Canadian Studies Announcements

In this issue:

4th Annual Canadian Family Thanksgiving

October 9 | 5:00 pm | Alumni House, UC Berkeley | Purchase tickets here

Canadian Studies is pleased to announce that our annual Canadian Family Thanksgiving will be happening as scheduled this October! Join us and our partners at the Digital Moose Lounge for a special meal celebrating the Bay Area’s Canadian community as we meet together for the first time since the pandemic. Mingle with your fellow SF Bay Canadians while enjoying entertainment and a delicious boxed turkey dinner. The dinner will take place outdoors and will observe all relevant public health measures.

Tickets may be purchased through the Digital Moose Lounge.

We’re also looking for volunteers to help staff the event. A limited number of half-priced tickets are available to volunteers; please contact us for more information.

UPCOMING EVENT

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.

Opinion: Canada needs to reimagine a foreign policy for a leaderless world

With the recent federal election confirming a continuation of PM Trudeau’s Liberal government, Canadians are looking for signs of new policies and government priorities. A recent opinion published in The Globe & Mail, co-written by five Canadian political thinkers, argues that Canada needs to radically re-imagine an independent foreign policy. With authors including Jeremy Kinsman, a former diplomat who has spoken at Canadian Studies events multiple times, and former minister of foreign affairs Lloyd Axworthy, the piece argues that Canada’s leaders must give renewed attention to international affairs. Canada can no longer merely follow a United States that is increasingly disinterested in global leadership, as illustrated by the recent Afghanistan debacle. Canadians, they contend, are eager for greater global engagement, and the US’ withdrawal is an opportunity for Canadian initiative on rights issues worldwide.

Call for Papers: Atlantic Canada Studies Conference

Deadline: November 15, 2021

UNB’s Atlantic Canada Studies Centre cordially invites submissions of paper and panel proposals for the 2022 Atlantic Canada Studies Conference, taking place in Fredericton, NB from May 11-14, 2021. They welcome paper and panel proposals which consider a variety of topics related to the study of Atlantic Canada, and which offer new approaches to questions of peoples, places, and ideas in the writing of this region. Applicants should prepare 15-minute presentations and limit panels to 3 papers. Papers can be presented in English, French, or any Wabanaki language.

For more information on proposal guidelines and for submission information, please visit the conference’s website.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Moses Hall #2308

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