Profile

Director of Department of Comparative Literature, Université de Montréal
Professor

A researcher and prolific writer, he broke new ground in the unexplored field of migrant writing, especially among minorities. Simon Harel's work sits at the frontier between literary studies and cultural studies. His research examines different forms of recitation to explore portrayals of the reaches of otherness, the phenomena of exclusion and intercultural issues. Voleurs de parcours, published in 1989 and re-released in 1999, is recognized as one of the most noteworthy Quebec cultural studies of the 1980s and 90s.

Simon Harel is a leading intellectual and a renowned scientist with nearly two dozen published works to his credit. He has organized several major scientific and cultural events, proving himself to be an enthusiastic and impassioned speaker. He has often represented Canada at international fora and is regularly invited to be a guest professor in France, the United States and Brazil.

Simon Harel won the 1992 Gabrielle-Roy award and the 1993 Prix du Conseil des Arts de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal, literature category, and he also accepted, on behalf of the CÉLAT, the Association des communautés culturelles et des artistes (ACCA) 2006 Nelson Mandela award for diversity and inclusion. Dr. Harel edited the "Théorie et littérature" collection for Éditions XYZ from 1989 to 2009, and he is a member of the Québec Studies Journal - American Council for Québec Studies (ACQS) reading committee.

His most recent works include Les passages obligés de l'écriture migrante (2005), Braconnages identitaires: Un Québec palimpseste (2006), Espaces en perdition I : Les lieux précaires de la vie quotidienne (2007), and Espaces en perdition II : Humanités jetables (2008).

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