In This Issue:

General Updates

• Happy Year of the Rabbit!

Upcoming Events

• “Historical Connections Between Canada and American Immigration Policy”
• “Come from Away: Newfoundland and Labrador’s Food Security Dilemma”

External Events

• “Roots, Routes, and Reckonings: On Blackness and Belonging in North America”

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

Canadian Studies wishes our best to our many friends celebrating the Lunar New Year this week! For many East Asian cultures, this is the most important time of the year – a time for reconnecting with family, friends, and their cultural roots. In Canada, celebrations are happening from Vancouver (with PM Trudeau in attendance) to St. John’s, many for the first time since 2020. And in California, the holiday is being officially recognized for the first time ever. So from all of us, have a safe and happy New Year!

Did You Know? While 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit in most countries that adopted the Chinese zodiac, in Vietnam it’s the Year of the Cat! Vietnam is the only country that includes a cat in its zodiac, thought to be the result of an ancient translation error.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Historical Connections Between Canada and American Immigration Policy

Wed., Feb. 1 | 12:30 pm PT | 223 Moses | RSVP

Canadian Studies faculty affiliate Hidetaka Hirota will explore historical connections between Canada and American immigration policy in the long nineteenth century. Based on his earlier and current works, Professor Hirota will discuss three aspects of this history: Canada as a destination of deportation from the United States; Canadians as targets of restrictive immigration policy; and Canada as a potential ally of the United States in migration control. In doing so, he will illuminate the experiences of Irish migrants in the mid-nineteenth century, Canadian migrants in the late nineteenth century, and Japanese migrants in the early twentieth century. These migrant groups’ experiences demonstrate that Canada remained an important part of the history of American immigration policy.

About the Speaker

Hidetaka Hirota is a social and legal historian of the United States specializing in immigration, and an associate professor of history at UC Berkeley. He is particularly interested in the history of American nativism and immigration control. His first book, Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy, shows how an influx of impoverished Irish immigrants to the United States in the early 19th century led nativists to develop policies for deporting destitute foreigners to Europe and Canada, and laid the groundwork for later federal legislation. His current projects include an examination of long-running tensions between nativism and a demand for migrant labor in the United States, as well as an exploration of the Japanese immigrant experience before 1924.

“Come from Away”: Newfoundland and Labrador’s Food Security Dilemma

Wed., Feb. 15 | 12:30 pm PT | 223 Moses | RSVP

This presentation illuminates past and current complexities of Newfoundland and Labrador’s unique food system. Following confederation with Canada in 1949, the province’s once- abundant fisheries fed North America to the point of over exploitation, creating both cultural and food system disruption. Currently, most food is imported into the province and transported by ferry, including produce from California’s Central Valley. Though hunting is prevalent in rural communities, high priced, pre-packaged, and processed food, rather than fish, are the dietary mainstay. Recent efforts to expand agricultural production within the province would improve local control over the food system. This would ostensibly be more expensive than most imported foods, given the province’s short growing season and relatively small, diffusely located population. Yet financially supporting such endeavors might be justifiable to facilitate a basic human right to access and produce food.

Note: The speaker will also share Newfoundland and Labrador artwork and handicrafts at the in-person presentation.

About the Speaker

Dr. Catherine Keske is a professor of management of complex systems in the School of Engineering at UC Merced. She is an agricultural economist and social scientist who studies sustainable food, energy, and waste systems. Prior to joining UC Merced in 2017, she was associate professor of environmental studies (economics) in the School of Science and the Environment at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her research on food security and Newfoundland and Labrador includes an edited book, Food Futures: Growing a Sustainable Food System for Newfoundland and Labrador, and “Economic feasibility of biochar and agriculture coproduction from Canadian black spruce forest” published in Food and Energy Security.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Roots, Routes, and Reckonings: On Blackness and Belonging in North America

Wednesday, Feb. 1 | 10:00 am PT | Online | RSVP

Western Washington University’s Center for Canadian-American Studies invites you to join their second “Why Canada Matters” talk, featuring Dr. Debra Thompson. Through an intimate exploration of the roots of Black identities in North America and the routes taken by those who have crisscrossed the world’s longest undefended border in search of freedom and belonging, this lecture combines memoir and analysis to highlight the tensions and contradictions that anchor our understandings of race.

Dr. Thompson is an associate professor of political science and Canada Research Chair in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies at McGill University. She is a leading scholar of the comparative politics of race, with research interests that focus on the relationships among race, the state, and inequality in Canada and other democratic societies.

This talk is co-sponsored by WWU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Department of History, and delivered in partnership with the WWU Alumni Association.