Author Archives: Michael K. Barbour

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About Michael K. Barbour

Michael K. Barbour is the Director of Faculty Development and a Professor of Instructional Design for the College of Education and Health Sciences at Touro University California. He has been involved with K-12 online learning in a variety of countries for well over a decade as a researcher, teacher, course designer and administrator. Michael's research focuses on the effective design, delivery and support of K-12 online learning, particularly for students located in rural jurisdictions.

Tomorrow: A scholar’s take on being Black in Canada & the US; Bogs & climate change

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An item from one of our fellow Canadian organizations in the Bay Area.
Canadian Studies Announcements
In this issue:
  • Tomorrow: Blackness and Belonging in North America
  • Hildebrand Fellow Kim Huynh studies how bog emissions affect climate change
  • Upcoming event: Migrant farmworker rights during COVID-19
Tomorrow!
Return: On Blackness and Belonging in North America
Lecture | September 15 | 12:30 PM | Online – RSVP here
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. Through the analytical insights of black political thought, Prof. Thompson uses personal narrative to explore the boundaries of racial belonging and identify key facets of Canadian ideas about race and racism; 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.
Please RSVP at canada@berkeley.edu to receive a webcast link. You must be signed in to a Zoom account to join. UC Berkeley affiliates can use their CalNet ID’s to sign in to Zoom; other participants can create a free, consumer Zoom account or dial in via phone.
An “Important But Overlooked” Aspect of Climate Change:
2018 Hildebrand Fellow Kimberly Huynh on Wetland Emissions
Kimberly Huynh is a current environmental engineering PhD student at UC Berkeley, and a member of the Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology research group. Originally from Chicago, she earned both a bachelor of science in Environmental Engineering and a master of science in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University through a combined degree program. Her research focuses on combatting climate change through better understanding of natural greenhouse gas sources; she presented preliminary findings at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2016.
In Summer 2018, Kimberly received a Hildebrand Fellowship to support field research into greenhouse gas emissions from wetland areas near Vancouver, British Columbia. We checked in with her to find out more about that experience and what her research has uncovered. Read more below, or on our website here.
What is your research about?
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential many times that of carbon dioxide, and wetlands are its largest natural source. The gas is produced in wetland soils as microorganisms break down organic compounds. Improving how scientists quantify and predict methane emissions from wetlands is important because of its implications on climate change. This gas is released from the soil and travels across the air-water interface through three main pathways: transport through the gas-filled tissue of plants, transport through bubbles, and water-driven (hydrodynamic) transport. Hydrodynamic transport, the focus of my research, is an overlooked pathway that may be very important in some places {like British Columbia}, depending on conditions such as climate and local vegetation.
How did Canadian Studies support your project?
Thanks to the Edward E. Hildebrand Fellowship, I was able to research this topic firsthand in Burns Bog, just outside of Vancouver, BC, in Summer 2018. I collaborated with scholars at the University of British Columbia to measure methane emissions from hydrodynamic transport. I was interested in this site because its oceanic climate and heterogeneous vegetation was a stark difference from the humid Arkansas rice paddy I had researched the previous two summers.
With the funding I received, I prototyped several submersible, programmable cameras that could measure water velocity in very slow-moving wetland waters. Since these cameras automated water velocity measurements, I was able to collect several weeks of data in Burns Bog both in the morning and through the night. This was important because in some wetlands, there have been unexplained nocturnal spikes in methane emission. I wanted to learn whether there were any such spikes in Burns Bog and whether they could be linked to stirring in the water, such as water cooling and sinking during the transition from day to night.
What was your favorite part of your research experience?
As I look through the hundreds of videos and write code to extract velocity information, I am reminded of my fieldwork and feel grateful for the experience. Each day I was in the field, I had the rare opportunity to be in a wetland largely off-limits to the public and surrounded by hundreds of different animal and plant species, including a number of endangered birds. Through the Hildebrand Fellowship, I was given the freedom to explore a research topic of both deep interest and importance. I look forward to unraveling the story behind my rich dataset and appreciate the opportunities afforded to me by the Canadian Studies Program.
UPCOMING EVENT
Social Movements and Legal Mobilisation in Times of Crisis: Migrant Farm Worker Rights in Canada
Lecture | October 6 | 12:30 p.m. | Online – RSVP here
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.
Canadian Studies Program
213 Moses Hall #2308
Canadian Studies Program | Univ. of California, Berkeley, 213 Moses Hall #2308, Berkeley, CA 94720

News From the North: Canada Remembers 9/11 and Will Never Forget

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An item from the Canadian Embassy that we wanted to pass along.

September 10, 2020 | VIEW ONLINE
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News From the North
September 11, 2001, marks a pivotal day in history that will never be forgotten. Tomorrow, many of us will be reflecting on this somber day and the difficult ground we have traveled since. As we remember those who lost their lives, we are also reminded of the importance of friendship and support. Read on to learn more about how Canada and the U.S. are always there for each other in times of need.

9/11 Day and National Day of Service

The anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks has become an important Patriot Day and National Day of Service in America and Canada, known as “9/11 Day.” 9/11 Day is a time to join together to remember those lost on 9/11 and, if possible, perform Good Deeds or other acts of service as a tribute to the 9/11 victims, as well as first responders and military personnel who rose in service in response to the attacks. For the last few years, the Consulate General of Canada in New York has participated in 9/11 Day’s volunteer meal-packing event onboard NYC’s Intrepid—last year’s event resulted in 1.1 million meal donations across the country and world.

