Alumni Education presents "Big Diva, Disco Music and Bad Habits: A Look at Quebec Pop Culture"
The McGill Alumni Association invites you to attend a Panel
Discussion with McGill Professors Will Straw, Erin Hurley and
Jarrett Rudy.
"Big Diva, Disco Music and Bad Habits: A Look at Quebec Pop
Culture"
Join us for a fascinating evening as three of McGill’s most
engaging professors talk about some phenomena that have
characterized popular culture in Quebec. Erin Hurley will examine
megastar Céline Dion's career in Las Vegas and her rise to
international celebrity status, Will Straw will discuss Montreal’s
role as a mecca for black musical stars who moved back and forth
across the U.S.-Canadian border, and Jarrett Rudy will talk about
the history of cigarettes in Quebec, the province once dubbed "the
smoking section of Canada."
Erin Hurley is an assistant professor in the Theatre and Drama
Program in McGill’s Department of English. A former actress and
specialist in contemporary Québécois theatre, she has published
articles on the Cirque du Soleil and Robert Lepage among others,
and has given public lectures across Canada about Céline Dion, a
performer with whom many Quebecers feel an emotional
connection.
Will Straw, a professor in the Department of Art History and
Communications, is the former Director of the McGill Institute for
the Study of Canada. An author and veteran media watcher, Dr. Straw
has been a cultural correspondent for CBC Radio, the Women's
Television Network and the CBC local Montreal news program
"Newswatch."
Jarrett Rudy is Director of the Quebec Studies Program and an
assistant professor of history at McGill. He is the author of
The Freedom to Smoke: Tobacco Consumption and Identity, a
social and cultural history of the rise of the cigarette and the
way smoking rituals in Montreal contributed to shaping people’s
identities and social relations with others. Rudy is currently
working on a history of time in Quebec from the 1840s to 1970s.
Online registration available on Alumnilife.