Canadian Studies Announcements

In this issue:

NEXT WEEK

Studying Religious Symbols and Bias in Court Proceedings

November 9 | 12:30 pm | 223 Moses Hall | RSVP here

Canadian Studies Sproul Fellow Nicholas A. R. Fraser will discuss research that examines bias against religious minorities within Canadian judicial procedures. Using original experimental data gathered in collaboration with Colton Fehr (Simon Fraser University), Dr. Fraser will use the example of courtroom oaths as a window into how Canadian cultural expectations can subtly affect an immigrant’s experience of “integration.”

Nicholas A. R. Fraser is a John R. Sproul Research Fellow with the Canadian Studies Program. He is a political scientist specializing in the impact of organizational culture on policy application. He holds M.A.s from the University of British Columbia and Waseda University (Japan), and received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, where he was previously an associate at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

This event will be held in-person at UC Berkeley; however, a live webcast will be available for those who would prefer to attend virtually. Please RSVP for more details.

This event is cosponsored by the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, the Center for Race and Gender, and the Center for the Study of Law and Society.

It’s Poppy Season – Get Yours from Canadian Studies!

Every year, from the last Friday of October to November 11, tens of millions of Canadians wear a poppy as a visual pledge to honour Canada’s Veterans. In partnership with Royal Canadian Legion US Branch #25, the Canadian Studies Program is honoured to serve as an official distributor of red poppies. Interested persons may pick up their poppies at our office in 213 Moses Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, weekdays between 9am-5pm. While the poppy is free, the Legion gratefully accepts donations towards their Poppy Fund, which directly supports Canadian veterans and their families. Learn more about the Poppy Campaign here.

IN THE NEWS

PM Trudeau Promises Climate Action at International Summit

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today announced a raft of new measures meant to cut down on Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions in a effort to combat climate change. The plans were announced at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.

A central pillar of Trudeau’s plan is encouraging a global phase-out of coal power as soon as possible. To that end, the Prime Minister announced plans to end exports of Canadian coal by 2030, and accelerate the closure of coal-fired power plants in Canada. He pledged $185 million to support Canadian workers and communities affected by this phase-out. Furthermore, Trudeau announced investments of up to $1 billion in global projects to assist low- and middle-income countries transition away from coal power. Finally, he announced plans to work with leaders in Canada’s oil and gas industry to create a path to net-zero emissions by 2050. Canada had previously committed to becoming carbon-neutral as part of the 2015 Paris Climate Accords.

The Glasgow conference is the most significant international climate conference since the Paris conference of 2015. Twenty-five thousand delegates from over 200 countries are attending; these include 120 heads of state, among them US president Biden. Despite being a major player in oil and gas, Canada is viewed as a global leader in the fight against climate change and is expected to take a key role in negotiations.

GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS

William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellowships

Application deadline: December 3, 2021.

The Canada Program at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs invites applications for the William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellowships. Two fellows will be appointed for the 2022–2023 academic year, with the possibility of extending for one additional year. The fellowships provide an annual stipend of $68,000, which is supplemented by funding for research and for individual health insurance coverage. The fellows will be required to teach one course during the year, and will be expected to engage with the Canada Program and with the University’s wider community.

Please click here for more information, or click here to apply.

First European Summer School in Canadian Studies

Application deadline: March 5, 2022

The Canadian Studies Centres of the Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna are organising the first European Summer School in Canadian Studies, which will take place in Austria from July 25 to August 5, 2022. The ESSCS is intended for Master (Bachelor’s degree completed) and doctoral students. The teaching staff are highly renowned specialists from Canada, Germany, and Austria representing the following fields: (English and French) literary and cultural studies, indigenous studies, media studies, language policy, history, cultural geography, political science and economics, intersectional and gender studies, and mountain studies.

Click here to learn more and apply, or contact canadian-summer-school@uibk.ac.at.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

American Indian Film Festival, Season 46

November 5-13 | Online | Buy tickets

Several films by Indigenous Canadians will be screened at this year’s American Indian Film Festival. The films include: Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy; Evan’s Drum; Nalujuk Night; Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again; and The Lake Winnipeg Project. Films are available to stream on-demand online beginning November 5. The AIFF is a project of the San Francisco-based American Indian Film Institute, which seeks to foster understanding and appreciation of the cultures and issues of contemporary Native people and develop audiences for voices historically excluded from mainstream cinema.

Remembrance Day Ceremony

November 11 | 10:00 am | Petaluma, CA

Join US Branch 25 of the Royal Canadian Legion (representing the San Francisco Bay Area) for their annual Remembrance Day Service from Liberty Cemetery in Petaluma, California. The annual service will be streamed live from the cemetery through Zoom webinar and can be watched by registering here.

