Tag Archives: mcgill university

Fierté Québec

Posted on by
Comment

Summer in Québec is inarguably the best time of the year, and the summer of 2022 is particularly special as we come together for the first time in 3 years to celebrate on the streets, loud and proud all across the province. 

Rainbow flags and coloured balloons are shown at the site where the Montreal Pride parade was supposed to start from in Montreal, Sunday, August 7, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes 

For the month of August and early September, Québec has a jam packed line-up of activities starting with Fierté Montreal (1-7 August), Fière la fête (23-27 August) in the Ville de Sherbrooke and la Fête arc-en-ciel (1-11 Sept.) in the Ville de Québec. As the names suggest, these festivals are a time of celebration for the gender and sexual diversity communities of these three cities. Fierté Montréal, considered the largest Pride gathering in the Francophone World, uses the seven days of cultural and community activities as “an opportunity to generate public awareness of the issues to be addressed in eliminating homophobia, locally and internationally.”.

Pride Parade 2018 in Montreal on Sunday, August 19, 2018.

This year, we here at the Humanities and Social Studies Library (HSSL) are joining the numerous festivities with a little treat of our own. On display at the Redpath Complex for the entire month of August is the Fierte Bibliothèque | Library Pride Book Display, a collection containing numerous popular publications and a range of digital book and film titles just a scan away. 

A Glimpse of the Redpath Book Display to celebrate Pride!

For those looking to take a deeper dive into the topic, we recommend Gale’s Archives of Sexuality and Gender as a starting point. It boasts itself as the “largest digital collection of historical primary source publications relating to the history and study of sex, sexuality, and gender research…” and is sure to be a great source!

For more information or related queries email us at hssl.library@mcgill.ca.

French for Beginners

Posted on by
Comment

With Bill 96 in the works and many discussions about the preservation of the French language in Quebec, it is a good time to begin or continue learning French. The McGill Library has many resources in the collection if you’re a beginner. Below will highlight some key online resources for you to drive into student mode. Remember to make this process fun: a new language uncovers a fresh way to look and interact with the world. 

Si, sans plus tarder, commençons! (Let’s begin!) 

Unsplash// Adrien Olichon

A Few Great E-Books:

French essentials for dummies 

This guide focuses on just the core concepts you need to communicate effectively in French. The dummies franchise has perfected the way of making you an expert in numerous topics.

Table of Contents: 

  • Getting down to basics 
  • Narrowing the gender gap 
  • It’s happening in the present 
  • Being descriptive and connecting your thoughts 
  • Connecting with prepositions
  • Asking and answering questions 
  • Uncovering the past 
  • Foreseeing the future 
  • Recognizing verb moods
  • Ten important verb distinctions 
  • Appendix: Verb charts.

Learn French in a hurry : grasp the basics of français tout de suite!

Learn French in a Hurry features:

  • Common French phrases (days of the week, numbers, letters)
  • Pronunciation and conjugation tips and tricks 
  • Grammar made easy
  • Useful words and terms
  • Helpful French-English and English-French dictionaries

With Learn French in a Hurry, you’ll master le francais right away!

For Audiobooks: 

The McGill Library Overdrive has a great selection of audiobooks for  the French language learners. There’s also an app called Libby you can use to listen along while you’re on the metro or walking to campus. 

You can use specific filters to view the whole selection, or check out these suggestions: 

Essential French in Two Hours

by Paul Noble

“In this audiobook, Paul will introduce you to the basics of the French language and guide you through 2 hours of practical, everyday scenarios that will build your confidence. A native-speaking French expert will help you to perfect your pronunciation as you progress through the course and allow you to quickly make your new knowledge work for you in a variety of practical situations.”

Learn French: Level 4: Beginner French

by Innovative Language Learning, LLC

The hosts are really fun in this one and as they chat after each lesson you learn a little more about the culture and grammar of the French language. “Interactive. Effective. And FUN! Discover or rediscover how fun learning a language can be with the future of language learning.”

Other Resources:

A major component of learning a new language is listening to others speak it. Our collections grant  access to French movies and even children’s song books, and whole albums. Immerse yourself in the language. 

