In This Issue:

Upcoming Events

• Hildebrand Graduate Research Showcase

Program News

• New Hildebrand Fellow, Allison Evans, studies efficacy of Toronto’s affordable housing policy

Research Opportunities

• Two weeks left to apply for Canadian Studies research funding!

External Events

• Paul Storer Memorial Lecture: “Why Canadians (Mostly) Love Immigration, and Americans Aren’t So Sure”, feat. Irene Bloemraad
• Memorial University of Newfoundland Alumni Meetup
• Canadian authors at the Bay Area Book Festival
• BlackBerry film screening party

UPCOMING EVENTS

Wednesday, April 26 | 12:30 pm PT | 223 Philosophy | RSVP

Learn about the research Canadian Studies funds through our Edward E. Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowships, as recipients present overviews of their projects.

“Affordability for Whom? The Impacts of Foreign Buyer Taxes on British Columbia and Ontario Rental Housing Markets”

Taesoo Song, Ph.D. student, City and Regional Planning

During the mid-2010s, British Columbia and Ontario provincial governments implemented foreign buyer taxes (FBTs) to discourage foreign investment to promote affordability in the housing market. Although limited empirical evidence suggests that the taxes were effective in curbing house prices, there has been no significant discussion of their potential impacts on the rental market. Understanding this relationship would be crucial in meeting the housing needs of lower-income and immigrant households. Using empirical data from the Canadian Housing Mortgage Corporation and the Canadian Census, Taesoo examines how FBTs have impacted the regional rental markets and their implications for housing policy and planning.

“Exploring the Link between Climate Change and Mass Extinction: A Case Study of Late Ordovician Fossils from Anticosti Island, Quebec”

Joshua Zimmt, Ph.D. candidate, Integrative Biology

Joshua’s work uses a first-of-its-kind method to analyze the fossil record for links between climate change and faunal turnover. By applying this method to the exceptional fossil and rock records on Anticosti Island, he hopes to understand how climate change may have caused the Late Ordovician mass extinction, one of the largest known extinction events. Joshua’s research contributes to a better understanding of this critical interval in the history of life, and serves as a case study of global change that can help us better understand our rapidly-changing modern world.

PROGRAM NEWS

New Hildebrand Fellow, Allison Evans, Studies Efficacy of Toronto’s Affordable Housing Policy

It is with great pleasure that Canadian Studies welcomes Allison Evans as the program’s third and final new Hildebrand Fellow for Summer 2023.

Allison is a Ph.D. student in city and regional planning. Her work takes a critical approach to housing policy and land use planning. She examines the barriers to creating truly affordable housing, and how municipalities can deliver on their housing goals.

Allison’s Hildebrand Fellowship will enable her to study Housing Now, an affordable housing program in her home city of Toronto. Housing Now aims at developing affordable housing through public-private partnerships and surplus city-owned land. Allison’s research is motivated by the limited assessments of Housing Now’s progress, and to better understand the current critiques of the program. Through in-depth interviews, she hopes to learn about the program’s successes and what could be improved upon in the future.

Allison holds a B.E.S. and M.E.S. in planning from York University in Toronto, where she researched various housing-related topics and published peer-reviewed articles about the political economy of student housing and state ambiguities around tent encampments in the city.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Deadline: May 5, 2023

The Canadian Studies Program is currently accepting applications for several funding opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Please forward this information to any friends, students, or colleagues who may be interested!

The Edward E. Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowship

Accepting applications for Fall 2023

Amount: Up to $5,000 per semester

This fellowship funds research that contributes to knowledge about Canada and/or the Canadian-U.S. relationship. Applications are open to UC Berkeley graduate students in any discipline and of any citizenship. This fellowship is meant to cover direct travel and research costs.

