Archives and Community Building Webinar 3: Oral History Methods and Best Practices Workshop
Archives and Community-Building is a webinar series emphasizing reparative and non-extractive researcher relationships with Global South and local community repositories. Featuring panelists from Egypt, Canada, and the United States, this practical introduction to archiving, collecting local histories, and preservation is intended to guide participants in ethical and community-based approaches and best practices. Visit Egypt Migrations’ Youtube channel for recordings of the full series. This third webinar includes talks from Dr. Michael Akladios (University of Toronto), Leila Zonouzi (UC, Santa Barbara), and Diogo Bercito (Georgetown University). Speakers, researchers, and community members discuss practical advice and tips to conducting oral history interviews for research and preservation.
A Community of Many Voices: Egypt Migrations & the Power of Oral Histories
This conversation between Moska Rokay of the Muslims in Canada Archive (MiCA) and Michael Akladios of Egypt Migrations explores the creation and use of oral histories. No human story exists in isolation. Lived experience is full of interconnections with a diverse population of individuals and with other communities beyond the ones we are part of. Through conversation between a community archivist and a community historian, we explore some of this interconnectedness while we place Egyptians within a broader network than what is seen in typical archival practices. We also learn about oral histories as a method of archiving, with an emphasis on the importance of sharing authority over the material and process with the subject.
Coffee with Bishop Suriel Episode 13 – Coptic Immigration to North America
Bishop Suriel interviews Dr. Candace Lukasik and Dr. Michael Akladios about the topic of Coptic immigration to North America. Copts began immigrating to the US as early as the late 1940s. After 1952, immigration to Canada outpaced the US until the inauguration of more lenient procedures in 1965. In general, Coptic immigration rose steadily throughout North America, Europe, and Australia in the coming decades. We see a further influx of Copts to the US and Canada after the 2011 revolution in Egypt, fleeing instability and violence. This episode traces this trajectory and the present challenges facing Copts globally.
Beyond Persecution: The Copts in Egypt’s Twentieth Century
Michael Akladios was invited by the Orthodox Christian Students’ Association (OCSA) at York University in Toronto to speak on the history of Coptic populations and the challenges many continue to face in Egypt. This was part of a joint event hosted by Armenian, Chaldean, and Coptic students to commemorate and shed light on their distinct histories and common Christian heritage. Speakers were invited to showcase both Christian belonging in the Middle East and the impact of persistent persecution on new diasporic communities that seek to preserve cultural uniqueness in new lands.
Myseum Intersections Festival 2018: Coptic Places of Worship in Toronto
Part of a two week collaborative exhibition with the Coptic Museum of Canada, Egypt Migrations presented public lectures, displays, and a museum tour in celebration of the history and heritage of Canada’s Copts. We invite you to watch the public talk and to explore the interactive map on EgyptMigrations.com – which is organized around the theme of “ecumenism” (interactions and exchanges between devotional persons in a religious setting) and follows the movements of the earliest Coptic immigrants from Egypt as they navigated Toronto in the 1960s and 1970s.
Michael Akladios 