Stanford Live Presents: William Prince

November 11 | 7:00 & 9:00 pm | Stanford University | Buy tickets

Enjoy an evening with Manitoba-based Indigenous Canadian folk and country musician William Prince in a special Stanford Live performance cosponsored by the Digital Moose Lounge. A singer-songwriter of magnitude, Prince has earned critical accolades for his synthesis of country and gospel music with acoustic guitar and messages about the human condition.

Please note that all attendees must wear a mask and bring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of attendance.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Moses Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL | DONATE

Canadian Studies Announcements

In this issue:

UPCOMING EVENT

Studying Religious Symbols and Bias in Court Proceedings

November 9 | 12:30 pm | 223 Moses Hall | RSVP here

Canadian Studies Sproul Fellow Nicholas A. R. Fraser will discuss research that examines bias against religious minorities within Canadian judicial procedures. Using original experimental data gathered in collaboration with Colton Fehr (Simon Fraser University), Dr. Fraser will use the example of courtroom oaths as a window into how Canadian cultural expectations can subtly affect an immigrant’s experience of “integration.”

Nicholas A. R. Fraser is a John R. Sproul Research Fellow with the Canadian Studies Program. He is a political scientist specializing in the impact of organizational culture on policy application. He holds M.A.s from the University of British Columbia and Waseda University (Japan), and received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, where he was previously an associate at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

This event will be held in-person at UC Berkeley; however, a live webcast will be available for those who would prefer to attend virtually. Please RSVP for more details.

This event is cosponsored by the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, the Center for Race and Gender, and the Center for the Study of Law and Society.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Holloway Poetry Series/Mixed Blood Talk: Cecily Nicholson

Lecture: October 20 | 4:00 pm | Online | RSVP

Reading: October 21 | 6:30 pm | Online | RSVP

The UC Berkeley English Department invites you to two events featuring Canadian poet Cecily Nicholson. Nicholson’s most recent book, Wayside Sang, explores ideas of borders and identity as she retraces her father’s journeys through the Great Lakes region. It won the Governor General’s Award for English Poetry in 2018. Her previous book, From the Poplars, won British Columbia’s Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 2015.

Nicholson will give this year’s Mixed Blood Talk, titled “real/located and restorative poetics – once a black rurality”, on October 20. The next day, October 21, she will give her Holloway poetry reading with Berkeley graduate student poet Laura Ritland.

The Holloway Series in Poetry is sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of English and honors one distinguished poet each year with a residency. The Mixed Blood Project is a poetry journal and organization founded and led by Canadian Studies faculty affiliate Cecil S. Giscombe. The series spotlights the contemporary African-American avant-garde, and emphasizes literary innovation with a deliberate and very aggressive emphasis on race and the languages of and about race.

DML Chesterfield Chat: Money Talks: Cross-Border Finances and Your Kids and Teens

October 27 | 4:00 pm | Online | RSVP

Talking to kids and teens about money is always challenging. But when families also have to navigate US-Canada financial and banking challenges, things can get really complicated!

Join DML host (and Canadian Studies board chair) David Stewart and our expert panel as they discuss tips and strategies on how to get your kids comfortable with financial planning and how to unpack some of the technical challenges of moving money across the border to cover budget needs, Canadian university tuition, or other cross-border family needs.

Panelists include Heather Pelant, partner and Certified Financial Planner at Baker Street Advisors; Matt Altro, president & CEO at MCA Cross Border Advisors; and Marlene Atzori, Regional Advisor Cross Border Banking at RBC Bank.

Remembrance Day Ceremony

November 11 | 10:00 am | Petaluma, CA

Join US Branch 25 of the Royal Canadian Legion (representing the San Francisco Bay Area) for their annual Remembrance Day Service from Liberty Cemetery in Petaluma, California. The annual service will be streamed live from the cemetery through Zoom webinar and can be watched by registering here.

Stanford Live Presents: William Prince

November 11 | 7:00 & 9:00 pm | Stanford University | Buy tickets

Enjoy an evening with Manitoba-based Indigenous Canadian folk and country musician William Prince in a special Stanford Live performance cosponsored by the Digital Moose Lounge. A singer-songwriter of magnitude, Prince has earned critical accolades for his synthesis of country and gospel music with acoustic guitar and messages about the human condition.

Please note that all attendees must wear a mask and bring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of attendance.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Moses Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL | DONATE

Canadian Studies Announcements

In this issue:

 Happy Thanksgiving to Canadians Near and Far! 

