Canadian Studies Announcements

In this issue:

UPCOMING EVENT

Panel Discussion: Models for Repatriation of Indigenous Cultural Property from First Nations, Canada

Tuesday, February 8 | 12:30 pm | Online | RSVP here

How can repatriation be built from mutual respect, cooperation and trust? North American museums and institutions have historically engaged in the collection and categorization of Indigenous cultural property and knowledge without the consent or active involvement of Indigenous people. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was enacted in 1990 to return Native American “cultural items” to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Despite this and further state legislation, many institutions including the University of California, have obfuscated or denied repatriation claims. Across the border, the Canadian government does not currently have legislation addressing the repatriation of Indigenous Ancestors and cultural heritage, but is working to create national support for repatriation through legislation Bill C-391. Some Canadian provinces have passed repatriation acts or provincial museum polices that have facilitated the return of ancestors and belongings. This panel discussion seeks to learn from what is being done in Canada. What is the cultural and nuanced work that builds successful repatriations? How can repatriation and indigenizing the institution from within preserve and strengthen tribal cultural heritage?

Join Canadian Studies affiliate Sabrina Agarwal (Professor of anthropology and chair of the UC Berkeley NAGPRA Advisory Committee) in conversation with Dr. Louis Lesage (Director, Nionwentsïo Office, Huron-Wendat Nation), Lou-Ann Neel (Curator and Acting Head of Indigenous Collections and Repatriation Department, Royal BC Museum), and Michelle Washington (Repatriation Specialist, Royal BC Museum) to explore these questions and hear about their experiences in repatriation.

Image: Kwakwaka’wakw house posts from British Columbia in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley.

New Resource: UBC Migration Data Hub

The UBC Centre for Migration Studies (UBC) is pleased to announce the launch of its UBC Migration Data Hub with a series of nine interactive, searchable visual dashboards drawn from the Government of Canada’s Open Government Portal. More than 20 different datasets available from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) are used to create visualizations that provide monthly updates on statistics related to permanent and temporary residents.

These dashboards allow users to quickly search for the information they want from these monthly open data reports and have them readily available in graphic form. It is an ideal tool for teaching and learning, research and for our community service providers interested in understanding immigration flows and trends. Dashboards provide not only general, national level information since 2015, but also breakdowns by province, metropolitan area, immigration program category, citizenship, gender, and age. It also allows users to specify the date range they wish to see in visual form as well.

Dashboards are updated monthly and drawn directly from government datasets making Canadian migration data more accessible and easier to manage. The CMS hopes to expand the data available on the UBC Migration Data Hub in future so be sure to check out the site and provide suggestions or comments to admin.migration@ubc.ca.

March 2022 ACSUS Conference Cancelled

As a result of the current Omicron wave, the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) Executive Council has decided to cancel their upcoming conference previously scheduled for March 24-27, 2022. While this decision is unfortunately, ACSUS believes it is best for the health and safety of its members. Those who have already registered may either request their payment be credited to a future conference or reimbursed by emailing info@acsus.org. The association’s next scheduled biennial conference will be in Fall 2023.

Grant Opportunity: British Library Visiting Fellowships

Application deadline: February 1, 2021

The Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library in London welcomes Canadianists to apply for their 2022 Visiting Fellowship programme. These fellowships are open to academics, postgraduate students, creatives and independent scholars and cover all regions of the Americas.

For those living in North America, the fellowships are worth £3,000 (approximately $4,000 USD) and should enable around a month’s research in London. Due to the popularity of these fellowships, the Centre will focus most of this year’s fellowships on four research themes: sounds and music of the Americas; Americans beyond the Americas; American environments; and religion and spirituality.

For more information about the fellowship programme, please look here. The deadline for applications is 5pm GMT (9:00 pm PT) on Tuesday, 1 February 2022 and the Fellowship needs to be taken by 30 April 2024. For more information about the four themes, please look here.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Book Talk: Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America’s Northern Border

Friday, February 18 | 12:00 p.m. | Online | RSVP here

Join Professor Ashley Johnson Bavery for a discussion of her new book, Bootlegged Aliens. The book explores immigration on America’s northern border before World War II, situating Detroit, Michigan as America’s epicenter for unauthorized immigration. In this industrial center, thousands of Europeans crossed the border from Canada each year, prompting nativist backlash and complicating the labor politics of the automobile industry. This event is jointly hosted by the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego and UCLA Center for the Study of International Migration. UCLA professor Tobias Higbie will join as a discussant.

Ashley Johnson Bavery is assistant professor of history at Eastern Michigan University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Urban History and the Journal of American History and her book, Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America’s Northern Border (2020) won the First Book Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society.

Tobias Higbie is a professor of history and labor studies at UCLA, the chair of the Labor Studies and the associate director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. His research explores social movements, migration, and the politics of community in the United States. Higbie’s most recent book, Labor’s Mind: A History of Working Class Intellectual Life (2019), recovers the social world of self-educated working people and the politics of working-class identity during the early 20th century.

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