Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Program News

• Happy Year of the Dragon!

Upcoming Events

• Slavery and Self-Emancipation in Colonial Canada
• Conference on Proto-Algonquian

Academic Opportunities

• Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship Program

External Events

• Learn to Curl with the DML

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Canadian Studies wishes a very happy (if belated) Lunar New Year to our community! For many East Asian cultures and their diasporas across the world, the New Year is a time for reconnecting with family, friends, and their cultural roots. Celebrations took place all over North America this weekend; in Vancouver, Canada’s largest Chinese community celebrated a milestone with its 50th Annual New Year Parade. But while parades make the news, for most families the real celebration happens at home, with a traditional family dinner with loved ones. On behalf of Canadian Studies, we wish a prosperous Year of the Dragon to one and all!

Did you know? While Western dragons are thought of as fire-breathing monsters, Chinese dragons are auspicious creatures with strong associations with water. Dragons are often said to live in lakes or rivers, and can summon rain and storms.

Dragon image by Freepik.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Slavery and Self-Emancipation in Colonial Canada

Tues., Feb. 13 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

The US-Canada border played a central role in the history of slavery in North America. Yet, while Canada is remembered chiefly as a haven for those fleeing slavery in the United States via the Underground Railroad during the mid-nineteenth century, it is less well known that many people enslaved in colonial Canada during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries gained their freedom by crossing the border into the United States. Early Canadian and American anti-slavery laws did remarkably little to free people enslaved within their respective jurisdictions. But their enactment – and the proximity of a permeable border between rival regimes – afforded an unprecedented opportunity to enslaved men, women, and children. Laws on both sides of the Great Lakes inadvertently established free spaces, where fugitives from the opposite side could find sanctuary. By passing from one jurisdiction to another, enslaved individuals could exploit competing slavery laws and emancipate themselves simply by crossing the border, a development that destabilized and ultimately destroyed chattel slavery in the borderlands.

In this talk, Dr. Gregory Wigmore will provide a broad overview of slavery in early Canada, especially in the Great Lakes region. His talk will explain how both slaveholders and the enslaved, along with British and American authorities, responded to the emergence of the new Canadian-American border after the American Revolution. While slaveholders in Upper Canada (now Ontario) begged the colonial government to help them protect their valuable human property, their enslaved laborers were among the first people in North America to understand the political significance of the new international boundary, using it as a portal to freedom.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Gregory Wigmore is a lecturer in the Department of History at Santa Clara University. He received his B.A. in journalism and history from Carleton University, and his Ph.D. in history from UC Davis. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of social and political history and foreign relations, especially the role of frontiers and borders. His article, “Before the Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom in the Canadian-American Borderland”, received the Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the Ontario Historical Society’s Riddell Award. 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.”

Saturday, March 2 | 9:30 am – 4:00 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

The Canadian Studies Program invites you to a one-day conference honoring the late David Pentland on the occasion of the posthumous publication of his Proto-Algonquian Dictionary. The conference will bring together scholars from across the United States and Canada to celebrate this significant milestone in Algonquian scholarship, and to celebrate Dr. Pentland’s life and career as a prominent scholar in the field of Algonquian studies.

Ever since Leonard Bloomfield published his groundbreaking 1946 sketch outlining the sound system and basic morphology of Proto-Algonquian, refinements of the details of sound change and the reconstruction of Proto-Algonquian has been a central part of Algonquian linguistics. But the close similarities among most of the languages has led to a plethora of proposed reconstructions that are often not fully consistent with one another. Pentland’s dictionary has been a long-awaited step forward, bringing a new level of rigor and consistency to the field. Of course, it will also be a springboard to a range of new questions about methodology, classification, and borrowing. And we cannot discount the window on Algonquian culture such a comprehensive work provides. Speakers at the conference will address these questions and more.

Details about the conference, including the speaker schedule, are available on our website. The conference is at no cost, but attendees must register by emailing canada@berkeley.edu.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Deadline: Friday, March 15, 2024

The U.S. Department of Education (USED) is now accepting applications for the FY 2024 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) fellowship program.

The Fulbright-Hays DDRA provides opportunities for doctoral students to engage in full-time dissertation research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies. Proposed projects must be 6–12 months long and completed within an 18-month grant period of October 1, 2024–March 31, 2026. The Fellowship provides travel expenses, research funding, and maintenance and dependent care allowances.

Because these grants must be submitted by the Graduate Division on behalf of the applicant, please note that deadlines are strict and no exceptions will be made.

Email Gina Blanco, Project Director, as soon as possible to express your interest and your intention to apply.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Learn to Curl with the DML

Fri., Feb. 16 | 6:30 pm | Oakland, CA | Buy tickets

The Digital Moose Lounge invites you to learn to curl at the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club. All are welcome – no experience or equipment is needed. Friendly instructors will show you all the basics and help you safely curl for the first time. Your ticket includes an orientation to the sport, personal on-ice instruction, a mini-game, and light refreshments. Individuals and groups welcome: DML special rate offered.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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