In This Issue:

Program News

• Haikun Liu wins 2023 Ross Prize for project evaluating “altruism” of Canada’s foreign aid
• Dennis Song awarded honourable mention for paper on how Tibetan refugees paved the way for a multicultural Canada
• Check out our Fall 2023 course lineup!

Research Opportunities

• Call for Proposals: Association for Canadian Studies 50th Anniversary Summit

External Events

• Friends of Canada at SF Pride
• Commemoration Day Virtual Service
• Digital Moose Lounge Canada Day Picnic

PROGRAM NEWS

Haikun Liu Wins 2023 Ross Prize for Project Evaluating “Altruism” of Canada’s Foreign Aid

The Canadian Studies Program is pleased to award Haikun Liu the 2023 Rita Ross Undergraduate Prize in Canadian Studies. Named in honour of a longtime associate director of the program, the prize is awarded to an undergraduate who has produced an outstanding work of original Canadianist research for a UC Berkeley course or independent study. Haikun’s submission, “Altruism of Aid: Analysis of Canadian Official Development Assistance (ODA) into Sub-Saharan Africa”, assesses whether Canada’s foreign aid displays selfless or self-interested motives.

Haikun is a Chinese-Canadian international student, pursuing a dual degree in economics and business administration, alongside minors in politics, philosophy, and law. His family moved to Toronto when he was 12, and he credits his experience of Canadian multiculturalism and open-mindedness with shaping his personal values. Haikun’s interest in Canada-Africa relations started in high school, and he volunteered with international development organizations from a young age. However, it was his economics classes at UC Berkeley that showed him the possibilities of research in this discipline. “I want to thank Prof. Edward Miguel for enlightening my understanding of African development and opening my eyes towards translating research into real-world impact,” he notes.

Haikun’s winning paper is merely the first part of a substantial independent research project, which contributes to a long-running debate in political science over whether foreign aid is indeed altruistic, or merely serves a state’s geopolitical aims. Canada, in particular, has long claimed moral and altruistic motives for its foreign aid. Critics, however, frequently claim that wealthy nations use aid to buy political favours and access to resources from weaker countries. In contrast to great powers such as the United States and China, comparatively little research has been done to assess the efficacy and motives of Canada’s aid projects.

Haikun’s paper fits Canada’s aid program into an empirical standard for “altruism” that can be compared to other global players. By using GDP and ODA statistics from the World Bank, Haikun developed an algorithm that looks for “countercyclical donations”, periods where donations from Canada increased while the country’s GDP declined – essentially, evidencing a lack of financial return on the aid investment. Under this model, only about half of the recipient countries could be considered “altruistic” cases. Additionally, nearly 3/4 of the 21 countries receiving altruistic aid were coastal – perhaps hinting at larger strategic goals in Canada’s funding.

Still, this paper is only the beginning of Haikun’s work. In addition to his Ross Prize, Haikun has applied for a pilot undergraduate research grant to travel to Canada to do archival research over the summer. He plans to examine the rhetoric of official government ODA reports, to provide a holistic, rhetorical complement to his empirical analysis. And after graduating, he hopes to grow this project into a dissertation when he pursues a graduate degree in development economics.

“The Rita Ross Prize represents the culmination of my time here at Berkeley,” says Haikun. “As a Canadian student with minimal funding opportunities, the prize has encouraged me to further pursue research in an area that I am genuinely passionate about.”

Canadian Studies awarded an honourable mention to Ross Prize applicant Dennis Song, for his research into the history of a Cold War-era Tibetan refugee resettlement program and its impact on Canada’s immigration system.

Dennis is a Chinese-Canadian international student, majoring in conservation studies. His submission, “Cold War & Tibetan Resettlement Program: A Canadian Perspective”, examines the 1971-75 Canadian Tibetan Resettlement Program, which resettled 228 Tibetan exiles in the country. This project was the first major resettlement of non-Europeans in Canada, but has traditionally been viewed as a token gesture of moral leadership. However, Dennis argues that it played a notable role in setting the stage for Canada’s future refugee policies, and was a significant milestone on Canada’s transformation into a multicultural, immigrant society.

The resettlement issue brought together several sometimes-contradictory strands of Canada’s Cold War geopolitics; it balanced a desire for moral leadership, independence from US foreign policy, and the realities of international relations. Dennis charts how throughout the development of the program, leaders from Pearson to Trudeau shuffled between these priorities in a way that makes it difficult to speak of a unified Canadian approach to the geopolitics during the era. While the program demonstrated real initiative, the project was delayed several years, and its scope limited to about 10% of the initial number of refugees, due to fears of Chinese or US diplomatic reprisals.

