Intersections Series: Prof. Jennifer Adese on Confronting Institutionalized Violence Against Métis Women
When and Where
Description
The Feminist Seminar & Race, Ethnicity and Immigration Workshop in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto are inviting you to another exciting event as part of the Intersections Series: the talk by Prof. Jennifer Adese (University of Toronto Mississauga) on March 31, 2021 (Wednesday), 2:30 to 4:00 pm (EST). We are also taking this moment to celebrate her Canadian Research Chair (CRC)! Please mark your calendar and looking forward to seeing you there,
Hae Yeon, Cynthia, and Neda.
To join this virtual event via Zoom, please register in advance.
From “half-breed prostitute” to “Métis sex worker”: Confronting Institutionalized Violence Against Métis Women
In May 1881, Marie Trottier, a Métis woman, was carried into a Winnipeg courtroom on a stretcher, forced to testify against a local doctor from whom, it was alleged, she purchased an abortifacient. Police, doctors, and the press characterized Trottier as immoral, promiscuous, and as a “half-breed prostitute.” Trottier’s treatment at the hands of the legal system and local media resonates with the posthumous violence enacted upon Cindy Gladue by media and the courts in the wake of her murder in 2011. These experiences of these two Métis women, while separated by 140 years, reflects a continuing legacy of anti-Métis racism, sexism, discursive and legal violence that in the long view, remain deeply entrenched in Canadian institutions. The presentation concludes by examining how some Métis women have used the tools of political mobilization to confront the enduring legacies of such violence.
Speaker Bio: Jennifer Adese (Otipemisiwak/Métis) is a Canada Research Chair in Métis Women, Politics, and Community and an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM). She is the co-editor of two books forthcoming in Spring 2021: Indigenous Celebrity (with Robert Alexander Innes) from University of Manitoba Press, and A People and a Nation: New Directions in Contemporary Métis Studies (with Chris Andersen) from UBC Press. She is the author of a number of articles and book chapters on Métis literature, Indigenous visual sovereignty, and Indigenous-Canada relations.
Chair: Neda Maghbouleh (Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Canada Research Chair in Migration, Race, and Identity)