If you would like to find out more, learn about Quebecois-French or even just practice reading in French, the curated library guide, Ressources en langue française, from Micheal-David Miller, Liaison Librarian for French Literature, is a great place to go. You can find even more resources to start engaging in French media through different outlets.

No matter your style of learning there is something at the McGill Library for you. Grab your headphones, journal, or conversation buddies and start today.

Bon chance!

If you have any questions, email hssl.library@mcgill.ca

National Indigenous History Month – Nonfiction Resources

Posted on by
Comment

This post serves as a companion piece (last in our 3-blog series) to Video Resources, and Fiction Picks, written in celebration of National Indigenous History Month this June.

As we continue to celebrate and learn about the history of Indigenous Peoples in Canada throughout the month of June, nonfiction resources are great tools to further your understanding of a specific topic.

This post will outline three main information sources that you can use for research, to enhance your understanding, or simply satisfy your curiosity. A brief description will follow each source linked and towards the end of the post, you will find 5 recommended readings in case you need help starting off. 

Three Main Sources

  1. Indigenous Research Subject Guide 

This guide is a prime resource if you need help to begin your research within Indigenous studies. It encompasses an interdisciplinary approach to key topics in the historical, socio-political, and cultural dimensions of Indigenous life. 

With everything from keyword strategies, to recommendations, to great databases, this is the perfect place to begin your search for nonfiction resources. 

Our Top Picks:  

Library and Archives Canada offers treaty maps, virtual exhibitions and more

Indigenous Peoples of North America (Gale) is a great place to find primary sources from Canada. 

  1. Tools for Researchers 

This website not only highlights helpful search points in our catalogue where you can begin your reading but also features amazing recommendations for articles such as Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith and Kaandossiwin: How We Come to Know by Absalon, K (Minogiizhigokwe). 

  1. ​​e-Scholarship@McGill

This platform is an institutional digital repository that ensures that research produced at McGill is easily accessible, disseminated, and preserved for future interests – all the while maintaining researchers’ copyright. This is a great place to read scholarly articles and further your understanding of different topics related to Indigenous studies that are written by individuals in the McGill community.  You can keyword search exactly what you’re looking for using the search bar and learn about anything from using education as healing, to preserving Indigenous languages in universities to political theories on settler colonialism. 

Recommended Reads

21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality by Bob Joseph

Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussions on generations of Indigenous Peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer. Since its creation in 1876, the Indian Act has shaped, controlled, and constrained the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Peoples, and is at the root of many enduring stereotypes. This book comes at a key time in the reconciliation process when awareness from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is at a crescendo.

w

Fighting for a hand to hold: confronting medical colonialism against indigenous children in Canada by Samir Shaheen-Hussain

Penned by a member of the McGill community, this book exposes the medical establishment’s role in the displacement, colonization, and genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Through meticulously gathered government documentation, historical scholarship, media reports, public inquiries, and personal testimonies, Shaheen-Hussain connects the draconian medevac practice with often-disregarded crimes and medical violence inflicted specifically on Indigenous children. 

w

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, the author has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to the Americas, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In this book, she brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as “the younger brothers of creation.”

w

Unsettling Canada : a national wake-up call by Arthur Manuel and Ronald Derrickson

As the son of George Manuel, who served as president of the National Indian Brotherhood and founded the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in the 1970s, Arthur Manuel was born into the struggle. From his unique and personal perspective, as a Secwepemc leader and an Indigenous activist who has played a prominent role on the international stage, Arthur Manuel describes the victories and failures, the hopes and the fears of a generation of activists fighting for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada.

w

A mind spread out on the ground by Alicia Elliott

A bold and profound work by Haudenosaunee writer Alicia Elliott, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground is a personal and critical meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America. In an urgent and visceral work that asks essential questions about Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma, Alicia Elliott offers indispensable insight and understanding to the ongoing legacy of colonialism. What are the links between depression, colonialism and loss of language–both figurative and literal?

This blog is co-authored by Tamanna Patel and Vanja Lugonjic