MAIN RESEARCHERS
Lomomba EMONGO
Lomomba Emongo holds a Doctor of Arts and Philosophy from the Université Libre de Bruxelles after a long research residency at the Ruprecht Universität Heidelberg (RFA), a licentiate in Religion and Culture from the Université Libre de Bruxelle, in Philosophy and African Religions from the Université Catholique du Cong. He is presently a lecturer at the Université de Montreal and a professor of philosophy at Collège Ahunstic (Montreal). He was also the leading researcher and a community organizer for 7 years at the Institut interculturel de Montréal (IIM), where he is still a member of the editorial team for the journal InterCulture. Meanwhile, he is regularly consulted for his expertise in intercultural matters by different agencies and organizations (l’aide juridique de Montréal, la Table de concertation pour les organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes, la Corporation culturelle latino-américaine de l’amitié, la Maison internationale des femmes, le Centre d’encadrement pour jeunes filles immigrantes, l’Alliance des communautés culturelles pour l’égalité dans la santé et les services sociaux, etc.). Moreover, he is a scholarship recipient from MISSIO, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and from the Conseil des arts du Canada. Finally, Lomomba Emongo is a versatile and prolific writer with many book chapters and monographs under his belt. He is also an awarded fiction writer with many literary prizes in Congo.
Email: lomomba@sympatico.ca
Danielle GRATTON
Danielle Gratton is a psychologist (M.Psy.) and an anthropologist (Ph.D.), founder and director of the Centre d’étude et d’intervention en relations interculturelles (CEIRI), a resource available for many institutions to apply the curriculum L’approche clientèle dans un contexte interculturel created by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux. With many experiences abroad, Danielle Gratton trained more than 4 000 people in intercultural relations from educators to social workers and community workers, to legal workers and managers. She is interested in creating intercultural spaces and conditions that facilitate harmonious intercultural encounters. She is also interested in obtaining support, especially inside institutions and organizations, for people who find themselves in profound cultural shock that renders impossible the realization of their expectations and/or their daily activities. She published L’interculturel pour tous (Éditions St. Martin) in 2010.
Email : gratton.d.ceiri@videotron.ca
Bob W. WHITE
Bob White (Ph.D. McGill, 1998) is a full professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Montreal. His first research interests were focused on cultural dynamics and politics in Africa through popular culture and mass media. His book “Rumba Rules: The Politics of Dance Music in Mobutu’s Zaire” (Duke University Press, 2008) was the recipient of the Anthony Leeds Prize (2009) and the Joel Gregory Prize (2010). After working on research projects about the reception and the globalization of popular culture, he worked with Lye Yoka (Institut National des Arts, Kinshasa) and Ndiouga Benga (Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar) on documenting the evolution of cultural policies in post-colonial Africa. Since 2005, he has been interested in the dynamics of intercultural encounters. He has published on the production and reception of popular music, music and globalization, the culture concept, collaborative research methods and theories of intersubjectivity. As the director of LABRRI, his current research is focused on the dynamics of intercultural dynamics in cities. He is currently finishing a book entitled Breakdown and Breakthrough: An Anthropological Theory of Intercultural Knowledge.
Email : bob.white@umontreal.ca
AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS
Pierre ANCTIL
Pierre Anctil is a full professor in the history department at the University of Ottawa where he teaches contemporary Canadian history and Canadian-Jewish history. In April of 2002, he was appointed president of the Conseil des relations interculturelles, an advisory body of the Government of Quebec responsible for advising the Minister of Immigration and relations with citizens. He was the director of the Canadian Studies Institute of the University of Ottawa from 2004 to 2008, during which time he received the Killiam grant for two years with a project called “Parcours migrant, parcours littéraire canadien : le poète yiddish Jacob-Isaac Segal“. He has a doctorate in social anthropology from the New School for Social Research of New York (1980) and undertook postdoctoral training in Jewish Studies at McGill University (1988-1991). In 2000, he graduated from the École nationale d’administration publique in International Management.
