'Acadie XXI: Reimagining a Transnational Diaspora'

The Global Studies Seminar welcomes Pierre Dairon presenting “Acadie XXI: Reimagining a Transnational Diaspora.” The 5th World Acadian Congress took place on mid-August 2014, for the first time over three borders: one between two nation states—the US and Canada—and three between states/provinces—Maine, Québec and New-Brunswick. Each of these borders also embodies mental boundaries for the diasporic Acadian people. Victims of the first planned ethnic cleansing in North America organized by the British between 1755 and 1762, the Acadians were deported and scattered all over the continent, from Quebec to Guyana, from the Caribbean to Louisiana (where they are known as the Cajuns), and even sent back to prisons in England and new settlements in France. Two hundred and fifty years later, in order to bring together again their once united people, they decided to organize every five years a World Acadian Congress that includes family reunions, numerous cultural & folkloric events, and self-reflective colloquium. In a modern world where a land, a language, a religion, a bloodline, a common past or a homogenous memory still constitute the stronghold of an imaginary nation, this presentation will show how the Acadians have been struggling to reconstruct a quite postmodern and fragmented identity in a global milieu. Dairon is an Assistant Professor of French at Kenyon College where he teaches language and Francophone literatures and cultures. His research deals mainly with Francophone literatures of the New World and the way they shape, reflect and intersect with cultural and national discourses and identities—more specifically within the Acadian realm. Mid-August 2014, he attended his second World Acadian Congress and his presentation is going to reflect on this experience and the new perspective he developed, as a scholar, as a guest and as a tourist.