Modern Literature & Culture Research Centre & Gallery

Dear Friends,

This past year was truly energizing for our MLC students, faculty, and staff, bringing new ideas and new findings to our community. I continue to be proud to lead the MLC Research Centre, now in its 14th year! With a new decade before us, I am pleased to present the Top 10 accomplishments of the MLC Research Centre of 2019. I hope you enjoy.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to likeminded colleagues, students, and postdoctoral fellows and encourage them to sign up on our website. Have a wonderful 2020!

Irene.

MSA Toronto 2019

1.

MSA Toronto 2019 was a huge success!

With 577 registered delegates, our Modernist Studies Association conference was a success both intellectually and organizationally. Thematic focal points included “Indigeneity” and “Making Modernism in/out of Canada.” We are grateful for Ryerson’s support. Click here for more statistics and conference video.

 
MLC Team Success

2.

Our Team’s Successes

I am extremely grateful to the MLC’s outstanding executive team: MLC academic lead Dr. Cintia Cristia, assistant professor in the RTA School of Media; MLC research coordinator, Cameron MacDonald; and doctoral students Jaclyn Marcus and Jason Wang. I welcome Ingrid Mida as a postdoctoral research fellow and all new members of the team. Thank you especially to our volunteers!

 
19 national and international conferences

3.

Disseminating our Findings Internationally

Collectively, during the 2018-2019 academic year, the MLC team published or had accepted for publication 17 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, 8 non-peer-reviewed publications, and presented findings at 19 national and international conferences. 95 images were archived in the MLC databank. We had 34 trainees at the MLC. Source: Cameron MacDonald’s MLC Annual Report.

 
Congratulations

4.

Two Doctoral Dissertations Defended

I am proud that two of my doctoral students defended their dissertations and graduated in 2019: Dr. Emma Dunn, Ryerson Communication and Culture, on the topic of “Starving for Justice: Teen Action Heroines and the Logic of Anorexia”; and Dr. Ingrid Mida, York Art History and Visual Culture, on the topic of “Refashioning Duchamp: Intersections of Art and Fashion.” Congratulations on this milestone!

 
Florine Stettheimer: New Directions in Multimodal Modernism

5.

NEW Book: Florine Stettheimer: New Directions in Multimodal Modernism

Marking book number 1 in Book*hug’s new Salon series, Florine Stettheimer: New Directions in Multimodal Modernism is the new volume of essays I edited in collaboration with Suzanne Zelazo. Providing a case study for theorizing multimodal art, this beautifully designed book includes the work of leading scholars as well as emerging student scholars from Ryerson and York University.

 
Exhibitions at the MLC

6.

Exhibitions @ MLC Gallery

Our exhibitions considered the limits of visibility and materiality in Absent Presence featuring artwork by Sarah Casey with support from the British Arts Council, and the gendered dynamic of Domestic Music-Making, with sheet music from the MLC’s archive and Marla Hlady’s drawings and sound sculptures.

 
SSHRC, CFI, CRC, Ryerson University, and the Faculty of Arts logos

7.

Thank you to our Donors, Partners, and Sponsors!

I am grateful to SSHRC, CFI, CRC, Ryerson University, and the Faculty of Arts. Thank you to our local, national and international partners and donors.

 
Mary Riter Hamilton, Woman Sitting and Thinking, J. A. V. David Museum, Manitoba.

8.

Call for Papers

There is still time to submit your abstract to Modernisms, Inside & Out, the 4th conference of the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative (Toronto, 20-22 August 2020), which the MLC is organizing in collaboration with Concordia University, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

 
9400 followers

9.

Over 9400 followers across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

Thank you to all of our social media followers, as well as our MLC electronic members. If you are not yet a member, you can sign up and receive our quarterly newsletter. We hope you’ll join us on our continuous research excursions, articles, and exhibits.

 
MLC social profile icon

10.

Our Motto: Putting research in action, transforming society

The MLC research program is dedicated to recovering the voices that have been silenced and to preserving women’s heritage. This program is committed to indigenizing and decolonizing knowledge. If you are interested in becoming involved, please contact me gammel@ryerson.ca or admin@mlc.ryerson.ca.

 
 

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Recent News

Gaurangi Batish joins MLC

Gaurangi Batish joins MLC

Gaurangi aspires to articulate the centre’s core values and vision through her contributions to the centre’s social media platforms.

Caitlin O’Keeffe joins MLC

Caitlin O’Keeffe joins MLC

At the MLC, Caitlin is excited to explore modernist women artists, the modernism archive and collection of modernist ephemera.

Cigdem Asatekin MacInnis joins MLC

Cigdem Asatekin MacInnis joins MLC

Cigdem joins the MLC and will be involved in research administration, exhibitions and events.

Amina Chaudhry joins MLC

Amina Chaudhry joins MLC

Amina assists Dr. Irene Gammel with her course ENG 710 Special Topics in Canadian Literature: Contemporary Life Writing.

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

MLC Themes

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

Amid the unprecedented social change of World War I, women renegotiated their identities by dramatically changing the way they engaged with the arts. But how did they do so? And how did everyday citizens engage with the war?
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

MLC Themes

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, considered by many to be the mother of Dada, was a daringly innovative poet and an early creator of junk sculpture. “The Baroness” was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances.
Modernism in the World

MLC Themes

Modernism in the World

Recent research has departed from the Euro-centric and national view of Modernism to include approaches and methods studying Modernism across national boundaries and across different art forms to include fashion, dance, performance, technology, and visual culture.
Lucy Maud Montgomery

MLC Themes

Lucy Maud Montgomery

L.M. Montgomery is perhaps Canada's most important literary export. She was prolific writer of over 500 short stories and poems, and twenty novels, including the beloved Anne of Green Gables.
Canadian Modernism

MLC Themes

Canadian Modernism

The works of numerous Canadian authors who lived during the modernist era may well constitute the most central and experimental articulation of Canadian modernism in prose, allowing authors to stage cross-cultural, controversial, and even conflicted identities.
Modernist Biography and Life Writing

MLC Themes

Modernist Biography and Life Writing

Life writing, including autobiographical accounts, diaries, letters and testimonials written or told by women and men whose political, literary or philosophical purposes are central to their lives, has become a standard tool for communication and the dissemination of information.