The EGSS

Conference Schedule

M.G. Vassanji was born in Kenya, raised in Tanzania, educated in the U.S. (PhD in nuclear physics) and is now resident in Canada. In 1980 Vassanji moved to Toronto and began his career as a writer, going on to author six acclaimed novels. In 1990, Vassanji's The Gunny Sack won the regional Commonwealth Writers Prize. In 1994, Vassanji's The Book of Secrets won the inaugural Giller Prize and in 2003 he again picked up the prestigious award for his novel The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. Vassanji was the first author to become a double winner of the Giller Prize. In 2007, The Assassin's Song was shortlisted for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award for Fiction. Vassanji has also written Uhuru Street and When She Was Queen, collections of short fiction, and A Place Within: Rediscovering India, a work of non-fiction. In 2005, Vassanji was made a member of the Order of Canada.

Fred A. Reed is a three-time winner of the Governor General's Award for translation: Imagining the Middle East (1992), Fairy Ring (2001, with David Homel), and Truth or Death: The Quest for Immortality in the Western Narrative Tradition (2005). Reed is also an international journalist, a specialist on politics and religion in the Middle East, and an author in his own right. Reed's books combine journalistic reporting, travelogue, and political commentary in works such as Salonica Terminus: Travels into the Balkan Nightmare, Persian Postcards: Iran after Khomeini, and Anatolia Junction: A Journey into Hidden Turkey, which explore the land and people of the Balkans, the Middle East, and Asia Minor. Reed has written for Maclean's, the Globe and Mail, La Presse, Le Devoir, and CBC Radio-Canada, as well as collaborating on two documentary films: Salam Iran, a Persian Letter and American Fugitive.

Through an examination of his life and work, Reed explores the notions of time and place, using the writer's tool of narrative to weave imagination and diversity into a story that both troubles and questions the nature of reality.
Full transcript of Fred Reed's address.

The McGill EGSS conference is a great opportunity to come together, professionally and personally, to share ideas and engage in dialogues. Past conferences have attracted students and faculty members nationally and internationally. Don't miss out on this year's exciting line-up of keynotes and panels.

Want to see what happened last year? Click here to find information about the 2009, 8th Annual EGSS Conference “Education for a Diverse World: Addressing Equity & Human Rights.