University of Victoria Journals
Not a member yet
13485 research outputs found
Sort by
David Rudrum, Ridvan Askin, and Frida Beckman, "New Directions in Philosophy and Literature."
No full text
“I’m Goan Because I Eat Goan Food”: A Critical Look at the History of Goan Canadians
No full textThe conceptualization of identity around food is not new to Canadian historiography. Many contemporary historians have, by analyzing culinary narratives such as cookbooks and oral interviews, illustrated how food acts as an intellectual and emotional anchor for immigrant subjects and becomes a source of identity for them in their new country. This study, which examines menus from various Goan Canadian cultural events, finds that Goan Canadians have a complex relationship with traditional foods, and that food was not as important a boundary marker for their identity as the scholarship might suggest. Instead, Goans in Canada developed their own distinct sense of identity based on community, celebrations of holidays, village feasts, and other social events
SHOULD FEMINISTS STOP TALKING ABOUT CULTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST MUSLIM WOMEN? THE CASE OF “HONOUR KILLING”
No full textThe violence, scale, and power of anti-Muslim narratives circulated on the internet and elsewhere continue to have considerable impact on feminist antiviolence initiatives. I examine contemporary responses to “honour killings” with particular reference to the Palestinian, Indian, and North American contexts, reflecting on how anti-violence advocates negotiate the terrain of culture in the case of honour killings. I ask whether the focus on culture has an impact on how courts and society view violence committed by Muslim men (and sometimes women) against Muslim women and girls. I suggest that cultural details contribute little to an enhanced legal understanding of the crime simply because this is not their primary purpose. Instead, the cultural details are part of a pedagogy that conveys a message of the racial and cultural superiority of the dominant society and a corresponding inferiority of Muslim cultures. We should therefore always talk culture with the greatest of restraint lest the racism that accompanies culture talk inhibit our understanding of the violence and limit our capacity to respond to it
“HONOUR”- BASED VIOLENCE AND THE POLITICS OF CULTURE IN CANADA: ADVANCING A CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF MULTI-SCALAR VIOLENCE
No full textSince 2015, in Canada, political discourse on “honour”-based violence has shifted away from highly problematic understandings of “culture” as the cause of violence among racialized, Muslim, and immigrant communities. Instead, talk of culture has dropped out of the equation altogether in favour of more structural definitions of gender-based violence (GBV). In this article, we ask what gets lost when culture is not taken into account when talking about or trying to understand forms of GBV. Drawing from theoretical conceptualizations of culture — defined as “situated practices of meaning-making” that shape all experiences of violence, and societal responses to violence — we argue for a multiscalar approach to culture. To illustrate this framework, we first offer a critical analysis of Aruna Papp’s 2012 memoir Unworthy Creature as an exemplar of stigmatizing uses of culture and a key text promoted by the Conservative federal government at the time. We then turn to interviews we conducted with service providers serving South Asian survivors of GBV in Toronto from 2011 to 2013. Our analysis illustrates how to talk about culture as a key ingredient shaping multiscalar violence, regardless of whether that violence occurs in majority or minority communities. We conclude with three policy implications for addressing HBV moving forward
“BARBARIC” CULTURAL PRACTICES: CULTURALIZING VIOLENCE AND THE FAILURE TO PROTECT WOMEN IN CANADA
No full textThe introduction of Bill S-7, the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, in 2015 garnered major critical attention across Canada. Amid an already tense climate of anti-immigrant sentiment in the post-9/11 era, the title chosen for the bill by the Conservative-led government catalyzed xenophobia, perpetuated the “us versus them” rhetoric, and culturalized violence. While originally touted as an opportunity to enhance protection for girls and women against the “foreign” horrors of polygamy, early and forced marriage, and “honour”-based killings, Bill S-7 instead fanned the flames of xenophobia on a mass level, failed to protect women, and, in fact, created higher risk of harms for women who are victims of gender- or family-based violence. In this commentary, we provide an overview of Bill S-7, the amendments to legislation made as a result of its passing, and some of its many problematic elements. We address the barriers to disclosing violence in racialized communities and subsequently provide suggestions on how to effectively address gender- and family-based violence in Canada in an effort to support survivors and prevent further harm