Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Canadian Studies News

• Happy Canadian Thanksgiving & Indigenous Peoples’ Day

• New faculty affiliate Cheryl Suzack studies Indigenous law and literature

News from Canada

• Statistics Canada podcast explains Canada’s ongoing tariff woes, and why Canadian tourists are avoiding the United States

Upcoming Events

• The 51st State? Canadian Resistance to American Annexationism Since 1775

PROGRAM NEWS

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Canadian Studies extends our warmest wishes to our friends across North America. As we gather around the proverbial table with our loved ones, we affirm the value of human connection at a time where it’s more important than ever. We are grateful to all of you for your continued support of the program, and were happy to see the strength of our Bay Area Canadian community at our party last week! (If you couldn’t attend, check out photos from our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner here!)

Image: Thanksgiving turkey designed by Freepik.

Today also marks Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the United States. This holiday, which started in Berkeley, celebrates the rich cultures, histories, and contributions of Indigenous communities across North America. It’s a time for recognition, reflection, and respect, as we listen to Indigenous voices and learn about the ongoing fight to assert their rights and sovereignty. May this day inspire meaningful conversations and a commitment to justice and reconciliation.

Canadian Studies is proud to support research promoting a deeper understanding of Indigenous issues, both historical and contemporary. Recent Hildebrand Fellows working on Indigenous topics include:

• Hannah Jasper, who is revealing how theater advertising for Nanook of the North profoundly shaped perceptions of Inuit people and culture
• Jessica Jiang, who is uncovering the surprising connections between Indigenous communities and Chinese migrants in the 19th century Pacific Northwest
• Luis Amaya Madrid, who is exploring the history of Indigenous identity among Pacific Coast Native peoples from British Columbia to Mexico
• Andrew Zhao, who is measuring the political legacy of Canada’s residential schools and their impact on persistent, localized anti-Indigenous beliefs

We are also pleased to announce an exciting new faculty affiliate specializing in Indigenous studies – see below!

New Faculty Affiliate Cheryl Suzack Studies Indigenous Law and Literature

The Canadian Studies Program is pleased to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day with a warm welcome to Cheryl Suzack, our newest faculty affiliate.

Professor Suzack joined the UC Berkeley faculty this year as a Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies. A member of the Batchewana First Nation (Ojibwe), her teaching and research focus on Indigenous law and literature, with a particular emphasis on writing by Indigenous women. She comes to Berkeley from the University of Toronto, where she held joint appointments in English, Indigenous Studies, and Law.

Professor Suzack received her PhD from the University of Alberta and has held visiting fellowships at the University of Naples, Smith College, and McGill University. In 2018, she was a Fulbright Fellow at Georgetown University, and she served as a research collaborator with the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape and the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto.

Professor Suzack employs interdisciplinary frameworks informed by race, gender, and sexuality studies to examine how Indigenous communities are located and politically contained through multi-levelled practices of gender and racialization. Through literary and legal analysis, she highlights topics such as tribal membership discrimination; the removal of Indigenous children; imposed blood quantum categories; and colonial forms of land dispossession as issues of injustice entangled with Indigenous self-determination. Her monograph Indigenous Women’s Writing and the Cultural Study of Law analyzed these issues as portrayed in Indigenous women’s storytelling. Professor Suzack also collaborated with Canadian Studies affiliate, Shari Huhndorf, as a co-editor and contributor to the award-winning collection, Indigenous Women and Feminism: Politics, Activism, Culture (UBC, 2010).

Professor Suzack’s current research is forthcoming in Law & Critique and in Ravens Talking: Indigenous Feminist Legal Studies (University of Toronto Press). Her interdisciplinary research on Indigenous law has appeared in the Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Law and Literature as well as numerous journals.

Statistics Canada Podcast Explains Canada’s Ongoing Tariff Woes, and Why Canadian Tourists are Avoiding the United States

Statistics Canada’s Eh Sayers podcast has recently published two episodes that shed new light on how the tensions between Canada and the United States are affecting the economies of both countries.

In Episode 26: A Tariff on Both Your Houses!, Statistics Canada Chief Economic Advisor Guy Gellatly explores what’s going on with trade between the US and Canada, what the early numbers suggest about the conflict, and what impact it might have on Canada’s economy.

Then, in Episode 27: Canadians Just Aren’t California Dreamin’ These Days, Jane Lin, of the Tourism Statistics Program at Statistics Canada, digs into StatCan’s tourism data to talk about how travel is different these days, as more Canadians reconsider their plans to vacation in the United States.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The 51st State? Canadian Resistance to American Annexationism Since 1775

Tues., Oct. 14 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

Since their founding era, Americans have periodically tried to convince their northern neighbors to join them in a continental union, sometimes by force. This talk will offer a sweeping survey of the prospect – or threat – of the American annexation of Canada (and its colonial antecedents) over the past 250 years. It will highlight major turning points in the cross-border relationship and the responses of government officials, the press, and Canadians more broadly. Extending the focus through the 2025 Canadian federal election, it will examine how generations of politicians and opinion-makers have harnessed opposition to annexation for political purposes.

About the Speaker

Dr. Gregory Wigmore is an associate teaching professor in the Department of History at Santa Clara University, where he teaches early US and Canada history. He received his bachelor’s in journalism and history from Carleton University, and his PhD in history from UC Davis. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of social and political history and foreign relations in North America, especially the role of frontiers and borders. He is currently working on a book manuscript based on his dissertation, “The Limits of Empire: Allegiance, Opportunity, and Imperial Rivalry in the Canadian-American Borderland.” His op-ed articles have appeared in The Globe and Mail and the National Post.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

Website | LinkedIn | Email | Donate