Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Program News

• New Sproul Fellow Troy Vettese explores relationship between capitalism and energy extraction

• Program director Hidetaka Hirota quoted in Globe & Mail article on US immigration crackdown

Local News

• CBS Bay Area: Why a Silicon Valley software engineer is heading back to Canada

PROGRAM NEWS

New Sproul Fellow Troy Vettese Explores Relationship Between Capitalism and Energy Extraction

The Canadian Studies Program is pleased to announce that Dr. Troy Vettese has been awarded the John A. Sproul Visiting Scholar Fellowship for Spring 2026. The Fellowship provides supplementary support to postdoctoral fellows who are studying Canada while in residence at UC Berkeley.

Dr. Vettese is an environmental historian and a Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management. He studies Canadian history, with a focus on the tar sands industry and conservative environmental thought. He is interested in understanding what the shift from conventional to non-conventional oil means in terms of how capitalism relates to the Earth, with resources increasingly “made” rather than “found”. He is also writing a book on neoliberal environmental thought, titled Business Climate, that will focus on the contribution of Canadian economists to applying Hayekian principles to problems of “externality”, which eventually led to the intellectual breakthrough of cap-and-trade in the 1960s.

Dr. Vettese studied history as an undergraduate at McGill University and then completed two master’s degrees at the University of St Andrews and the University of Oxford. He wrote his doctoral dissertation at New York University, which traced the history of neoliberal environmental thought. Since graduating in 2019, Dr. Vettese has held fellowships at Harvard University; the European University Institute; Copenhagen University; and the New Institute, Hamburg. His research has been supported by the DAAD, the University of Chicago, the Institute for New Economic Thinking, and the Independent Social Research Foundation. His first book, Half-Earth Socialism (Verso 2022), was co-authored with climate scientist Drew Pendergrass and has been translated into half a dozen languages.

As a Sproul fellow, Dr. Vettese will organize a workshop in the spring of 2026 on the energy transition to non-conventional fossil fuels that will put the Canadian experience into a comparative perspective. Several leading energy scholars will contribute papers to the workshop, which will then be submitted together for a forum at an interdisciplinary journal. The aim of the forum is to reinvigorate energy studies, divine new directions for the field to travel, and relate developments in Canada to a broader global perspective.

Program Director Hidetaka Hirota Quoted in Globe and Mail Article on US Immigration Crackdown

Canadian Studies Program director Hidetaka Hirota was quoted in an article published in The Globe and Mail Saturday. The article, “Trump administration steps up immigration crackdown with multiple new measures“, recounts the various policy changes made by the present US administration to tighten entry requirements for foreign nationals, including both immigrants and tourists.

Professor Hirota compares the administration’s new policies, such as an indefinite ban on immigration from nineteen countries, to late 19th- and early 20th-century immigration law. During that time, the US suspended immigration of Chinese laborers. After 1924, US immigration law operated under a discriminatory quota system, intended to maintain the racial composition of the United States and discourage the immigration of people deemed “undesirable”. The US abolished this unequal quota system in 1965. (Similar policies were also in force in Canada during this period, before being scrapped in favor of the points system in 1967.)

Professor Hirota explained how such policies were organized around a “core concept {of) racial hierarchy of desirability” that informed which populations would be welcomed, and which would be excluded. The article points out that such rhetoric is echoed by the current administration, with the President complaining that the US has too much immigration from “disaster” countries like Somalia instead of Norway or Sweden.

Yet while the US administration has gone farther than many countries in rhetoric and policy, it is only the most prominent example among a global backlash against migration sweeping from Europe to South America. Even famously immigrant-friendly Canada has seen a “cratering” in public support for immigration, and the Carney government has made high-profile cuts to immigration targets, calling the Trudeau-era high-water mark “unstainable”. However, while the Canadian backlash does have its own particular racial dynamics – largely felt among the South Asian population – Canadian leaders insist that the discontent is simply a response to the number of newcomers, and does not represent a fundamental nativistic or xenophobic impulse among the Canadian public.

