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Philip S.S. Howard speaks to Le Devoir about cultural appropriation, cancelled Jazzfest show SLĀV

Published: 9 July 2018

Le Devoir

Journalist Catherine Lalonde, writing for Le Devoir about the recently cancelled production of SLĀV, spoke to Professor Philip Howard of our Department of Integrated Studies in Education. Last week Montreal's Jazz Festival cancelled the Robert Lepage and Betty Bonifassi production SLĀV  -which featured a largely white cast singing Black slave songs- amid criticisms from artists, academics, and the public.

The article, "L’appropriation culturelle, entre deux miroirs", touches upon theories of representation and cultural colonialism. Lalonde also cited Professer Karen Fricker of Brock University, Director of Canada Council for the Arts Simon Brault, author/journalist Sean Michaels, and UQAM sociology professor Joseph Yvon Thériault.

Dr. Philip S.S. Howard is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Education at McGill University. His research interests are in the social formations, pedagogical processes, and epistemological frames that mediate the ways we come to know ourselves, create community, and exercise agency for social and racial justice in/through formal and informal. Professor Howard serves on the editorial board with the journal Whiteness and Education, is a Consulting Editor with the Canadian Journal of Education, and belongs to the executive team of the Black Canadian Studies Association. He recently led the SSHRC-funded project "The Arts Against Postracialism: Strengthening Resistance Against Contemporary Canadian Blackface", a series of outreach events seeking to strengthen resistance against contemporary Canadian blackface. 

[read "L’appropriation culturelle, entre deux miroirs", Catherine Lalonde, Le Devoir, July 7, 2018]

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