In 2010, he published Fais ce que dois, 60 éditoriaux pour comprendre Le Devoir sous Henri Bourassa, 1910-1932 (Éditions du Septentrion) and Trajectoires juives au Québec (Presses de l’Université Laval). In collaboration with Ira Robinson, he also published: Les communautés juives de Montréal, histoire et enjeux contemporains (Éditions du Septentrion). En 2011, he published in collaboration with Howard Adelman a collective book: Religion, Culture, and the State, Reflections on the Bouchard-Taylor Report (University of Toronto Press). His latest publication is, Jacob-Isaac Segal (1896-1954), un poète yiddish de Montréal et son milieu (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2012). Finally, he is working on a new manuscript called: ‘À chacun ses Juifs’, 60 éditoriaux pour comprendre l’attitude du Devoir à l’endroit des Juifs d’ici et d’ailleurs (1910-1947).
Email : panctil@uottawa.ca
Charles BLATTBERG
Charles Blattberg is a full professor of political philosophy at the University of Montreal. Blattberg grew up in Toronto and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, where he also served as president of its Students’ Administrative Council during the 1989–90 academic year.
Between 1990 and 1992, he attended McGill University where he received an MA studying under the philosopher Charles Taylor. He then went to England and France and was awarded a DEA from the Sorbonne (Université de Paris I) in 1996 and his doctorate the following year from the University of Oxford, where he did his research under Profs. Michael Freeden and Sir Isaiah Berlin. This was followed by two years of post-doctoral research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and then one year as an assistant professor of political philosophy, Tel Aviv University. He has been teaching political philosophy at the Université de Montréal since 2000, except for 2005–6 and 2012-13 when he was a Lady Davis Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Blattberg has been developing a political philosophy that he calls ‘new patriotism’, which he wants to distinguish from nationalism so as to focus on the common good shared by the members of a political as distinct from national community.
Recent commentary on Blattberg’s approach can be found in Eric Montpetit, “Easing Dissatisfaction with Canadian Federalism? The Promise of Disjointed Incrementalism,” Canadian Political Science Review 2, no. 3 (September 2008), pp. 12–28; Michel Seymour, De la tolérance à la reconnaissance (Montreal: Boréal, 2008), pp. 121–7; and Stéphane Courtois, “Une politique du bien commun au Canada est-elle possible?” International Journal of Canadian Studies, no. 42 (2010), pp. 273–82.
Email : charles.blattberg@umontreal.ca
Daniel CÔTÉ
Daniel Côté (Ph.D.) is a researcher with the rehabilitation team at the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST). He graduated from the University of Montreal in 2007 with a doctorate in anthropology and a speciality in medical anthropology. His thesis focuses on the rites of possession and exorcism in South Asia and addresses issues specific to social organization, healing and spirituality. He has worked in health and safety since 2005. His interests are on the study of the social determinants of incapacities and the representation of pain. In 2010, he published a literature review about the impact of gender differences on the rehabilitation process in the British journal Disability & Rehabilitation. By presenting gender constructions to be a result of the sociocultural learning process and different interactions, this article highlights situations where a phenomenon of double-constraint work-family can influence or interfere with a reintegration into the workforce. This article was awarded “Best Review Award 2010” by the journal’s editorial committee. Since 2011, Daniel Côté is an associate professor in the anthropology department at the University of Montreal and a researcher with METISS (Migration, Ethnicité et Interventions dans les services sociaux et de santé) of the CSSS de la Montagne. He now develops, in collaboration with other researchers and students, a research program aimed at immigrant workers in ethnic and cultural minorities. The goal is to develop educational tools to facilitate intercultural dialogue and communication in the clinical encounter. Furthermore, he is currently finishing an article on rehabilitation in the workplace where he questions the implementation of institutional measures to assist the rehabilitation of professionals to develop skills and intercultural competences in Quebec today
Email : cote.daniel@irsst.qc.ca
Christoph EBERHARD
