The annual STU lecture will be delivered by award winning Afghan-Canadian director, author, actress and journalist Nelofer Pazira.
The lecture will take place Thursday, November 6 at 8 pm in the Kinsella Auditorium in McCain Hall. It will be taped for national broadcast on CBC Radio One’s Ideas program hosted by Paul Kennedy.
After living in Afghanistan for a decade under Soviet occupation, Pazira and her family fled to Pakistan. They eventually settled in New Brunswick when she was 16. Pazira would later earn a degree in journalism and English literature from Carleton University.
In 2001, Pazira was the star of Kandahar, a highly acclaimed feature film based on her journey back to Afghanistan in a search to find her childhood friend. She received the Prix d’interprétation from the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montreal for her performance. In 2003, she performed, co-produced and co-directed Return to Kandahar which she earned Gemini award.
Her memoir, A Bed in Red Flowers, and was awarded the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize. It depicts her childhood in Kabul during the Soviet occupation, and her escape to Pakistan and Canada. Quill and Quire describes it as “a remarkable book” and an “utterly engrossing read.”
Pazira has worked for CBC and has written for the Toronto Star, the Independent of London, and Sight and Sound, a British film journal. Her radio documentary about a suicide bomber titled Of Paradise and Failure was the winner of the silver medal at New York’s Media Awards.
Pazira is the founder of The Dyana Afghan Women’s Fund, a charity devoted to providing Afghan women with education opportunities. Pazira has a master’s degree in anthropology and sociology and religion from Concordia University. She also holds an honorary doctorate of laws from Carleton. Most recently, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters from Thompson Rivers University.
Date: Nov. 6, 2014 Time: 8:00pm – 10:00pm Loctaion: Kinsella Auditorium, STU Campus.
The Dalton Camp Lecture in Journalism is a partnership between St. Thomas University, CBC Radio and the Dalton Camp Endowment in Journalism. Past speakers have included Naomi Klein, Roy MacGregor, Chantal Hébert, Ken Whyte, Stephanie Nolen, Neil Reynolds, Nahlah Ayed and David Carr.
