Genealogy and Genomics in Québec: Bio-racial Signifiers
and the National "Family"
A Guest Seminar on Globalization, Education and Change
12pm, Wednesday 18 September 2013, Room 233,
3700 McTavish (Education Building)
with
Dr. Darryl Leroux, Saint Mary's University, Halifax
Genealogy, or the study of one's ancestral patri-lineage, has a long and esteemed pedigree
in French-Canadian and Québécois history. From Cyprien Tanguay's late-nineteenth
century encyclopedias to René Jetté's updated versions more than a century later,
genealogy has been an important component of French-Canadian nationalisms. Tracing
one's ancestry back to the early St. Lawrence settlement in the seventeenth century has
provided French-Canadians and now Québécois subjects with opportune political and
social capital with which to make territorial and national claims legitimate. Due to its
strategic importance in responding to British/Anglo dominance, Indigenous counterclaims, or recent immigrant cultural practices, a range of social scientists and researchers
have constructed an impressive genealogical infrastructure in Québec, making it what one
historian has called a "genealogist's paradise."
This paradise has also paved the way for a large-scale genomics project in Québec meant
to identify genetic medical conditions in the founding population of Québec. The
CARTaGENE project’s basis in racial genomics raises several important questions about
normalizing the use of biological information to construct “population” categories in
Québec. CARTaGENE’s partnership with Québec’s longest and most prolific universitybased genealogical project, BALSAC, also points to a synergy between older bio-racial
signifiers such as “blood” and newer bio-racial signifiers such as “genes.” From blood to
genes, Dr. Leroux takes us through the role of genealogy and genomics in situating
Québécois history as the history of a few early French settler families, and the social and
political effects this national narrative has on contemporary relations in Québec.
Darryl Leroux is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology,
St Mary’s University, Halifax. He is also co-editor of Critical Inquiries: A Reader in
Studies of Canada (Fernwood, 2013).
All are welcome to attend this brownbag lunch seminar. Organized by Dr Aziz
Choudry, Assistant Professor, International Education, Department of Integrated
Studies in Education. Phone: 514 3982253/Email: aziz.choudry@mcgill.ca