What is ILSA Online?

ILSA Online consists of monthly workshops over Zoom that aim to carry forward the sense of community from our annual in-person gatherings. In collaboration with the Federation for Humanities and Social Sciences, the ILSA Online Workshop Series provides a mixture of professionalization workshops benefitting graduate students and early career members, writing workshops, and a creative reading series materially supporting Indigenous writers and celebrating their work. The main goal of this initiative is to provide support for Indigenous and non-Indigenous literary scholars of Indigenous literatures as well as Indigenous writers. The workshops are geared towards equipping participants with a more profound knowledge of Indigenous literatures as well as tools to succeed academically and creatively. These events are not merely meant to transfer knowledge and share best practices, but opportunities to support our field's direction towards more collaborative practices among scholars, between scholars and writers, and with Indigenous communities.

Our online workshop series builds on the monthly online Black studies reading group ILSA organized in 2021/2022 to collectively (un)learn and build community. All of our workshops promote the diverse perspectives and voices of Indigenous writers, scholars, students, and community members hailing from different Indigenous nations. While the ILSA Online Workshop Series is open to all, the workshops center Indigenous voices, including Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer writers and scholars as well as Indigenous writers and scholars engaging with Indigenous literatures in English, French, and Indigenous languages.

Who can attend?

The ILSA Online Workshop Series is designed to be freely accessible to participants within and beyond the ILSA community, HSS, and academia. One of the major obstacles that prevent individuals from Indigenous, racialized, and equity-deserving communities from succeeding in academia and beyond is a lack of access to resources, social capital, and the tacit rules of settler institutions. Our goal is to create an archive of resources that provide mentorship for graduate students and early career members to navigate the job market, prepare them for grant writing, improve their teaching and writing skills, and create relationships and mentorship opportunities across institutions. While we aim to privilege the safety of Indigenous scholars and writers over the comfort of settler participants, the workshops benefit all participants and invite them into a collaborative network. Hosting a creative reading series and creative writing workshops will also contribute to maintaining a vital aspect of what makes ILSA special, namely the close relationship and collaboration between Indigenous writers and scholars of Indigenous literatures.

How can I participate?

If you’re interested in attending any of our ILSA Online sessions, follow our Instagram or Facebook accounts, where you will be notified of any upcoming events. Registration is made available through Eventbrite. ILSA members are also notified via email. To become an ILSA member, register here.

If you’re interested in co-hosting any future ILSA Online session, please email indigenouslsa.Online@gmail.com.