Fall 2020 Events Calendar

Canadian Studies is pleased to bring you our events schedule for the Fall 2020 semester. Due to ongoing health and safety concerns, all events will be held virtually via Zoom conferencing through at least December. Please note that a new campus security policy require all participants to have a Zoom account to join meetings; more information on this change can be found at the end. All times posted are Pacific.

No Safe Country for Refugees? The Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement Before the Canadian Courts

Panel | September 1 | 12:30 PM | Online – RSVP required

Until recently, certain asylum claimants who entered Canada were routinely returned to the United States under the the Safe Third County Agreement. However, in July Canada’s Federal Court ordered the agreement suspended, asserting that the US is “not safe” for refugees due to the risk of imprisonment and other basic rights violations. Audrey Macklin, an expert in human rights law at the University of Toronto, joins Berkeley Law professor Leti Volpp to unpack the ruling and what it means for migrants and US-Canada relations in a conversation moderated by immigration scholar and Canadian Studies director Irene Bloemraad.

Return: On Blackness and Belonging in North America

Lecture | September 15 | 12:30 p.m. | Online – RSVP required

McGill University professor Debra Thompson, an expert on race and ethnic politics, will explore the complex experience of Black people in North America, juxtaposing her deep, ancestral links to the United States with a parallel but at times competing national affinity with the land to which many enslaved Black Americans once fled: Canada. Thompson uses personal narrative to explore the boundaries of racial belonging; to identify key facets of Canadian ideas about race and racism, including the intersection of racial formations and settler colonialism; to analyze the transnational nuances and contours of the African diaspora in North America; and ultimately, to think through what it means to be in a place, but not be of that place.

Social Movements and Legal Mobilisation in Times of Crisis: Migrant Farm Worker Rights in Canada

Lecture | October 6 | 12:30 p.m. | Online – RSVP required

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected migrant farm workers. Former Hildebrand Fellow Vasanthi Venkatesh, a professor of law at the University of Windsor specializing in social movements and immigration, gives context to the crisis by showing how the pandemic has overlaid itself onto existing systemic racial discrimination against migrant farm workers embedded in law and policy. She also shows how migrant farm worker advocates have responded to the crisis by exposing the racial capitalism of the Canadian agricultural economy, using radical narratives to challenge these systems.

Virtual Canadian Family Thanksgiving

Event | October, date TBD | Online

While we can’t meet in person this year, Canadian Studies and the Digital Moose Lounge are working hard to offer you a way to celebrate the holiday with the Canadian community in the Bay Area (and beyond!) Stay turned for updates.

Hildebrand Graduate Research Colloquium

Colloquium | October 20 | 12:30 p.m. | Online – RSVP required

Learn about the research Canadian Studies funds through our Edward Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowships, as recipients present short overviews of their projects. Participating scholars are Desirée Valadares, (“Idling No More: Reading Japanese Canadian World War II Road Camps Alongside Specters of Indigeneity on the Hope-Princeton Highway in British Columbia, Canada”) and Martha Herrera-Lasso Gonzalez (“Regionalizing NAFTA: Theaters of Translation in Mexico City and Quebec”).

What the US Election Means for US-Canada Relations

Round table | November 10 or 17 | Online – RSVP required

What will the results of the 2020 United States presidential election mean for the future of US-Canada relations? This special colloquium will consider the outcomes of the US elections for bilateral relations and their impact on Canada. Participants will include Frédérick Gagnon, a professor of political science at the Université du Québec à Montréal and a past Fulbright Chair and Sproul Fellow in the Canadian Studies Program.

New Security Policy for Digital Events: All Participants Must Sign In

To ensure the security of university-hosted meetings, UC Berkeley recently implemented new security measures for digital events. The most important change is that starting August 15, all participants will be required to sign into a Zoom account prior to joining meetings hosted by UC Berkeley. UC Berkeley affiliates can use their CalNet ID’s to sign in to Zoom. Participants who are not eligible for a UC Berkeley-provided Zoom account can create a free, consumer Zoom account or can dial in via phone.

AFFILIATE EVENTS

Community Q&A: Facing Border Closure Together to Flatten the Curve

Forum | August 12 | 4:00 p.m. PT | Online – RSVP required

Please join the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco and the Digital Moose Lounge for an important conversation about the continued extension of the US/Canada border closure. This is an open format community discussion and an opportunity for you to have your questions answered by experts. The panel will consist of Consul General Rana Sarkar; Senior Consular Officer Marni Kellison; and Pavan Dhillon, an immigration attorney and board member at Berkeley’s Canadian Studies Program.

E-mail wade.wallerstein@international.gc.ca to RSVP.

Canadian Studies Program

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