Christoph Eberhard is a an anthropologist of justice and law, which he has taught in many universities around the world, such as a guest lecturer at l’Académie Européenne de Théorie du Droit à Bruxelles, at the Facultés universitaires Saint Louis à Bruxelles and at l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. For the last two decades, his research has focused on intercultural dialogue in the contemporary world. After some early research on human rights and intercultural dialogue, Christoph worked more intensively on the questions of globalization, rights, governance and sustainable development in the perspective of a responsible and dialogical “vivre-ensemble”. He is also interested in the conditions of the encounter and of dialogue between different systems (health system, traditional art, spiritual traditions), specifically in a dialogue with Asia (India and China). He has always completed his personal research through the creation and facilitation of collective research dynamics, first in the context of the work group Droits de l’homme et dialogue interculturel (http://www.dhdi.org) at the Laboratoire d’anthropologie juridique de Paris (Université Paris 1 Panthéon – Sorbonne), then as part of the international rights research dynamic at the Facultés universitaires Saint Louis à Bruxelles. Among his writings, he is the author of “Le Droit au miroir des cultures. Pour une autre mondialisation” (2ème édition, Paris, LGDJ / Lextenso, 2010), “Droits de l’homme et dialogue interculturel“, (2ème édition, Paris, Connaissances et Savoirs, 2011), “Vers une société éveillée. Une approche bouddhiste d’un vivre-ensemble responsable et solidaire “(Paris, Connaissances et Savoirs, 2012), and as scientific director “Droit, gouvernance et développement durable” (Paris, Karthala, 2005), “Law, Land Use and the Environment. Afro-Indian Dialogues” (Pondichéry, Institut Français de Pondichéry, 2007) “Traduire nos responsabilités planétaires. Recomposer nos paysages juridiques” (Bruxelles, Bruylant, 2008), “Le courage des alternatives” (Paris, Karthala, 2012).
Email : c.eberhard@free.fr
Jorge FROZZINI
Jorge Frozzini is a professor at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQÀC). He graduated from McGill University in 2011 with a doctorate after having completed a Masters (M.A) in communication and a B.A. in Political Science. His early research focused on popular music as a a form of recognition and symbolic gathering specifically in Chilean context. He is also interested in the political and theoretical aspects of communication. Since 2006, he has focused on the social dynamics of the encounter with the Other, especially on the influence of social change in modernity and on the forms power affecting the interactions between individuals. In his thesis, he analysed the notion and status of intimacy in advanced modernity. He conceptualized intimacy as a form a power helping in the normalization and control of space through the social differentiation it creates between individuals. He applies this conceptualization to the analysis of the public audiences of the Bouchard-Taylor commission on reasonable accommodation. Finally, he is also interested in the media discourse on immigration and on social conditions of migrant and immigrant workers.
Email: jorge_frozzini@uqac.ca
Yara EL-GHADBAN
Yara El-Ghadban is an anthropologist (Ph.D.), an ethnomusicologist and an author. Her diverse literary and academic activities are influenced by a fundamental question that inspires and acts as a backdrop to her writings and her projects: what motivates people and groups to move? On what conditions do they abandon the place where their roots are and the many values and practices to which they are attached, and how are they coming to recompose their world and build bridges toward the Other in this different place? This question led her to pursue research among refugees and migrants, focusing on music and the artist who knew the worst and the best of the exile experience. As a postdoctoral researcher at Wits University in South Africa, she did empirical work in places of extreme marginality, like the Palestinian refugee camps and in the poor neighbourhoods of Johannesburg. This fieldwork has gone hand in hand with research in the most emblematic places of the cosmopolitan elite: the occidental cultural institutions like concert halls, theatres and conservatories of music that welcome more and more artists from the globe questioning the identity and aesthetic canons of an imagined occidental culture. Beyond the academe, Yara El-Ghadban has been involved as a citizen in the debate about the relation with the Other in Quebec and by presenting in pedagogical seminars in the health system on culture and identity, immigration and integration, religion and reasonable accommodation. Yara El-Ghadban also published a novel “L’ombre de l’olivier” (2011, Mémoire d’encrier) and is presently working on another. An article on Palestinian music co-authored with Kiven Stohm will be published soon (Indiana University Press).