Dear Friends,

On behalf of all of us at Canadian Studies, I would like to wish a joyful (Canadian) Thanksgiving to you and your families. Here in Berkeley, we have a lot to be grateful for. With the pandemic winding down in California, we’re slowly returning to life as normal. We were even able to celebrate Thanksgiving in-person this weekend with members of the Bay Area’s Canadian Community for the first time in two years – see the pictures below! The day takes on particular poignancy as it also falls on Indigenous Peoples’ Day here in the US, a tradition that started in the city of Berkeley.

As we give thanks, we are most grateful for all of your support through these difficult times. We’ve really seen the value of a strong community over the last two years. I’m so proud to say that we have built such a community around Canadian Studies, because it’s your interest and encouragement that keeps us moving forward. We couldn’t do it without you.

With best wishes for a happy and delicious holiday,

Irene Bloemraad

Program Director

TOMORROW

Book Talk: Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism: Immigration Bureaucrats and Policymaking in Postwar Canada

October 12 | 12:30 pm PT | Online | RSVP here

In the 1950s and 1960s, immigration bureaucrats played an important yet unacknowledged role in transforming Canada’s immigration policy. Their perceptions and judgements about the admissibility of individuals influenced the creation of formal admissions criteria for skilled workers and family immigrants that continue to shape immigration to Canada. Bureaucrats emphasized not just economic utility, but also middle-class traits and values such as wealth accumulation, educational attainment, entrepreneurial spirit, resourcefulness and a strong work ethic. By making “middle-class multiculturalism” a basis of nation-building in Canada, they created a much-admired approach to managing racial diversity that has nevertheless generated significant social inequalities. Migration expert Jennifer Elrick will discuss insights from her forthcoming book examining the topic.

Jennifer Elrick is an assistant professor of sociology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Her research interests lie in the area of state classifications (in censuses and immigration policy) and their relationship to social stratification along the lines of race, gender, and social class. Her work is multi-national in scope, focusing on Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

This event is cosponsored by the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, the Center for Race and Gender, and the Institute of International Studies.

IN THE NEWS

Faculty Affiliate David Card Wins Nobel Prize in Economics

Canadian Studies is proud to announce that David Card, a UC Berkeley economist and Canadian Studies faculty affiliate, was awarded half of the 2021 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The award recognizes his pioneering research in the field of labour economics, which has been hailed as “revolutionary”. We hope you will join us in congratulating Professor Card for this monumental achievement.

Born in Canada, Professor Card has taught at Berkeley for over twenty years. His research focuses on inequality and growth; his best-known work includes studies that challenged prevailing orthodoxies on the negative impacts of a higher minimum wage on employment figures, and of immigration on the wages of native-born workers.

Hear Professor Card’s reaction to the news and his thoughts on the policy implications of his research in a post-announcement interview with the Nobel Committee’s Adam Smith.

President Biden Recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Which Started in Berkeley

Today, Americans honor the Native people of our country, their diverse cultures, and their numerous contributions to our history and society. It is also a time to reflect on the historical and present treatment of Indigenous peoples in the United States, and celebrate their resilience as vibrant, modern communities.

This year’s celebration bears special significance, as it is the first time the holiday has been formally recognized by the federal government. Berkeley was the first US city to officially celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 1992. The decision grew out of debates over the commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas and traditional Columbus Day celebrations, which many felt did not accurately account for the impact of European colonization on Native American communities. As a result, Berkeley opted to replace Columbus Day with a celebration of Native American cultures and peoples.

Since then, an increasing number of cities and states have opted to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day alongside or in lieu of Columbus Day. And last Friday, President Biden signed a proclamation recognizing the holiday nationally for the first time ever. The document also affirmed a commitment by the President to honor tribal sovereignty and past treaties on the part of the government. Learn more about what some Native Americans have to say about the significance of the move via NPR.

Image: Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration in Berkeley, 2012. Credit: Quinn Dombrowski on Wikimedia Commons.

Photos: Celebrating Our 4th Annual Canadian Family Thanksgiving

Last Saturday, Canadian Studies welcomed friends from across the Bay back to Berkeley for a special Thanksgiving celebration, our first since 2019! Our 4th Annual Canadian Family Thanksgiving, hosted jointly with the Digital Moose Lounge, was a roaring success. Canadians and friends of Canada alike had fun connecting in-person over a turkey dinner; guests enjoyed music, trivia, and a raffle with Canadian prizes, including woolen tuques, a Team Canada Olympic jacket, and two Air Canada tickets! But most appreciated was a renewed community connection as guests mingled, chatted, and shared Canadian Stories. We can’t wait to see you again next year!

Canadian Studies Program

213 Moses Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL | DONATE