui ont influencé le rapport au monde d’un corps minorisé qui résiste à l’effacement. Une invitation à explorer les côtés les plus sombres, honteux et contradictoires de nos relations à notre corps, de façon à radicalement connecter avec soi.

Tanya Déry-Obin est née à Montréal. Elle est docteure en littérature de langue française de l’Université de Virginie et elle enseigne le français au cégep Vanier depuis 2015.

12h – 13h15, Auditorium (A-103)
The Freedom to Be Human: Shifting from Domination to Relational Manhood
Dominance-based masculinity (AKA The Patriarchy) harms everyone it touches. Yet it features in so many of our movies and TV shows, and we tolerate it, if we even notice it. Developed by Stephanie Tholand, the Men in Media Test helps us understand, critique, and improve how male characters show up onscreen. It illustrates the values and actions of non-dominating ways to be a man and interact with others, highlighting for audiences examples of how men might embody a relational version of manhood that lets everyone thrive.

Stephanie Tholand developed the Men in Media test—a “Bechdel test” for masculinities—as part of her international gender studies work at the University of Iceland. She will be publishing a 2026 report in partnership with the Geena Davis Institute on the state of masculinity representation in entertainment media.

14h30 – 15h45, Auditorium (A-103)
Student Perspectives on Gender and Freedom
Five Vanier Students in the Women’s and Gender Studies Certificate Program with a wide variety of backgrounds, identifications, and belongings, share their views on the current state of gender politics in the world and how it impacts their sense of freedom. Cosponsored by the VCSA and Vanier’s Student Life office.

Zoya Almuqaddam is finishing her DEC in Psychology and Women’s and Gender studies at Vanier College. Her diverse linguistic exposure as a young immigrant has inclined her to pursue a career in multilingual childhood speech pathology. Kathleen Gosselin is a mixed Two-Spirit Indigiqueer person with disabilities, pursuing a DEC in Special Education Techniques and is deeply committed to community care, harm reduction, and accessibility within activism. Rameen Nawaz is currently a second-year student in Social Sciences, Two Maths profile. Amaya Owoyemi-Charbonneau is in her second year at Vanier in Liberal Arts and is passionate about learning about issues encompassing intersectional topics such as class and gender. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with friends and family, sitting in the sun, reading, and listening to music. Ana Maria Tanasescu is a second-year Liberal Arts student who’s interested in pursuing a career in law. When she is not studying or volunteering, she enjoys painting and drawing, and she hopes to be a proud mom to 2 cats one day.

16h – 17h15, Auditorium (A-103)
Make Space
Isolation for disabled communities can be directly linked to the infrastructure of a city. Montreal is and always has been an extremely inaccessible city, and that acceptance of inaccessibility seeps into community organizing where disabled needs, joys, and realities are quietly pushed to the side again and again. What does freedom mean to a population of people—which includes a wide array of gender identities—whose freedom is based on the ability to access spaces? Ash from the “In Pain and Insane” collective will discuss how accessibility is not a privilege—it is freedom. Sponsored by the VCTA.

Ash is one of the founders and organizers of the collective “In Pain and Insane”. “In Pain and Insane” aims to bring together disabled/mad/D.deaf/sick realities through radical accessibility and interdependence.

Wednesday, March 4

8h30 – 9h45, Auditorium (A-103)
Mothering for freedom in Palestine
Dr. Asma Al-Naser will discuss what it means for Palestinian women to mother in the context of occupation and expand on the ways in which the struggle for freedom lies at the heart of this work.

Dr. Asma Al-Naser teaches full-time in the English Department at Vanier College, where she teaches courses on Palestinian literature. She has worked with refugee youth at the Shatila camp, where she created programs for children to play, as such spaces are rare.

10h30 – 11h45, Auditorium (A-103)
The freedom to resist: Jewish voices for Palestinian freedom
During this panel discussion, three educators will discuss what it has meant for them as Jewish people to speak up against the genocide in Gaza, particularly the targeting of women and children, and against the Zionist claim to represent all Jewish communities. How do they navigate the tensions that arise in families and in communities, and how is this resistance informed by their faith and traditions?

Nadia Moss is an artist, educator, and loudly antizionist Jewish mother based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. They teach in Fine Arts at Dawson College and run life drawing classes for trans and queer people. Noa is a learner, teacher, community worker, and queer antizionist Jew of mixed lineages.

12h – 13h15, Auditorium (A-103)
Nobody is free until we are all free
Co-presented by Vanier’s Truth and ReconciliAction Speaker Series
This panel will offer a discussion of the intersection of Sudanese and Indigenous Peoples’ struggles with the fight for Palestinian human rights. Our feminist speakers will offer thoughts on the possibilities and obstacles they have encountered as they strive for solidarity with and among one another. Cosponsored by the VCTA.

