Quebec Transnationalisms: Interview with Micheline Labelle and Rachad Antonius

On January 19, Claire Roberge and Jenny Burman interviewed Prof. Micheline Labelle and Prof. Rachad Antonius, two influential Quebec scholars based at Université du Québec à Montreal. Labelle and Antonius were invited to discuss their own research in the areas of transnationalism, citizenship and ethnicity in Quebec, racialization of « ethnocultural communities » and mass media discourses. They also discussed historical and current examples of complementary academic research in Quebec that mobilizes the conceptual framework of transnationalism. The interview transcript below begins with the issue of the critical relevance of diaspora and transnationalism in Quebec scholarship. It proceeds to address mainstream media coverage of Arab and Muslim communities in Québécois and Canadian mainstream press; multiculturalism and interculturalism; transnational social movements and activism; the role of quantitative methodologies in social sciences research on transnationalism; and the relationship between collective memory, state recognition or reparation and diasporic communities.