The Rita Ross Undergraduate Prize in Canadian Studies

Amount: $250

This prize recognizes undergraduates who have written a superior research paper or other project on a Canadian topic. The competition is open to any UC Berkeley undergraduate student in good academic standing, in any college or discipline. Submissions must be an original paper or project produced in a UC Berkeley class or independent study during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Undergraduate Research Funding

Accepting applications for Summer and Fall 2023

Amount: Variable

Funding is available for undergraduate students interested in conducting organized research for a UC Berkeley class or as part of an independent study project. Awards are made at the director’s discretion.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Paul Storer Memorial Lecture: “Why Canadians (Mostly) Love Immigration, and Americans Aren’t So Sure”

Monday, May 1 | 4:00 pm PT | Online | RSVP

The Canadian Studies Program is delighted to announce that our program director, Irene Bloemraad, will be in Washington State next week to deliver the annual Paul Storer Memorial Lecture on Canada-US Relations at Western Washington University. We invite community members to listen virtually.

Americans are deeply divided about migration policy and have limited appetite for increasing immigration. Canada’s government has, in contrast, increased its immigration targets, and the ruling Liberal Party’s leader, Justin Trudeau, won his first national election partly due to a campaign promise to resettle thousands of Syrian refugees. Why do Canadians seem to love immigration while Americans aren’t so sure?

Irene Bloemraad is the Class of 1951 Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley and the founding director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI). She has been the faculty director of the Canadian Studies Program since 2012.

This lecture is sponsored by Western Washington University’s Center for Canadian-American Studies, Border Policy Research Institute, Department of Sociology, Department of Economics, and the WWU Alumni Association.

Memorial University of Newfoundland Alumni Meetup

Tuesday, May 2 | 6:30 pm | Palo Alto, CA | RSVP

Memorial alumni and friends in the Greater San Francisco Bay area are invited to join an evening of networking and socializing in Palo Alto. Attendees will enjoy light appetizers, raffle prizes and the opportunity to reminisce about all things Memorial University and Newfoundland and Labrador. The event is free, but advance registration is required.

Canadian Authors at the Bay Area Book Festival

May 6-7 | Berkeley, CA | Learn more

The Bay Area Book Festival is one of the world’s premier celebrations of writers, readers, and the written word, bringing together some of the best contemporary authors from across the globe. This year, the festival line-up includes two exciting debut literary voices from Canada, thanks to the generous support of the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco.

Dazzling Debuts

May 6 | 12:30 pm | Learn more

Award-winning Tibetan-Canadian author Tsering Yangzom Lama joins a panel of debut authors from around the world to discuss their works and paths to publication, as well as give advice to aspiring authors.

Indigenous Perspectives in Genre Fiction

May 6 | 3:30 pm | Learn more

Cree author Jessica Johns joins a panel of Native American and First Nations authors with new works in the genres of mysteries, thrillers, and horror. How do these writers incorporate historical and modern traumas into their work, deal with literary stereotypes, and help shape perceptions of contemporary Indigenous communities?

We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies: In Exile from Tibet

May 7 | 11:30 am | Learn more

Tsering Yangzom Lama will discuss her debut novel, We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies, a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. The multi-generational epic draws on Lama’s own family history as it traces sixty years of a Tibetan refugee family and their journey to Canada.

Horror: History That Goes Bump in the Night

May 7 | 2:30 pm | Learn more

History comes back to haunt the living in this panel on contemporary horror, and Jessica Johns joins to discuss her debut novel, Bad Cree. In the novel, a young woman’s nightmarish dreams begin to manifest, and it soon becomes clear that the forces of industrial intrusion on Native land are not only relevant – they’re malevolent.

BlackBerry Film Screening Party

Friday, May 12 | 7:30 pm | Sunnyvale, CA | Learn more

The Digital Moose Lounge invites you to join them for a private screening of the new Canadian film BlackBerry at the AMC Theater, Sunnyvale!

Director, writer, and actor Matt Johnson perfectly captures the heady creative period of the mid-’90s with this exuberant depiction of the rise and fall of the BlackBerry, the first smartphone.

The film holds a 96% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a “universal acclaim” rating on Metacritic. It also won the 2023 Sloan Science on Screen Prize at the SF Film Festival.

Tickets will go on sale soon – stay tuned for more information!