This year, the organizers of 9/11 Day are asking us to participate virtually, through a special program called “9/11 Day At Home,” and to do so also in remembrance of the those we’ve lost to COVID-19. Their goal is to inspire one million acts of service in support of COVID relief, both in honor of the victims of 9/11, as well as those who have tragically lost their lives to COVID-19.
We’d like to encourage you to participate and have a few suggestions:

  1. Visit 911day.org and browse the outstanding virtual service opportunities they have posted on their site, as well as other “good deeds”.
  2. Pick an activity that inspires you, or come up with your own good deed or charitable service projects for 9/11, then complete it.
  3. Share your 9/11 good deed, or activity on social media! Tag @911Day and @CanadaNY on Twitter, 911Day and @CanadaNY on Facebook or 911day and canada.newyork on Instagram. Use the hashtag #911day.
  4. While donations are not required, if you are in a position to do so, we will be hosting a virtual food drive that will benefit the Food Bank of NYC. Throughout the five boroughs, 1.5 million New Yorkers rely on the Food Bank to keep food on the table for themselves and their families. If you’re able to contribute, please donate directly here.

Canada Answers the Call: Battling California Wildfires

Canada and the U.S. have always stepped up to help each other in times of need, and natural disasters are no exception. Ongoing forest fires throughout California this summer have led to record levels of burnt land and damage. When Governor Newsom made an appeal for international help, more than 60 fire fighters from Quebec responded. Read about how they and their “super scooper” water bombers are on the ground now with their American colleagues battling the blazes.

A Word from Our American Friends in Ottawa

With large in-person celebrations on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, our friends at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa found a new way this year to mark July 4th and celebrate Canada-U.S. connections. Check out the Embassy’s guest post to find out all about their truly creative solution – entitled ‘Separate Together’ – to commemorate Independence Day.
Photo credits:
Consulate General of Canada in New York / National Interagency Fire Center (Neal Herbert/DOI) / U.S. Embassy in Ottawa
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Sept events update, plus new panelist added

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An update from one of our fellow Canadian organizations in the Bay Area.
Sept 16th: Helping small biz with online sales NEW PANELIST added!
Sept 24th: Consulate/DML Community Q&A
Sept 15th: Canadian Studies lecture with expert on race and ethnic politics

Pre-register for this free Zoom webinar
Wednesday, September 16th, 3:30 p.m.
In recent months, the DML has been reaching out to Canadian-owned, affiliated and themed small businesses in the Bay Area, to support them in today’s challenging economy. We’ve heard how the pandemic has impacted businesses, and forced our favourite shops, restaurants, artisans, and service providers to find new ways of reaching customers.

Join experts from our Canadian tech community as they discuss tips and strategies on how to make the most of tech tools and grow sales online, and answer your questions during Q&A.

Please invite any small business or entrepreneur who you think might be interested,

Jason Sanio (NEW panelist) is the Head of Marketing for Google Domains in Seattle, WA. He also spent the previous 7 years in product marketing roles at Google in the Bay Area. Jason is from a family of small business owners in Ontario, Canada, growing up in Aurora and Bracebridge. Jason graduated from the Schulich School of Business at York University in 2010 with honors.

Brian Hale (panelist) is originally from Calgary, and is currently serving as the VP of Product Growth at Facebook, helping oversee Facebook’s small business platform.

Brian began his career in growth and performance marketing in 1999 at the start-up ACDSee, where he first started “figuring out that search engine thing”, growing e-commerce, and providing analytics. He has since gone on to lead demand generation and e-commerce for DivX, the digital video technology company, and then led SEO and Growth functions for the travel start-up “Uptake”, which later sold to Groupon. Since 2010 he has been at Facebook, where he is Vice President of the Product Growth team, which partners with engineering teams across Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger using data and experimentation to drive growth of app adoption and engagement.

Amy Thibodeau (panelist) is from Saskatchewan, and moved from Silicon Valley back to Canada a few years ago to lead UX for Store Management at Shopify. In her role as Director, Amy leads design, research, content strategy, and UX development for the Store Management team.

In earlier iterations of her life she was one of the first members of Facebook’s now gigantic content strategy team, she renovated an old house in the south of France, worked in art museums, and traveled around the world for a year. Amy lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband Dan and two small dogs, Augustus and Eleanor.

David Stewart (co-moderator) is the Digital Moose Lounge’s Past Chair, or “Pastured Moose”, and the Advisory Board Chair at UC Berkeley’s Canadian Studies Program. Since 2013, he has consulted on a range of Canada-US education and innovation projects for clients such as the University of Saskatchewan, Expansion Quebec, the Association of University Research Parks Canada, and UBC. From 2007 – 2012, he was the Academic Relations Officer at the Consulate General of Canada in Palo Alto. Previously, he served as the Executive Director of International House, a nonprofit in Charlotte, North Carolina. David began his career as a commercial and immigration lawyer in Toronto, Boston, and Charlotte, and is a member of the Bar in Ontario and Massachusetts.

Wendy Kam Marcy (co-moderator) is the Digital Moose Lounge’s inhouse Marketer. She is the co-founder of Adfluent, a Google Partners Agency specializing in growth marketing for startups. In 2018, she moved to the SF Bay Area from Toronto. #DoneWithWinter

More information>>

Please RSVP to wade.wallerstein@international.gc.ca.
Canadian Studies at UC Berkeley Lecture
Tuesday, September 15th
12:30 – 2 p.m.
Return: On Blackness and Belonging in North America

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. Through the analytical insights of black political thought, Prof. Thompson uses personal narrative to explore the boundaries of racial belonging and identify key facets of Canadian ideas about race and racism; 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.

Please RSVP at canada@berkeley.edu to receive a webcast link.
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