Iako’tsi:rareh Amanda Lickers is a designer, pedagogue, multimedia artist, and consultant whose work reflects the interconnected relationship of land–body sovereignty. She is the 2023–2025 Indigenous Land Restitution Research-Creation Fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, where her research-creation short film and exhibition everlasting are on view in the Shaughnessy House until August 2026. She currently teaches at Dawson College while completing her MA in Individualised Studies at Concordia University. Duha Elmardi is a Sudanese organizer based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal and a member of the Sudan Solidarity Collective, supporting initiatives for social and climate justice.

13h30 – 14h45, Auditorium (A-103)
Whose freedom to exist?
Two feminist Concordia students who have led the campus struggle for solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians will share their experiences of academic repression and the increased securitization of student life. Their stories reveal the mirroring of tactics between local security forces and the Israeli military apparatus. Cosponsored by MEES and the VCTA.

Rayana Eltanoukhi is a graduate researcher in psychology at Concordia University whose work examines how interpersonal norms and sociocultural environments shape health-related and psychological outcomes across the lifespan. Danna Noor Ballantyne is a Palestinian student activist and the Concordia Student Union’s External and Mobilization Coordinator, with over five years of experience organizing for Palestine in Montreal.

15h30 – 17h30, Auditorium (A-103)
Film and talk: The Palestine exception
After years of right-wing assaults on higher education, attacks took a new form in 2023 and 2024 that has been described as a new McCarthyism. As students across the United States organize protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, decades-long taboos in academia around criticism of Israel—the “Palestine exception”—are shattered. This documentary follows professors and students calling for a ceasefire and divestment while facing crackdowns from administrators, media, police, and politicians. Co-director Jan Haaken will join the session remotely for a discussion following the film.

Jan Haaken is professor emeritus of psychology at Portland State University, a clinical psychologist, and award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on contested social spaces and political controversy. She has directed nine feature films and authored multiple books on gender, memory, trauma, and politics.

Thursday, March 5

10h – 11h15, Auditorium (A-103)
Contentious online spaces: Navigating polarization, identity, and influence in the social media era
This presentation by McGill Ph.D. candidate Esli Chan explores how contemporary online environments shape the ways individuals, particularly youth, develop their sense of identity, community, and political beliefs. By examining phenomena such as AI companion chatbots, the rise of influencers, the increasing visibility of polarizing and extreme viewpoints, and circulation of online gender-based violence, the discussion considers how digital spaces shape what matters and whose voices are heard. These dynamics highlight how online spaces impact everyday social life and civic engagement. Sponsored by Vanier’s SVPR office.

Esli Chan is a senior research fellow at the Media Ecosystem Observatory and a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. Her work, published in journals including Violence Against Women and International Studies Review, examines the intersections of technology and media, extremist and right-wing politics, and gender studies.

11h30 – 12h45, Auditorium (A-103)
Film: Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man, dir. by Trevor Solway
Siksika filmmaker Sinakson, Trevor Solway, intimately portrays the lives of Blackfoot men as they navigate identity, kinship and the complex expectations of manhood. Through unfiltered moments and revealing conversations set against the breathtaking landscape of the Prairies, the film reimagines what it means to be a Native man. Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man is a profound ode to strength, vulnerability and love across generations. (NFB, 2025, Canada, 1h 17m)

13h – 14h15, Auditorium (A-103)
Coming home to Wet'suwet'en and where we are today
Activist, filmmaker, and chef Marlene Hale will talk about her work on Indigenous rights as a Wet’suwet’en woman, including those pertaining to land, self-determination, and food security. She will also discuss her “Our Decision, Our Future” initiative (www.ourdecisionourfuture.ca), which she created to encourage and motivate Indigenous youth to participate actively in defending Indigenous rights.

Marlene Hale is from the Likhsilyu Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, in the northwest of so-called Canada. She is a First Nations chef specializing in cooking culture and cuisine. On January 8, 2019, Marlene became a full-time activist to fight for her People’s rights and well-being. Now, she is leading the research and development for a full length documentary film on addressing systemic injustice in Canada.