Email : yara@planux.com
STUDENTS
Rachel BOIVIN-MARTIN – rachel.boivin-martin@umontreal.ca
Diplômée en psychologie et en anthropologie, Rachel Boivin-Martin poursuit des recherches sur la rencontre interculturelle entre les Brésiliens et la société d’accueil montréalaise. Elle s’intéresse présentement en tant qu’assistante de recherche du projet Pluralisme religieux du Groupe de recherche sur la diversité urbaine (GRDU) aux activités spirituelles des Brésiliens et aux lectures de l’expérience de migration et de la tradition que ces pratiques proposent. Dans le cadre du LABRRI, ses recherches portent, entre autres, sur l’apport du bagage culturel et personnel dans la relation avec l’Autre en contexte ethnographique et interculturel en général.
Aude LE SAUX-SLIMANE – aude.lesaux@gmail.com
Dans le cadre de son doctorant en sociologie (Université Rennes 2, France) Aude Le Saux-Slimane effectue un séjour de recherche d’environ 18 mois comme chercheuse étudiante au sein du LABRRI. Son travail de thèse (dirigé par professeur Dominique Bodin de l’université Rennes 2 et co-dirigé par professeur Bob White de l’Université de Montréal) vise à mener une étude socio-anthropologique des pratiques urbaines, ludo-sportives et artistiques “autogérées”, mais plus particulièrement sur les enjeux qu’elles soulèvent en termes de “mieux vivre ensemble dans la ville”. En ce sens, il s’agit de se demander : En quoi (et de quelles manières) les pratiques urbaines, ludo-sportives et artistiques “autogérées” peuvent-elles contribuer, ou au contraire nuire au bien vivre ensemble au cœur de la cité ? Ces pratiques urbaines “autogérées” seront alors considérées toutes à la fois comme des instruments de régulation et de dérégulation interculturel mais aussi intergénérationnel.
Arthur PECINI – apecini@gmail.com
Diplômé d’une maîtrise en anthropologie sociale et d’un baccalauréat en sciences sociales à l’Université fédérale Fluminense, Arthur Pecini poursuit une formation multidisciplinaire en immigration et relations interethniques à l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Dans le cadre du LABRRI, ses intérêts portent sur l’interculturalisme comme mode de gestion de la diversité et les relations interculturelles, notamment, entre immigrants et société d’accueil dans différents contextes d’interaction. À la maîtrise, il a fait une recherche sur l’application des politiques migratoires québécoises destinées à attirer des travailleurs permanents brésiliens, où le but était de comprend les dynamiques sociales, culturelles et politiques sous-jacentes à ce mouvement migratoire. Dans le cadre du Programme de bourse futurs leaders des Amériques (PFLA), il a réalisé du travail de terrain à Montréal en 2011, ayant pu explorer le processus d’intégration vécue par les immigrants brésiliens.
Laurie SAVARD – laurie.savard@umontreal.ca
Diplômée d’un baccalauréat en anthropologie de l’Université de Montréal, Laurie Savard poursuit présentement ses intérêts de recherches à la maîtrise où elle est assistante de recherche au LABRRI. Elle s’intéresse principalement à l’expérience coloniale du Québec et la manière dont celle-ci influence comment les Québécois vivent la diversité culturelle aujourd’hui. Elle étudie également la pratique de la religion catholique contemporaine au Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, plus particulièrement au sein des groupes laïcs et des nouvelles communautés religieuses, dans le cadre d’une bourse d’assistant de recherche au sein du Groupe de Recherche Diversité Urbaine.