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Canadian Studies Announcements
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In This Issue:
Program News
• New Hildebrand Fellow Erin Dunbar studies multilingualism in 19th-century Québécois literature
News from Berkeley
• Canadian gymnasts on Cal team shine at NCAA Championships
News from Washington
• Wilson Center’s Canada Institute closes abruptly due to Federal layoffs
Upcoming Events
• 2025 Canadian Federal Election Watch Party
• Student Research Showcase: Canadian Multiculturalism in a Global Context |
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New Hildebrand Fellow Erin Dunbar Studies Multilingualism in 19th-century Québécois Literature
The Canadian Studies Program is pleased to announce that Erin Dunbar has been awarded an Edward E. Hildebrand Research Fellowship for Summer 2025.
Erin is a PhD student in the Department of French studying multilingualism in 19th century French, Russian, and Québécois literatures. Her research investigates changing literary depictions of other languages in relation to Standard French as emerging conceptions of nationalism required linguistic uniformity. Her Hildebrand Fellowship will support research on the Quebec genre of the roman du terroir, or novel of the earth/land, and how those novels obscured a complicated linguistic reality behind an idealized, literary depiction of Quebec. The Fellowship will allow her to visit Montreal and Quebec City to conduct research in the National Archives.
Erin holds a BA in French Language and Literature and Comparative Literature from Northwestern University, and an MA in French Language and Literature from UC Berkeley. |
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Canadian Gymnasts on Cal Team Shine at NCAA Championships
Two Canadian Berkeley students turned heads at the NCAA championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Saturday, posting some of the Golden Bears’ best results for the night.
Aidan Li, a graduate student from Ottawa, won runner-up in pommel horse, being surpassed only by reigning champion Patrick Hoopes (US Air Force Academy). Li’s second-place win was the best overall performance by a Cal gymnast since 2015, and the school’s best pommel horse score since 2012. Li, who is completing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, previously competed for Berkeley as an undergraduate and returned to the Bears for his fifth and final season this year.
Fellow Canadian Matteo Bardana, a freshman from Oakville, ON, was the only non-all-arounder to qualify in two events. He posted a season best on rings and brought Cal its highest floor score of the day.
Both Li and Bardana made a name for themselves at the 2025 Elite Canada meet in February, competing against some of the country’s best gymnasts. Li won his second major Canadian gold on pommel horse, while Bardana took silver in his age group on parallel bars. Li was subsequently named to the Canadian Senior National Team, and Bardana was selected to the Canadian Next Gen National Team. |
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Wilson Center’s Canada Institute Closes Abruptly Due to Federal Layoffs
We are deeply saddened to learn that the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute in Washington, DC was recently closed as part of the Trump Administration’s ongoing efforts to reduce the size of the Federal workforce. For 24 years, the Institute hosted an irreplaceable forum for US-Canada dialogue in our nation’s capital. It was an unequalled resource for high-quality foreign policy and diplomatic analysis, and its loss will be felt deeply by all who work in this space.
Prior to its closure, the Canada Institute was the largest and most respected policy research center of its kind outside of Canada. It was established in 2001 as a branch of the Wilson Center, a congressionally-chartered, nonpartisan think tank promoting research on global issues and international diplomacy. The Canada Institute was a leading voice in US-Canada relations and North American regional issues. In addition to a public education mission, it had a specific focus on increasing knowledge of Canada among US policymakers and government officials. |
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Former Canada Institute director Dr. Christopher Sands, who is also a board member of Berkeley’s Canadian Studies Program, published a short article on LinkedIn Friday about the closure. In it, he reflects on the Institute’s accomplishments over the years, and why its work was – and continues to be – important for US-Canada relations.
The closure was the result of an executive order issued by President Trump on March 14, which ordered the Wilson Center and several other federal entities to reduce their functions and personnel to the “minimum presence and function required by law”. Pursuant to this order, the Center closed its subsidiary units earlier this month and laid off almost all staff.
In addition to the Canada Institute, the Wilson Center also housed the Polar Institute, a leading forum for Arctic and Antarctic issues. We wish our best to all of the scholars and staff who are impacted by this closure. |
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UPCOMING EVENTS
If you require an accommodation to participate in an event below, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible.
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| 2025 Canadian Federal Election Watch Party
Monday, April 28 | 5:00 pm | IGS Library, 109 Philosophy Hall | RSVP
Join friends from the Bay Area’s Canadian community for a live viewing party as we await results from Canada’s 45th Federal general election. Who will be the next Prime Minister, and what’s in store for US-Canada relations? Come and exchange predictions and punditry with others who share a passion for Canadian politics! We’ll provide refreshments and expert commentary. This event is open to all, but RSVPs are required.
This event is cosponsored by the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco and the Institute of Governmental Studies. |
| Student Research Showcase: Canadian Multiculturalism in a Global Context
Tuesday, May 6 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP
Learn about the research Canadian Studies funds through our Edward E. Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowships, as recipients present overviews of their projects. Speakers will evaluate the success of Canada’s multicultural model in an international context, considering the integration of new immigrants, Quebec, and Indigenous nations. |
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Explaining Diasporic Voting Patterns Among the Lebanese-Canadian Community
Nadia Almasalkhi, PhD student, Sociology
Nadia’s research compares the political engagement of Lebanese in Canada, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. She examines how different integration frameworks affect levels of political engagement by overseas voters in Lebanese elections. Nadia hopes to understand whether Canada’s “assisted multiculturalism” paradigm influenced the lower rate of overseas voting seen in Canada when compared to the US or UAE. |
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Lessons on Multicultural Democracy from Canada
Britt Leake, PhD candidate, Political Science
Britt’s research examines the conditions under which democracy succeeds or fails in societies with extensive ethnolinguistic or religious diversity. His dissertation project examines historical cases from four countries (Canada, India, Lebanon, and Spain) in which distinct cultural groups tried to make compromises on the terms of a social contract that would be legitimate in the eyes of each group. In this talk, Britt will focus on the late twentieth century, when the Canadian state tried with mixed success to renegotiate its relationship with its Francophone and Indigenous minorities. |
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Royal Canadian Legion, US Branch #25 