Engaging ideas, transforming minds
Engaging ideas, transforming minds

We don’t actively support Internet Explorer

It appears that you are using Internet Explorer, which has been discontinued by Microsoft. Support has ended for versions older than 11, and as a result you may face security issues and other problems when using it.

We recommend upgrading to a newer browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, or Edge for a much better experience across the web.

While this site may work with Explorer, we are not testing and verifying it, so you may run into some trouble or strange looking things.

Overview

The murder of British Columbia teen Reena Virk shocked Canadians and provoked an outpouring of media commentary, academic explanation, plays, and novels. But while much attention was paid to the problem of violence and "girl bullying," race and related issues hardly figured in mainstream conversation. This collection aims to refocus the conversation about Reena Virk by considering how racism, colonialism, and hierarchies of gender, class, age, and sexuality figure in this crime and our understanding of it. The ten thoughtful chapters by both prominent and emerging scholars force us to grapple with the difficult and at times ugly implications of Reena Virk's murder for Canadian national identity.

Table of Contents

Excerpt from TellSoraya Peerbaye
Introduction: Collectively remembering and reframing the murder of Reena Virk – Mythili Rajiva and Sheila Batacharya

Part I: Race and the Construction of Hegemonic Femininity
Chapter 1: Hootchies and ladies: Race, gender, sexuality and "girl violence" in a colonial white settler society – Sheila Batacharya
Chapter 2: Erasing race: The story of Reena Virk – Yasmin Jiwani
Chapter 3: Deconstructing an invisible identity: The Reena Virk case – Jennifer M. Kilty and Sheryl C. Fabian

Part II: Between Fiction and Truth: Textuality and Authorship
Chapter 4: Reckless eyeballing: Being Reena in Canada – Tess Chakkalakal
Chapter 5: Under whose bridge? "Race," class and gender in Rebecca Godfrey's Under the Bridge – Tara Atluri
Chapter 6: Putting on Reena Virk: Celebrity, authorship, and identity – Michele Byers

Part III: Moral Panics around Youth, Gender, and Sexuality
Chapter 7: "Born" freaks, "made" freaks, and media circuses: Systemic management of race and gender in the Reena Virk case – Nicole Pietsch
Chapter 8: Moral panic and the nasty girl – Christie Barron and Dany Lacombe
Chapter 9: The killing season? Interrogating adolescence in the murder of Reena Virk – Mythili Rajiva

Reviews

Purchase Options