LOCAL NEWS

A job in Silicon Valley is the career pinnacle for tech workers around the world. About 66% of Bay Area tech workers are foreign-born, and competition for such jobs is fierce. Yet even as the US tightens the screws on skilled immigrants with policies like a $100k fee for new H1-B visas, the country’s political climate is causing some immigrants to reconsider their options. As CBS News Bay Area reports, such is the case for Hesham Alshaebi, a Yemeni-born tech worker who is packing up to return to Canada – voluntarily.

Alshaebi completed a software engineering degree at Carleton University and obtained a permanent residency for himself and his family in Canada. However, he always dreamed of working in Silicon Valley; a dream that came true three years ago, when he moved to California after landing a job with a major tech company.

However, Alshaebi says he quickly became disillusioned with the United States because of the government’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and its support of wars in the Middle East, including his native Yemen. Alshaebi, who previously considered moving his family to join him in San Francisco, says it is important to him to live in a country that “more closely aligns with his personal beliefs”. While he is giving up financial and job security to return to Canada, he says that his “moral compass” is pointing him north.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

Website | LinkedIn | Email | Donate

Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Upcoming Events

• Panel: Canada at a Crossroads: Evaluating the Carney Government’s First Nine Months

Academic Opportunities

• Call for proposals: Canada’s Peoples, Places, and Polities from Below: A View from the US

• Summer program: Study French culture and communication in Montréal

• Call for papers: Two Days of Canadian Sovereignty Conference

• Call for papers: Association for Canadian Jewish Studies 50th Anniversary Conference

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tues., Dec. 2 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

When Mark Carney won the 2025 Canadian Federal election, he assumed leadership of a nation facing multiple structural problems and widespread discontent. Canadians had united against threats from the United States, but major debates remained over issues such as housing costs, immigration, and Canada’s stagnant economy. During the campaign, Carney distanced the Liberal Party from its Trudeau-era platform and promised to be a steady hand to deliver urgently needed reform. Nine months on, how well is the Carney government delivering on those promises? Join our panel representing Canada’s major political parties as they debate Carney’s performance in tackling the country’s most pressing challenges.

About the Panelists

Andrew Bevan is the CEO of the strategy firm Catalyze4. He was the campaign co-director for the Liberal campaign in the 2025 federal election. With over 30 years of public service experience, he previously served as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, and Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada.

Parm Kahlon is a founding partner and strategist at Core Firm. She served as Special Assistant to Alberta premier Rachel Notley, and worked with various MLAs with the BC NDP. She has also served as managing director for UFCW 1518, one of British Columbia’s oldest and largest unions.

Jordan Paquet is the vice-president of Bluesky Strategy Group. Over the course of his nearly 20-year career, he has worked across multiple levels of Canadian government, including the Prime Minister’s Office under Stephen Harper; as Principal Secretary to Conservative Opposition leader Rona Ambrose; and most recently as the Chief of Staff in Prince Edward Island’s Government Members Office.

This event will have a remote attendance option via Zoom. Please select the “virtual attendance” in the RSVP form to receive the link.

If you require an accommodation to participate fully in this event, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible by emailing canada@berkeley.edu.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Proposals: Canada’s Peoples, Places, and Polities from Below: A View from the US

Deadline: January 31, 2026 | Learn more

ACSUS is preparing an edited volume on how US-based scholars understand Canada amid growing cross-border tension and renewed debates over Canadian identity. The UC Berkeley Canadian Studies Program is honored to cosponsor this exciting project, along with Canadian Studies programs at Western Washington, Bridgewater State, Maine, and SUNY Plattsburgh.

ACSUS invites proposals for chapters exploring how Canada’s identities, communities, and sociopolitical dynamics are studied from the United States. Work may address themes such as multiculturalism, Indigenous perspectives, regional identities, policy debates, arts and media, migration, and more. Scholars at all career stages are welcome. Please direct questions to the Center for Canadian-American Studies at WWU, canam@wwu.edu.

Summer Program: Study French Culture and Communication in Montréal

June 23-Aug. 31, 2026 | Learn more

Western Washington University Education Abroad is offering an exciting opportunity to learn French while experiencing the vibrancy of Montreal!

This 5-week program in both a university and urban setting focuses on place-based French language and cultural competency. Morning sessions center on improving oral fluency and how to communicate in French using real-life situations. Afternoon sessions are spent engaging in cultural activities and research that highlight the historical and contemporary significance of Francophone Canada. Weekends provide students opportunities to take optional field trips to Quebec City, Mont Tremblant, and Ottawa.

