Ausma Zehanat Khan: The Importance of Minority Voices in Crime Fiction or How Literature Can Promote Intercultural Understanding

How can literature address a climate of growing intolerance and hate? How can empathy in literature be used to confront exclusionary discourses by examining their underlying agendas? Canadian novelist and crime & fantasy author (A Deadly Divide, Among The Ruins)  Ausma Zehanat Khan will discuss the importance of counter-narratives that open up spaces for members of minority communities to speak. She explores questions of identity and belonging, marginalization and exclusion, through the lens of a Canadian Muslim detective who investigates crimes connected to global human rights issues. Through the stories she tells, she considers the disproportionate impact of these issues on minority communities, reflecting on how our understanding of justice is shaped by our ability to achieve it. Finally, she discusses the vital role literature can play in developing and deepening empathy, thus challenging intolerance and serving to defuse hate.

This event includes a signing with books for sale and is in partnership with the Department of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University.