In This Issue:

News from Berkeley

• A Thanksgiving message from our director
• In photos: Our 6th annual Canadian Thanksgiving dinner

Upcoming Events

• Book talk: Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America
• Workshop: “North American Cities in Changing Times: Rethinking the Urban Core for the City of the Future”

Academic Opportunities

• Call for papers: New Geographies in the International Journal of Canadian Studies

External Events

• Canada Seminar: “Who Has Better Access to (Primary) Healthcare, Canadians or Americans?”
• Canada Seminar: “What Brought Us Here, Won’t Take Us There: The Rewiring of Canadian Healthcare”
• Canadian films at the UN Association Film Festival

NEWS FROM BERKELEY

 Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! 

Dear friends,

On behalf of the Canadian Studies Program, I wish a very happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends celebrating today.

In a hectic and unpredictable world, it is important to take the time to gather with those who make our lives meaningful and give thanks for those good things we too often take for granted. At the Canadian Studies Program, we are always grateful to our community here in the Bay Area and abroad, who offer us so much support and friendship. It was wonderful to see so many longtime friends at our annual dinner yesterday, and to see so many new faces from Berkeley and beyond.

In the United States, today is also Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a federal holiday which celebrates the first inhabitants of the Americas. Indigenous Peoples’ Day was first celebrated in Berkeley in 1992 on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas, October 12, 1492. This October date had long been celebrated as Columbus Day world-wide. Local celebrations in the United States go as far back as 1792, although Columbus Day only became a federal holiday in 1971. International concern about the aftermath of Columbus for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas led a 1977 UN-sponsored conference to propose the idea of an Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The idea got no traction until an elaborate proposed 500th anniversary celebration of Columbus in the Bay Area so horrified the Berkeley City Council that they acted.

As a program, Canadian Studies is committed to supporting research and events that support Indigenous groups. We encourage our affiliates, wherever you live, to take some time today to learn more about your local Native American/First Nations cultures.

From us to you and your families, a very happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,

Interim Program Director

Yesterday, Canadian Studies and the Digital Moose Lounge hosted our 6th annual community Thanksgiving dinner. Nearly 100 Canadians and their friends from across the Bay came to Berkeley to celebrate all things Canada. Special guests included Consul General Rana Sarkar as well as representatives from Canadian trade groups, Air Canada, and the San Jose Sharks. All guests were treated to a delicious turkey meal – plus a dessert of Nanaimo bars and butter tarts! Attendees were also excited to participate in a raffle for Canadian prizes, including a Canada swag bag, a basket of foods from Quebec, tickets to a San Jose Sharks game, and the grand prize: a pair of Air Canada tickets. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Right: Canadian Studies director Richard A. Rhodes greets student volunteers Allison Evans and Taesoo Song.

Bottom Left: Attendees listen to welcome remarks from the Canadian Consulate.

Bottom Right: Professor Rhodes and Consul-General Rana Sarkar pose with Canadian Studies board chair David Stewart, board members Pavan Dhillon and Rhonda Rubinstein, and former program director Irene Bloemraad.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Book Talk: Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America

Tues., Oct. 17 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

20th-century Black history cannot be understood without accounting for the influence of Pan-African thought. In the early 1900s, Marcus Garvey’s followers saw North America, particularly Canada, as a base from which to liberate the Black masses from colonialism. Then, after World War II, Vietnam War resisters, Black Panthers, and Caribbean students joined the throngs of cross-border migrants to denounce militarism, imperialism, and capitalism. As revolutionaries from Oakland to Toronto dreamed of an “African world”, the prospect of coalitions among the Black Power, Red Power, and Quebecois Power movements inspired U.S. and Canadian intelligence services to infiltrate and sabotage Black organizations across North America.

In his new book Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America (University of North Carolina Press, 2023), Dr. Wendell Adjetey explores how twentieth-century global Black liberation movements began within the U.S.-Canadian borderlands as cross-border, continental struggles. This work reveals the revolutionary legacies of the Underground Railroad and America’s Great Migration, and the hemispheric and transatlantic dimensions of this history.

Dr. Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey is assistant professor of post-Reconstruction U.S. and African Diaspora history at McGill University, where he holds the William Dawson Chair. A first-generation high school graduate, he earned an PhD, MPhil, and MA from Yale University in history and African American studies. He completed his BA in history and political science at the University of Toronto (University of St. Michael’s College), where he also earned an MA in political science and ethnic, immigration, and pluralism studies.

This event is cosponsored by the Center for African Studies, the Center for Race and Gender, and the Department of African American Studies & African Diaspora Studies.