14h30 – 15h45, Auditorium (A-103)
Film: Seguridad, dir. by Tamara Segura
Once named “Cuba’s youngest soldier” in a propaganda stunt, filmmaker Tamara Segura returns to her native country to untangle the painful legacy of her father’s alcoholism and the lasting impact of the Cuban Revolution. Through intimate interviews and personal archives, Seguridad reveals a family’s hidden struggles and an era’s deep scars. (NFB, 2024, Canada, 1h 16m)

16h – 17h15, Auditorium (A-103)
Mid-life crisis during a pandemic: How I embraced all my passions at 40
In January 2022, in the middle of the pandemic, Sandra Gasana quit her 9-to-5 job to focus on all of her passions: teaching, singing, and writing about music. And she hasn’t regretted it since. She started her own language school called ELOGasana, took her music career more seriously, and started writing for an online music magazine called PanM360. This presentation will provide an overview of the path she took in her life to arrive at where she is today as a woman in her prime. Sponsored by MEES.

Sandra Gasana, a.k.a. Umurutasaté, is a Rwandan-Canadian performing artist, a storyteller, a teacher, and a journalist, and speaks seven languages. Born in Ethiopia, she traveled the world before settling in Montreal 28 years ago. She is a mother of two boys, Ismaël, aged 11, and Nathanael, aged 9.

Friday, March 6

8h30 – 9h45, Auditorium (A-103)
Anishnabe women in traditional governance
Anishnabe environmentalist Shannon Chief/Waba Mako will speak on her multi-pronged work in eco-activism as an Indigenous woman. Sponsored by Vanier’s A’nó:wara Indigenous Student Centre

Shannon Chief/Waba Mako is Wolf Clan from the Anishnabe-Algonquin Nation. She contributes at various levels to the decolonization and the restoration of her people’s sovereignty. The defense and protection of land, waters and language is a priority for the Anishnabeg. Waba is a Knowledge Keeper who prioritizes knowledge & language sharing to Anishnabe communities. Waba is the former AMC coordinator for the Anishnabe Moose Studies which has always been community driven project from 2022 to 2025. Today, Waba is the Interium Executive Director for Tinakiwin, a newly non profit organization established to continue on the advocacy work within the Anishnabe-Algonquin Territory

10h – 11h15, Auditorium (A-103)
JJ Levine: Queer image-making
JJ Levine will give an artist talk focusing on three major bodies of work from his photographic practice. Through portraits, still lifes, and video art, he explores themes of gender, intimacy, and chosen family, reflecting on how personal experience shapes visual language and artistic process. The talk considers art as a space for articulating identity and freedom. Sponsored by the Open Door Network.

JJ Levine is an artist known for his striking photographs that explore themes of gender, identity, and intimacy. His work challenges traditional representations of the body and family, creating deeply personal and politically engaged portraits. Levine has exhibited internationally, with solo shows at the McCord Museum (Montréal) and Canada House (London, UK), among others. His photographs are held in major collections, and his practice is rooted in a commitment to queer and trans representation. Through carefully staged compositions and rich color palettes, Levine’s images reimagine beauty, love, and kinship beyond societal norms. He lives and works in Tiohti:áke/Montreal and is represented by ELLEPHANT.

12h – 13h15, Auditorium (A-103)
The freedom to be yourself: An internal pilgrimage
Part storytelling, part talk, multidisciplinary artist Nisha Coleman uses her personal life to chart the universal quest to find and inhabit the self. Once selectively mute, now a public speaker, Nisha’s path includes pitfalls and power-ups. She presents her weathered map so that others can move from feeling like a non-playable character in their own lives to experiencing the freedom and agency of being their authentic selves. Cosponsored by the QWF’s Writers-in-Cegeps Program

Nisha Coleman is an actor, storyteller, and writer. She is the author of Busker and Dear Humans, has performed her solo storytelling shows in North America and Europe, and played the lead zombie in the award-winning short film Zoé. She believes storytelling can change our minds, hearts, and ultimately, the planet.

14h30 – 17h, Theatre Roon (B-325)
Closing event: Playback Theatre Cookies-‘n’-Tea Social
To cap off the 2026 edition of International Women’s Week, we invite all members of the Vanier community to come to the Theatre Room to indulge in a hot cup of tea and some biscuits, then engage in an interactive performance with Vanier’s Playback Theatre troupe, whose members include teachers you know and love from the College. For those unfamiliar with Playback Theatre, it is a style of improvisational performance wherein the troupe solicits stories from the audience—usually in accordance with the theme or context of a particular event, and often at the event’s conclusion—which the troupe then “plays back” using sound, movement, and words. Given that this is the closing event for International Women’s Week, the theme of which has been “Freedom”, sitting in on the Playback performance will be an excellent way for you to process the sessions you attended throughout the week. So come to B-325 at 2:30 pm to partake in the refreshments offered while mingling with other members of the Vanier community, then take a seat at around 3 pm for an hour-long Playback Theatre show. Co-sponsored by the VCSA.