The program is designed for students at the B1 level of French. There is an additional fee for non-WWU students.

The program will be led by Christina Keppie (keppiec@wwu.edu), a professor of French and Linguistics and director of the WWU Center for Canadian-American Studies.

Call for Papers: Two Days of Canadian Sovereignty Conference

Deadline: January 16, 2026 | Learn more

The Centre for Canadian Studies at Brock University, in collaboration with the Departments of History, Political Science, Popular Culture, and Film, invites submissions for Two Days of Canadian Sovereignty, to be held on March 26 and 27, 2026 in St. Catharines, Ontario.

This conference, part of the Centre’s annual Two Days of Canada conference series, will bring together students, scholars, and researchers from diverse fields to address the issue of Sovereignty in Canada and of Canadian Sovereignty. While there will surely be a great deal of interest in this topic in relation to current events, as well as the future of Canada, sovereignty has always been a thorny and fascinating issue in this country, one worthy of our sustained attention. Canada is a pluralist society, and, accordingly, the issue of sovereignty has taken on a variety of forms, including Indigenous, French, British, and Canadian variations, among others.

In addition to faculty members and graduate students, we are also interested in proposals from community members and groups outside of the academic sphere. Please send any inquiries or session proposals to canadianstudies@brocku.ca.

Call for Papers: Association for Canadian Jewish Studies 50th Anniversary Conference

Deadline: January 16, 2026 | Learn more

The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies / l’Association d’études juives canadiennes (ACJS) invites proposals for its 2026 annual conference, “Fifty Years of Canadian Jewish Studies.” The conference will take place at York University, Toronto, from Sunday, May 31 through Tuesday, June 2, 2026.

Founded in 1976, the ACJS is the first and only scholarly organization devoted to promoting and disseminating research on the Canadian Jewish experience. To mark its fiftieth anniversary, the association is convening a conference that highlights the richness, diversity, and interdisciplinarity of Canadian Jewish studies—past, present, and future.

The conference welcomes submissions in English and French on any topic relating to Canada’s Jews, reflecting both historical depth and current cultural issues. For questions and submissions, please contact the conference co-chairs, Jonathan Slater and Matthew McKeown, at acjs@yorku.ca.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

Website | LinkedIn | Email | Donate

Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Canadian Studies News

• Berkeley scholars take center stage at national Canadian Studies conference

Upcoming Events

• Panel: Canada at a Crossroads: Evaluating the Carney Government’s First Nine Months

External Events

• Fall 2025 International Student Travel & Immigration Updates

CANADIAN STUDIES NEWS

Berkeley Scholars Take Center Stage at National Canadian Studies Conference

Canadianists from all over North America converged in Seattle last week for the 27th Biennial Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS). ACSUS is the major interdisciplinary network in the United States dedicated to advancing understanding of Canada’s politics, culture, and international relations, as well as the bilateral relationship between our two countries. This year’s ACSUS conference brought together scholars, students, and practitioners to exchange ideas in nearly fifty sessions showcasing cutting-edge research on Canada and the Canada-US relationship.

We are proud to report that Berkeley was an integral part of that effort. We sponsored a formal contingent of five attendees, including three Hildebrand Fellows, two of whom were official speakers. Several board members and affiliates also attended, many of whom either also spoke or helped moderate discussions.

On Friday, our own Britt Leake (PhD can., Political Science) opened Session 1, “Politics and Public Policy Student Colloquium”, with a presentation titled “The Charlottetown Accord, Strategic Ambiguity, and the Dangers of Excessive Specificity in Constitutional Compromise”. Based on political science theory that posits a tradeoff between broad acceptance and deep agreement, Britt argued that Canada’s failed attempt to create a constitution that addressed specific concerns by various groups within Canadian society paradoxically made it more difficult to get widespread agreement on the document. Instead, he argued that Canada should have focused on high-level values that were flexible enough to allow for nuanced, distinct interpretations.