UC Berkeley graduate students with a research interest in Dr. Adjetey’s work are welcome to attend a small group discussion with the speaker on Monday, October 16. For more information, please email canada@berkeley.edu.

Workshop: North American Cities in Changing Times: Rethinking the Urban Core for the City of the Future

Fri., Oct. 27 | 1:30-5:00 pm | Women’s Faculty Club Reception to follow | RSVP

The rise of remote work has upended traditional thinking about the role of the urban core and what society might need and want from urban spaces. Some cities have weathered these changes better than others by attracting new residents and investment from firms and other institutions. At the same time, cities across North America are grappling with widening inequality, soaring living costs, and uneven recovery. What might be causing these differences? How can cities take these opportunities to remake the urban core in a more just and equitable way so all residents can thrive – and what can cities learn from each other?

This workshop will bring together scholars and policy leaders from across the United States and Canada for a discussion about the future of the urban core in select North American cities. Using a comparative lens, two panels will examine how the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic recovery have shifted narratives around development in urban centers. We will speculate on future development possibilities, and propose possible solutions to current and potential challenges to urban revival.

Participants will include Dr. Karen Chapple (UC Berkeley/University of Toronto); Jennifer Barrett (Canadian Urban Institute); Molly Harris (London Borough and Lambeth and former Canadian Studies Hildebrand Fellow); Dr. Tom Kemeny (University of Toronto; Sujata Srivastava (SPUR San Francisco); Egon Terplan (UC Berkeley); Andy Yan (Simon Fraser University); Dr. Gordon Douglas (San José State University); and Eric Eidlin (City of San José).

Space is limited, so please RSVP if you plan to attend in person. All attendees are welcome to attend a public reception following the workshop at 5:00 pm.

This workshop is cosponsored by the Department of City & Regional Planning, the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the Institute of Governmental Studies.

Image: Robson Square, Vancouver, BC. Author: Los Paseos on Wikimedia Commons.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Deadline: November 1, 2023

The International Journal of Canadian Studies is a long-running interdisciplinary journal published by the University of Toronto Press, dedicated to examining Canada from the fields of the arts, literature, geography, history, native studies, and social and political sciences. The journal is seeking submissions of original articles from all disciplines that look to reconsider and revisit the geography of 21st-century Canada.

This means alternative forms of territoriality or spatialization in Canada, and to the new concepts to apprehend them (ecocriticism, environmental humanities, settler colonial studies, border studies, etc.), which have emerged over the past two decades and that render traditional environments and their definitions too parochial or limited.

All submissions will undergo peer review. Learn more and submit papers here.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Canada Seminar: “Who Has Better Access to (Primary) Healthcare, Canadians or Americans?”

Tues., Oct. 10 | 9:00 am PT | Online | RSVP

It’s widely believed in both Canada and the United States that Canadians have been access to healthcare than Americans – but do the facts support this claim? The Weatherhead Canada Program at Harvard University will host a talk with two physicians who will walk through the myths and realities of each country’s healthcare system. Featured speakers are Dr. Marion Dove, an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University and practicing family physician, and Dr. Aaron Hoffman, Chief Clinical Innovation Engineer and a practicing family physician at Atrius Health in Boston and co-director of the Harvard Home for Family Medicine. Learn more here.

Photo credit: Sage Ross on Wikimedia Commons.

Canada Seminar: “What Brought Us Here, Won’t Take Us There: The Rewiring of Canadian Healthcare”

Tues., Oct. 17 | 9:00 am PT | Online | RSVP

The Weatherhead Canada Program at Harvard University welcomes Dr. Alika Lafontaine (University of Alberta), for a discussion on the future of Canada’s healthcare system. Named Maclean’s top Healthcare Innovator of 2023, Dr. Lafontaine has been at the epicentre of healthcare system change for almost two decades. He is the first Indigenous physician and the youngest doctor to lead the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) in its 156-year history, and the first Indigenous physician to be listed on The Medical Post’s 50 Most Powerful Doctors. As an experienced health leader, Lafontaine speaks eloquently and passionately on the politics of healthcare, implementing and scaling equity, effective advocacy, and redesigning health systems.

Canadian Films at the UN Association Film Festival

Oct. 19-29 | San Francisco Bay Area | Buy tickets

Three Canadian documentaries will be shown at this year’s UN Association Film Festival in San Francisco. Entries include Bahati (Oct. 20), the deeply personal story of a Rwandan refugee’s journey of survival; To Kill a Tiger (Oct. 21), which explores the steep cost an Indian family pays for seeking justice for sexual violence; and Backlash: Misogyny in the Digital Age (Oct. 26), which documents an online culture of hatred for women.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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