SMYTH, HEATHER
Associate professor @ University of Waterloo
Bio
My research in social justice studies bridges humanities and social science methods. In literature studies I work within the fields of postcolonial and transnational studies with an emphasis on gender and sexuality, and guided by critical race studies approaches. In community-based research I pursue qualitative data-gathering projects in collaboration with social services and nonprofit agencies. These two fields cross over in my work exploring literatures and rhetorics of advocacy and activism.
Geographical location : Toronto, Canada
Research Area and Interest : Caribbean literature; Canadian literature; Community-based research; Critical race studies; gender
Social Media
Panel
Migration and mobility in Caribbean literature
Presentation
Limboing under the border: Wayde Compton’s diasporic Caribbean allegories of migration
"Limboing under the border: Wayde Compton’s diasporic Caribbean allegories of migration" Black Vancouver writer Wayde Compton has long addressed the histories and poetics of Black migration into Canada--from the transPacific migration of African Americans from San Francisco to Vancouver in 1858 at the invitation of Guyana-born James Douglas, first Governor of the colony of British Columbia; to the broader transAtlantic history of African diaspora cultures, routed significantly through the Caribbean in his work. In my presentation I will focus on how Compton uses Caribbean cultural reference points as a lens for representing the obstacles, opportunities, losses, and gatekeeping of migration and bordercrossing for racialized subjects. I will draw from Compton’s use of tidalectics and remix in his poetry (49th Parallel Psalm), his use of fable and allegory in The Blue Road: A Fable of Migration; and his deployment of speculative fiction in The Outer Harbour.