Her efforts to connect with her Arabic heritage has won acclaim for UWindsor faculty member Victoria Abboud. The Eden Mills Writers’ Festival selected her entry for top honours in the creative non-fiction category of its Fringe Literary Contest.

A lecturer in the Department of Communications, Media and Film, Dr. Abboud teaches courses in technical writing and emerging technologies to international engineering and computer science students.

Abboud had been working on a short story about her experiences learning to play the Arabic string instrument, the qanun, when she decided to do a bit of polishing and submit it to the competition. The piece is titled “Lessons.”

“The qanun is a string instrument in the zither family, and it’s shaped kind of like a trapezoid,” she explains. “It sits on your lap or on a stand or table, and typically has 78 strings.”

Players use plectra secured on their index fingers to pluck the strings. It is a historic, traditional instrument in Arab culture and other regional cultures, including those of Armenia and Turkey. Each region has its own musical traditions with these string instruments.

“This instrument generated the Arabic music that I've grown up with, and it’s the instrument and sound that many Lebanese hear when they think about Arabic music,” Abboud says. “It’s one of about six instruments that forms the takht, the music ensemble that is the basis of traditional Middle Eastern music.”

Abboud is interested in themes of identity, belonging, and the mixing of cultures and communities, and what it means to live in what’s been called the “hyphen space.”

“I’m part Canadian, part Lebanese, part French-Canadian,” she explains. “Within that description there are a few hyphens. In my writing, I try to describe the experience of what it means to live between and among those communities and cultures. I suspect that many immigrant families have similar experiences of the hyphen space.”

Her work explores how one keeps a foot in all these different worlds, and what it does to a person’s understanding of culture and history. Family, the trauma of migration, and being part of the diaspora are all part of this exploration, as are navigating and expressing very different cultures and traditions.

“Lessons” is the first of two creative nonfiction works by Abboud that will be published this year. The second piece will be published this fall by Michigan Quarterly Review, the literary journal based at the University of Michigan.

The winners in three Fringe categories — fiction, non-fiction, poetry — were announced Aug. 24. Each will receive $150, an invitation to read their work as part of the festival’s online event series on Sept. 9, and publication of their work as part of a chapbook produced by PS Guelph.

Since 1989, the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival has been a showcase of established and emerging Canadian writers. Pre-pandemic, the hamlet northeast of Guelph closed its streets to traffic and festival goers would bring lawn chairs and blankets to enjoy readings. Since COVID, the festival has moved online. Visit the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival website for dates and descriptions of online readings and events.

—Susan McKee

A UWindsor alumnus will supply high-end beef to campus consumers this fall under an arrangement with Food Services.

Ryan Pearson (BSc 2019) and his wife Lotje Kouwenberg, a veterinarian, operate a farm near Comber raising wagyu, Japanese cattle which produce heavily-marbled meat. Executive chef Paolo Vasapolli plans to sell it in the student centre as part of a line of local foods, as well as adding it to catering menus.

“It’s very exciting. I have a lot of good friends still at the University,” says Pearson. “To be able to give something back to some of those people — that’s rewarding for me.”

While he continues to exercise his computer science skills: developing software and enterprise architecture, Pearson says farming beef is a nice sideline.

“It was originally my wife’s idea,” he says. “She always wanted to raise cattle. We did some research and fell in love with the way the flavour shines through in these animals.”

After a trip to Argentina and seeing farm operations there, they decided to allow their cattle to feed on grass as they approach time to harvest.

“It’s a much healthier and more natural way for the animal to live out its life,” Pearson says.

Vasapolli toured the farm last week and was impressed.

“I got to see the whole process,” he says. “Wagyu is expensive, but if you want to treat yourself, it will be available.”

Pearson acknowledges his meat comes at a premium price, but says it is worth it.

“The marbling goes right through the muscle and the grass-fed fat melts at a lower temperature, so it marinates the beef in a buttery finish,” he says. “The people that will take an interest in this are those who want the best meat they can buy, and those that are major foodies.”

Read more on the Pearson Wagyu website.

Watch for further information on other local products to be marketed by Food Services this fall.

Second-year nursing student Andrew Hebert is ready for the pandemic to be over.

“I decided to get my COVID-19 vaccine because it brings us one step closer towards being able to live a normal life again,” he says. “By getting my vaccine, I have done my part and taken my jab in beating COVID-19.”

Hebert is one of this week’s winners in the Get Social about the Jab to Win! contest. He will receive a tuition voucher or Amazon e-card worth $500, as will computer science major Gabriela Peralta Milla, biomedical sciences student Timothy Igbokwe, and Linda Nguyen, a first-year student of behaviour, cognition, and neuroscience.

“I believe getting the COVID-19 vaccine to reduce the risk of not only my family members who are immunocompromised but also the people that I take care of, is part of my responsibility as a healthcare worker,” Nguyen says.

Five additional entrants won a #TakeAJabUWindsor T-shirt, a $10 Tim Horton’s gift card, and assorted swag: Renee Gilliam, a field learning specialist in the School of Social Work; research funding officer Nicole Noel; Farzana Akter Nasrin, pursuing Master’s studies in international accounting and finance; first-year biochemistry major Ayesha Sayyeda; and Jonathan Graniero, a senior in movement science.

Graniero has a couple of reasons to be inoculated, posting on Facebook that the vaccine will allow him to “visit family I haven't seen in years” and “go back to the movies.”

The contest continues with weekly draws through Sept. 17. To enter, “like” a post on the UWindsor Facebook or Instagram accounts with the #TakeAJabUWindsor or #KOCOVID hashtag, explaining why you decided to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Entry in a grand prize draw offering a choice of an iPad Air or Apple Macbook or Microsoft Surface or $3,000 tuition voucher is available for sharing a photo, video, or text message supporting the #TakeaJab campaign.

Find details, including contest rules and eligibility, an entry form, and a calendar of prize draws, on the “Get Social about the Jab to Win” website.

The Organization of Part-time University Students (OPUS) will hold elections to its Board of Directors on Oct. 26 and 27 and is asking members to begin preparing now.

The nomination period will run Sept. 20 to Oct 1, with campaigning Oct. 4 to 8.

Find more information, including eligibility criteria and application forms, on the OPUS website.