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Speaker Biographies:
Shreya Patel. Patel is a model-turned international speaker, actress, filmmaker, and mental health advocate, honoured among Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, Forbes 30 Under 30, and DissDash’s Top 50 Coolest South Asians, alongside Priyanka Chopra, Kamala Harris, and Hasan Minhaj. Recognized by the City of Toronto and Bell Let’s Talk for her advocacy, she uses her platform to advance conversations on equity, mental health, and representation. As an actress and filmmaker, she has starred in Vivid, The Intersection, and Strangers In A Room (Audience Choice Award, Reelworld International Film Festival). She has also produced award-winning projects like the Oscar-qualifying Unibrow and Girl Up, a documentary on human trafficking. Through her company Window Dreams Productions, she continues to develop impactful stories in her slate, using media as a powerful force for change.
Talin Vartanian. Talin Vartanian worked as a CBC Radio journalist for more than four decades, producing some of the most popular programs on the network, such as Morningside, As It Happens, This Morning, and The Sunday Edition. In the fall of 2011, Talin created Canada Reads, the annual CBC Radio program and national campaign that turns books into bestsellers and served as the program’s executive producer until 2007. She was known to CBC Radio listeners as Citizen Talin, a feisty consumer advocate who believes Canadians are far too nice when it comes to claiming their rights in the marketplace. Currently a volunteer board member for two non-profit organizations, she also freelances as a professional copy editor, writer, and producer. Through her company Window Dreams Productions, she continues to develop impactful stories in her slate, using media as a powerful force for change.
Ginella Massa. Ginella Massa is an award-winning Canadian broadcast journalist, media consultant, and sought-after public speaker. Ginella graduated with an Honours BA in Communication Studies at York University and has a diploma in Broadcast Journalism from Seneca College. She has worked in both TV and radio, behind the scenes and on air, at many of Canada’s major networks, including CTV, CBC, and CityNews. Most recently, she was the primetime host of Canada Tonight with Ginella Massa on the country’s national public broadcaster, making history as North America’s first hijab-wearing national TV news anchor. As a media consultant and CEO of her own PR Firm, Massa Media and Communication, Ginella helps her clients build strong communications plans through both traditional and social media. She also has a passion for working with local community groups and nonprofits, helping bridge the media literacy gap, and change the narrative of marginalized communities.
About Dispersion
Dispersion is a podcast by the Zoryan Institute that analyzes and celebrates both the diverse and common experiences of diasporas living away from, and returning to, their homeland.
Having published its academic journal in the field of diaspora studies for 30 years, the Zoryan Institute is excited to bring the conversation of diaspora to a new platform. Introducing important theories, topics, and experiences related to diaspora and transnational studies through casual conversations with people currently or previously living in Canada.
Through conversations with diverse communities in Canada, Dispersion will challenge stereotypes, discrimination, and aim to bring people together through conversations that navigate identity, home, and belonging.
The Zoryan Institute is a non-profit organization that serves the cause of scholarship and public awareness relating to issues of universal human rights, genocide, and diaspora-homeland relations.
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Meet the Host
As the host of Dispersion, Jen, brings together a belief in the power of collective action and a passion for building strong, resilient communities, with a love of storytelling and conversation. Previously a full time Zoryan team member, Jen now applies her background in research and communications to helping to grow and develop the Ontario non-profit sector through her work at Laridae, a management consulting and training firm.
Looking to Learn More?
Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies captures a world where borders are transgressed and elastic, boundaries are fractured and permeable, and identities are increasingly fluid and adaptable.
By including literature from the social sciences and humanities, this interdisciplinary journal continuously rethinks mobility, mobilization, and transnationalism, and reorients traditional accounts of home, homeland, host state and diaspora in an ever-changing world.
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