Narratives of Belonging: Stories of Identity, Community and Kinship

Library and Archives Canada invites you to an evening of readings and conversation with local writers and thought leaders. Join Jamie Chai Yun Liew as she sits down with Monia Mazigh and Ellen Chang-Richardson to explore questions of identity and community.

About the speakers

Jamie Liew is a Full Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa and the Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession. A former Fulbright Traditional Scholar and visiting scholar at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (2024), she previously served as Director of the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, University of Ottawa (2021–2023). She is an expert in immigration, refugee and citizenship law, as well as in administrative and public law. Jamie’s current research examines the meaning of citizenship, legal barriers for stateless persons to obtain citizenship/nationality, gendered implications of Canadian law on migrants, and the marginalization of refugees.

Jamie is the author of Ghost Citizens: Decolonial Apparitions of Stateless, Foreign and Wayward Figures in Law (Fernwood Publishing, 2024). Her debut novel, Dandelion (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), was the first runner-up for Canada Reads 2025 and won the 2018 Asian Canadian Writers Workshop Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award. Her podcast, Migration Conversations, can be found wherever you listen to podcasts and features migrants, lawyers, academics and experts.

Monia Mazigh is an academic, award-winning Canadian author and human rights activist. She writes in French and English and has authored a memoir, three novels, an essay, and a collection of short stories—each earning critical acclaim. Her latest novel, Farida, won the Ottawa Book Award for French fiction.

Monia is an Adjunct Research Professor with Carleton University’s Department of English Language and Literature. Her new memoir/essay, Gendered Islamophobia: My Journey with a Scar(f), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award in the non-fiction category for 2023. She was a columnist with ONFr+ and Radio-Canada, has published several articles with the Ottawa Citizen, The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, and regularly contributes to Islamic Horizons. Monia was recently honoured as one of the Distinguished Women of Ottawa in the Lifetime Contribution category for her involvement in her community. She also received the King Charles III Coronation Medal for her work in human rights.

Ellen Chang-Richardson is an award-winning poet, multi-genre writer, judicial assistant, and editor of Taiwanese and Chinese Cambodian descent. The author of Blood Belies (Wolsak & Wynn, 2024) and author/co-author of six poetry chapbooks, their writing has appeared in Augur, the Ex-Puritan, the Fiddlehead, Grain, Plenitude, Watch Your Head, and more. They are the co-founder of Riverbed—an experimental reading series based out of the National Capital Region, a member of Room magazine’s editorial collective, and a member of the poetry collective VII. A third culture kid at heart, Ellen’s writing is informed by their love of contemporary art, their concern with humanity’s impact on the Earth, and their experience moving through various societies as a femme-presenting genderqueer.

Event description

On the agenda: readings, conversation, book signings, and more!

Event details

Date

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Event location

Library and Archives Canada

Event address

395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario

Registration

Seating is limited, so please register:

Register

For more information, please contact evenements-events@bac-lac.gc.ca.