In This Issue:

Program News

• Get to know our new director, Dr. Richard A. Rhodes

News from Berkeley

• Cal alumna Camryn Rogers claims women’s hammer throw gold for Canada

Upcoming Events

• Canadian Studies Student Meet-and-Greet
• ACB-FGC: A Culturally Responsive Program to Support Black Families Involved with the Ontario Child Welfare System

Academic Opportunities

• Last Chance: ACSUS undergraduate research awards
• Call for Papers: Liminal Spaces: Two Days of Rural Canada

PROGRAM NEWS

Get to Know Our New Director, Dr. Richard A. Rhodes

Earlier this summer, the Canadian Studies Program faced a historic change in leadership when longtime director Irene Bloemraad stepped down after ten years of service. At such a pivotal time, we are grateful to rely on the steady, experienced leadership provided by our interim director, Dr. Richard A. Rhodes. A professor emeritus of linguistics, Rich has been a Canadian Studies affiliate almost since the program’s founding, and served as Irene’s co-director for several years. But even old friends may wonder what his connection to Canada is, and what sparked his initial interest in the program all those years ago.

Rich was born and raised outside of Philadelphia. He went to Michigan State as an undergraduate, then, after a stint in the US Army that included time in Vietnam, returned to the University of Michigan for grad school in 1971. While still a beginning grad student he was tasked with learning Ojibwe and starting a college-level language class in it, because, at the time, the University of Michigan was under political pressure to have such a class, but no professor wanted to do it. That lead to years of extensive fieldwork in southern Ontario, mostly on the Walpole Island Reserve (near Wallaceburg, ON), but also up and down the Blue Water region from Walpole to Sarnia, and on Manitoulin Island. Rich spent several summers at the University of Western Ontario (London, ON) and Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, ON) as an instructor in the provincial Native Language Instructor Program, teaching native-speaking elementary school teachers from across Ontario basic linguistics and Ojibwe (and Cree) grammar so that they can make better use of curricular resources for their classes.

In 1985, Rich published a dictionary encompassing two dialects of Ojibwe, Odawa and Eastern Ojibwe. After he finished his PhD in 1976 writing about Ojibwe grammar, he was invited to go spend a summer in North Dakota working on Michif, a Métis language that is half Plains Cree and half French. (While primarily spoken in Manitoba, in the 1970’s one of the strongholds of the Michif language was the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, ND.) Rich would go on to write many articles on the Michif language and is still a recognized authority. He has also done significant work on Sayula Popoluca, a small, endangered, Indigenous language of southern Mexico.

After finishing his PhD, Rich was hired back by the University of Michigan as a lecturer to continue the Ojibwe language class. (The real teacher in that class was the assistant, a native speaker originally from the Curve Lake First Nation Indian Reserve, near Peterborough, ON.) He was also tasked with teaching a course in the University of Michigan Program in American Cultures on Algonquian culture and folklore, past and present. In 1986, Rich was hired at Berkeley, and soon thereafter he began teaching a course in the Berkeley American Cultures program, drawing in part on the Michigan course. His Berkeley American Cultures course, which was taught more than 20 times over the span of 25 years, had significant Canadian content because of the central role the fur trade played to the history of Native North America.

Professionally, Rich was, until his retirement, active in the international Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, serving in leadership and as the president (2009-2011). Even in retirement, he continues his 50-year long participation in the Algonquian Conference, including having twice been the organizer of the annual meeting. He taught as a visiting professor in Austria several semesters over the course of his career and was twice a guest at the Max Planck Institute at Leipzig. In addition, between 1994-2004 he participated in the Project for the Documentation of the Languages of Mesoamerica.

At Berkeley, he was active in the Faculty Senate from 2007-2022, and served as a dean in the L&S Advising office from 2001 to 2022, with only brief breaks for sabbaticals.

His relevant external service includes having been an external reviewer for the Bachelor of Arts Program in Anishinaabemowin, at Algoma University (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) and having served as an expert witness in a Native land claims case.

NEWS FROM BERKELEY

UC Berkeley alumna Camryn Rogers ’22 made history last week with a first-place finish at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. As reported by the CBC, the Richmond, BC native is the first Canadian woman to win the world title in 20 years. Her victory also earned Canada its first-ever hammer-throw double, with fellow BC native Ethan Katzberg taking home the men’s gold.