Lydia Mathews (PhD student, History) presented during Session 2, “Student Colloquium: Reflections on Canada’s Past”. Her talk, “Pure Milk in Montreal: Scientific Mothering Across the US-Canadian Border” looked at the creation of milk stations for nursing mothers during the Progressive Era, as part of an effort to “modernize” mothering and combat infant mortality. Lydia’s presentation situated Canada within an international network of social reformers that stretched throughout the British Empire and United States. She also demonstrated how concerns about hygiene related to Anglo-Canadian and American anxieties about immigration, disease, and social class.

Following lunch, Professor Richardson gave a talk as part of Session 4, “Cross-Border Relationships in the 21st Century”, titled “The Cascadia Innovation Corridor: The Role of Social Entrepreneurship in the Making of a North American Innovative Cross-border Region”. Drawing on her own research, she explored the extent to which an integrated economy does or could exist between the cities of the Pacific Northwest, with a special focus on Vancouver and Seattle. Integration between these dynamic economic centers would bring greater development to the entire region. However, despite efforts by local and regional governments and corporations such as Microsoft, she found that integration was still limited by borders and national policy.

On Saturday evening, conference attendees enjoyed a reception sponsored by Canadian Studies at Berkeley through the generosity of our board members. We extend our profound gratitude to board chair emeritus David and Margaret Stewart; Dr. Kathrine Richardson and Dave S. Rayat; and Pavan Dhillon. Our program director, Professor Hidetaka Hirota, took the opportunity to introduce himself and our Berkeley community with a short speech.

On Sunday, Professor Hirota closed out the tenth and final session of the conference, “Immigration and Border Crossings”. In addition to moderating the panel, Professor Hirota gave the concluding talk, “American Immigration Restriction, Canadian Retaliation: Tension Over Migrant Labor between Canada and the United States in the Late Nineteenth Century”. He discussed how Canada tried to deal with US immigration policy that was hostile to Canadian workers on the theory that they depressed wages. Canada’s government walked a fine line between applying symbolic retaliatory measures against the United States, while at the same time being constrained by its dependence on immigration to maintain economic growth during the period.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tues., Dec. 2 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

When Mark Carney won the 2025 Canadian Federal election, he assumed leadership of a nation facing multiple structural problems and widespread discontent. Canadians had united against threats from the United States, but major debates remained over issues such as housing costs, immigration, and Canada’s stagnant economy. During the campaign, Carney distanced the Liberal Party from its Trudeau-era platform and promised to be a steady hand to deliver urgently needed reform. Nine months on, how well is the Carney government delivering on those promises? Join our panel representing Canada’s major political parties as they debate Carney’s performance in tackling the country’s most pressing challenges.

About the Panelists

Andrew Bevan is the CEO of the strategy firm Catalyze4. He was the campaign co-director for the Liberal campaign in the 2025 federal election. With over 30 years of public service experience, he previously served as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, and Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada.

Parm Kahlon is a founding partner and strategist at Core Firm. She served as Special Assistant to Alberta premier Rachel Notley, and worked with various MLAs with the BC NDP. She has also served as managing director for UFCW 1518, one of British Columbia’s oldest and largest unions.

Jordan Paquet is the vice-president of Bluesky Strategy Group. Over the course of his nearly 20-year career, he has worked in across multiple levels of Canadian government, including the Prime Minister’s Office under the Stephen Harper; as Principal Secretary to Conservative Opposition leader Rona Ambrose; and most recently as the Chief of Staff in Prince Edward Island’s Government Members Office.

This event will have a remote attendance option via Zoom. Please select the “virtual attendance” in the RSVP form to receive the link.

If you require an accommodation to participate fully in this event, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible by emailing canada@berkeley.edu.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Wed., Nov. 19 | 3:00 pm | Online | RSVP

Join the Berkeley International Office’s Assistant Director for Student Services for a review of Fall/Winter Break Travel and current immigration updates.

• Travel: Learn about what to expect when traveling abroad and re-entering the U.S including: current concerns & risks, when a visa stamp is needed (and when it is not), documents you need to travel and re-enter the US, visa application process and timelines, security clearances, and travel to Canada and Mexico.
• Immigration Updates: This session also includes a brief year-end review of F/J immigration changes since January 2025 and looks ahead to what we know of the immigration policy agenda for 2026.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

Website | LinkedIn | Email | Donate