The small number of Tibetans accepted was also a consequence of fears among Canadian leadership about integrating the refugees. With immigration laws having recently been liberalized, the government viewed the program as a test for how well immigrants from non-Western societies could assimilate. Many Canadian politicians saw Tibetan society as archaic, and were concerned that their pastoralist background and cultural isolation would severely hamper their ability to become self-sufficient citizens. But the speed with which the refugees integrated themselves into the workforce convinced officials that culturally-distinct migrants could successfully adapt to life in Canada. Concrete naturalization strategies gained from the program would go on to inform later, and significantly larger, refugee resettlements. Without this precedent, Dennis argues, we may not have seen the increased willingness for the country to accept more diverse groups of refugees and immigrants over the next decades.

And how did Dennis get interested in this project? “Taking (Canadian Studies Director, Professor Irene) Bloemraad’s course on immigration made me wonder, why did Canada learn to be more accepting of immigrants? I was surprised to find an answer in my Tibetan history class with Professor Van Vleet.” Dennis hopes to expand his paper further into an undergraduate honors thesis. “Receiving the honorable mention really made me feel the Canadian presence on campus! It feels strange to not have more campus academic engagement with the northern neighbor. The presence of this program will promote me further to do research about Canada.”

Each semester, Canadian Studies updates our list of Berkeley courses that engage in some way with Canada. These courses showcase the possibilities of Canadian Studies. As an interdisciplinary program, we encourage students to take classes across a variety of subjects, and these courses reflect that diversity. (Please let us know if you have any additions!) Courses offered this semester include:

• “The Seminar on Criticism: Canadian Songs 1960-1999”: This course engages with Canadian songwriting of the late 20th century, a period where Canada was redefining itself, both internally and to the world.
• “Encounter & Conquest in Indigenous America”: This class compares and contrasts histories of colonization and Indigenous resistance in three regions of North America, including the St. Lawrence River Valley.
• “Language and Identity”: This course will use Canada as a case study as it examines the role of language in the construction of social identities. Topics covered include the legitimization of a national language, the politics of language in nation-building processes, and the endangerment of Indigenous languages.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Proposals: Association for Canadian Studies

50th Anniversary Summit

Deadline: Saturday, June 17, 2023

The Association for Canadian Studies has issued a call for papers for a summit to mark its 50th anniversary. The theme of the summit is “Giving ‘Our’ Past a Future: Re-Building and Sharing Inclusive Narrative(s) for Canada.”

Over the past two decades, the rethinking of the Canadian history narrative has sought to address the glaring historic omissions of Indigenous peoples. Is real progress being made in that regard? To what extent is the broader public interested and engaged in the changing history narrative? Is there a growing rift in the history narrative changes being presented/proposed by many Canadian thought leaders and the acceptance and support for these changes by the wider public?

ACS invites proposals for workshops/panel presentation sessions, roundtables, and poster presentations on a range of topics such as migration and identity formation. The 50th anniversary summit will take place on October 2nd, 2023 at the Hilton Lac-Leamy Hotel, Gatineau, Quebec. Learn more here.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Friends of Canada at SF Pride

Sun., June 25 | 4:00 pm | San Francisco, CA | RSVP

Consul General of Canada Rana Sarkar cordially invites you to join Canadians marching in the 2023 San Francisco Pride Parade! The theme of this year’s parade is “Looking Back and Moving Forward.”

All are welcome to join the Consulate group on Sunday, June 25th with their families and friends to celebrate diversity and to support the LGBTQ2+ members of our communities here in San Francisco, at home in Canada, and abroad. The exact assembly location and time will be announced approximately one week prior to the parade. Please register via the link above to receive updates.

Commemoration Day Virtual Service

Sat., July 1 | 8:00 am PT | Online | RSVP

While July 1st is Canada Day, for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians it is also Memorial Day or Commemoration Day – a day when we remember the loss of over 700 Newfoundlanders on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Observed since 1917, this tradition commemorates the sacrifices made by Newfoundlanders in the service of Canada’s armed forces.

US Branch #25 of the Royal Canadian Legion, representing the San Francisco Bay Area, invites you to join them and the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps – Arkansas Division for a virtual sunrise service honoring of Canada’s fallen soldiers. The service will be held exclusively on Zoom; please register above if you wish to attend.

Digital Moose Lounge Canada Day Picnic

Sat., July 1 | 11:30 am | Woodside, CA | Buy tickets

Celebrate Canada’s 156th birthday with your fellow Bay Area Canadians at the Digital Moose Lounge’s ever-popular Canada Day Picnic. Enjoy an afternoon under the redwoods, with fun activities & games to keep kids and adults alike entertained. Meet new friends and reconnect with old ones as we embrace our heritage and celebrate with patriotic pride.

Tickets are expected to sell out, so get your early!

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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