The victory is just the latest triumph for the 24-year old athlete, who has risen to the top of her sport with the assistance of Cal track and field coach Mo Saatara. Rogers made headlines as a Berkeley student when she broke the collegiate women’s hammer throw record twice in one day. She also competed for Canada at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

In May, Rogers again broke records with a throw of 78.62 meters (257.94 ft), earning her the all-time Canadian record for women’s hammer toss and fifth place globally. A profile in the San Francisco Chronicle last January called Rogers “the best Bay Area athlete you’ve never heard of.”

Rogers has been no less energetic in her academic pursuits. The athlete is a double Cal alumna; in addition to her undergraduate degree, she completed work on a master’s in cultural studies in sports and education earlier this month. And with future plans to attend law school, perhaps she’ll make it a trifecta with a JD from Berkeley Law.

In the meantime, Rogers begins a job next month as a special education advocate. Now a professional athlete, she is currently looking for sponsors as she prepares for Paris 2024, when she’ll have her next chance at Olympic gold. We look forward to seeing what the future brings from this Berkeley Canadian champion!

Image: Christian Petersen/Getty Images for World Athletics, via CBC Sports

UPCOMING EVENTS

Canadian Studies Student Meet-and-Greet

Wed., Sept. 6 | 12:00-2:00 pm | Class of 1925 Courtyard | RSVP

The Canadian Studies Program invites you to kick off the fall semester with a back-to-school meet-and-greet for students! Get to know more about our program and meet fellow students while enjoying a complimentary lunch on us.

Please RSVP here if you plan to attend, so we can ensure we purchase enough food.

ACB-FGC: A Culturally Responsive Program to Support Black Families Involved with the Ontario Child Welfare System

Tues., Sept. 26 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

The disparate treatment of African American families in the American child welfare system is well documented, but researchers are only just beginning to examine the experiences of African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) Canadian families in Canada. In the province of Ontario, recent studies find that Black families are represented in the child welfare system at disproportionate rates. Experiences of Black youth, caregivers, and workers also highlight differential and punitive treatment within the system. These findings have given rise to the development of the African, Caribbean, Black Family Group Conferencing Project (ACB-FGC), a restorative, culturally responsive innovation to support Black families at risk of, or already engaged in, the child welfare system in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). In this presentation, Dr. Lance T. McCready, co-director of ACB-FGC, describes the community-based research that led to the development of the program and implications of ACB-FGC for provincial policies to address anti-Black racism in the child welfare system and among partner institutions.

Dr. Lance McCready is the lead researcher for the Making Spaces Lab, and an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He holds a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. and Ph.D. in education, all from UC Berkeley. He is the recipient of the 2017 Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize from the University of Toronto, and the 2018 Distinguished Research Scholar Award from the Ontario Education Research Symposium. Dr. McCready held a Sproul Fellowship with Canadian Studies at Berkeley in Spring 2023, where he worked on several projects related to the health and welfare of Black families, youth, and GBT/MSM individuals in Canada.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Last Chance: ACSUS Undergraduate Research Awards

Deadline: September 1, 2023

The Executive Committee of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) is seeking nominations for the following two awards. Both awards recognize outstanding, original undergraduate research that contributes to our knowledge of Canada. For more details and submission requirements, please click on the links below.

• The Jeanne Kissner Undergraduate Essay in Humanities Award
• The Martin Lubin Undergraduate Award in the Social Sciences

Call for Papers: Liminal Spaces: Two Days of Rural Canada

Deadline: September 15, 2023

The Centre for Canadian Studies at Brock University (St. Catharine’s, ON) invites paper submissions or panel proposals on the theme “Rural Canada.” When considering Canada, most people think of Canadian cities or the wonder of its vast wilderness. We often overlook, sometimes literally, rural Canada, those spaces in‐between. We fly over them and drive through them, but don’t often stop to consider what the people and the places contribute to Canada as a nation.

This conference will consider the world between the cities and the wilderness, those liminal spaces, and the people, culture, politics, and issues of concern within them. Scholars from a range of disciplines are invited to submit both individual papers and panel proposals; learn more here.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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