In This Issue:

Research Opportunities

• Last chance to apply for Canadian Studies research funding!
• Call for proposals: “(Up)Rooting the Study of Canada”

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
• May 2-4 Happy Hour & Trivia
• Université de Montréal Alumni Cocktail Reception

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Deadline: Friday, May 5, 2023

This Friday is the last chance to apply for Canadian Studies funding for the Fall 2023 semester. Funding is available for both 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.

Deadline for abstracts: August 15, 2023

Deadline for articles: January 15, 2024

The journal New Area Studies is inviting submissions that (re)envision an updated research and teaching agenda for the study of Canada and for “New Canadian Studies.”

In recent years, scholars have redefined the academic study of Canada. Questioning a traditional area studies approach, they emphasise new perspectives that interrogate colonial, extractive, and nation-building designs. Comparative, trans-cultural and transnational perspectives have provided fresh ways of approaching the study of Canada. Likewise, others have integrated the experiences of groups who have been historically marginalized or excluded from the “mainstream” study of Canada such as Asian Canadians, Black Canadians, Francophones, and Indigenous Peoples.

Submissions are welcome from scholars at all stages in their careers, including students, and from any discipline. Click here for more information.

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

Fri., May 12 | 7:30 pm | Sunnyvale, CA | Buy tickets

The Digital Moose Lounge invites you to a private screening of the Bay Area theatrical premiere of the new Canadian film BlackBerry at the AMC 20 Mercado Theater in Sunnyvale.

Directed by Canadian Matt Johnson, BlackBerry recounts the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of Waterloo’s Research in Motion from a scrappy startup to the maker of a world-leading global cell phone. The movie is an entertaining and humorous romp with a nostalgic Ontario backdrop. Johnson perfectly captures the heady creative period of the mid-’90s with this exuberant depiction of the rise and fall of the BlackBerry.

The film holds a 97% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a “universal acclaim” rating on Metacritic. It is nominated for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival, and won the 2023 Sloan Science on Screen Prize at the SF Film Festival. Watch the trailer here.

A private networking party will precede the film at 5:30 pm at a nearby location TBD. Theater doors open at 7:00, and the film will start at 7:30. Be sure to stay and enjoy a light-hearted 30-minute panel discussion with Bay Area residents and former BlackBerry executives Don Lindsay and Andrew Bocking, who will discuss how well the film did at capturing this amazing Canadian story.

May 2-4 Happy Hour & Trivia

Wed., May 24 | 6:00 pm | San Francisco, CA | RSVP

The Digital Moose Lounge and SF Canadian Expat Meetup Group invite you celebrate May 24 with a happy hour for the Bay Area’s Canadian expat community. Join the fun as they kick off the summer season with cold drinks, poutine and Canadian trivia!

Doors open at 6:00 and trivia starts at 6:30. Cash bar. Bring your friends, all are welcome! Please RSVP on MeetUp if you plan to attend.

Université de Montréal Alumni Cocktail Reception

May 31/June 1 | San Francisco & Los Angeles, CA | RSVP

The Université de Montréal invites its California alumni to network with fellow alumni and UdeM senior leadership over cocktails at two special receptions. University rector Daniel Jutras will be in attendance, as will Michael Pecho, vice-rector for alumni relations and philanthropy. Attendance is free, but registration is required and limited to university alumni.

The San Francisco reception will be hosted by Wilson Sonsini (One Market Plaza Spear Tower, 19th Floor), at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, May 31.

For Los Angeles-based alumni, a second reception will take place at 6:30 pm on Thursday, June 1 at the official residence of the government of Quebec in Beverly Hills.