Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Program News

• Hildebrand Fellow Claire Chun explores how artist Jin-me Yoon illuminates complexities of Asian-Canadian identity

Upcoming Events

• Sodomy and Settler Self-Government in the Canadian Colonies
• Student Research Showcase: Canadian Identities in Art

External Events

• Emerging Morphological Patterns in Non-Binary French Noun Formation
• Michael Ondaatje: A Year of Last Things: Poems

PROGRAM NEWS

Hildebrand Fellow Claire Chun Explores How Artist Jin-me Yoon Illuminates Complexities of Asian-Canadian Identity

Claire Chun is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Her dissertation research examines the ways that Asian North American diasporic art and media critically engage issues of settler colonial and militarized imperial violence. Claire received a 2023 Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowship to conduct fieldwork in Canada, examining how artists complicate notions of “Asianness” and grapple with the complexities of living and working in a settler-colonial society.

With the generous support of the Canadian Studies Program, I conducted four weeks of fieldwork in Vancouver and Toronto during Summer 2023. As part of my ongoing research on Korean diasporic visual cultures, I wanted to explore how Asian Canadian visual culture negotiates and is animated by histories of settler, imperial, and environmental violence alongside ongoing Indigenous sovereignty struggles.

Through archival research, place-based observations, and site visits, my field research set out to examine, in Iyko Day’s words, “whether it is possible to view Asian Canada as a social category that is part of a distinctly Canadian racial formation, one that cannot be seen through the US prism of race”. In other words, my research asks: What can Asian Canadian aesthetic practices teach us about the particularities of Canadian racial formation? And how might a critical interrogation of Canadian race-making histories interrupt Asian “settler moves to innocence” as Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang put it?

To begin answering these questions, I first traveled to Toronto where I visited and viewed Korea-born and Vancouver-based artist Jin-me Yoon’s retrospective at The Image Centre, which commemorated her 2023 Scotiabank Photography Award win. It was an incredibly significant and timely exhibition that shifted the very terms of my later fieldwork in Vancouver. At Yoon’s retrospective, I was able to view her monumental photographic portrait series, A Group of Sixty-Seven (1996) and other seminal works alongside new art. My trip to The Image Centre allowed me to take stock of my own viewing reactions as well as those of other visitors to the gallery space. While in Toronto viewing Yoon’s exhibition on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, the Mississaugas, and the Wendat peoples, I traced the ways that Yoon’s artistic career has been in dialogue with the ongoing histories of Asian settler colonialism and Asian Canadian diasporic cultural production.

This participatory viewing experience informed and shaped the field research I did in Vancouver the following month. After viewing Jin-me Yoon’s retrospective, I revised the scope of my archive by narrowing my textual analysis to Yoon’s body of work. Through a trained focus on selected artworks, I heightened my attention to the place-based politics of her aesthetic practice. In Vancouver, I visited the Maplewood Flats Conservation Area, located within the unceded territory of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, which is also at the center of Yoon’s recent works, including Dreaming Birds Know No Borders (2021) and Becoming Crane (Pacific Flyways) (2022). I spent time walking along the trails, and observing how the conservation area relates to the looming Burnaby Refinery, located right across Burrard Inlet. I also spent time at the specific site of Yoon’s Becoming Crane series, because I felt it was important to experience Yoon’s work as an animating force where nature and the environment are collaborative actors and participants.

This focus on the place-based specificity of Yoon’s work heightened my attention to the cultural and ecological significance of Western Canada in shaping settler colonial frontier-building fantasies and tourism projects in the late nineteenth century. I followed this line of inquiry to the archives. At the Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection at the University of British Columbia, I closely examined pre-war tourism materials from the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. My research in the archives provided me with the historical context needed to comprehensively grapple with the stakes of Yoon’s work, specifically Souvenirs of the Self (1991), Long View (2017), and Testing Ground (2019), which directly address how the settler colonial logics of Canadian tourism obscure the ongoing transpacific violences that link the militarized geographies of Korea and Canada together.

My field research in Canada ultimately served as a major step not only in my methodological considerations of how to bring place-based fieldwork, archival research, and close readings of visual art together, but also in my critical exploration of how Asian Canadian artists grapple with histories of diasporic displacement and migration in relation to ongoing settler, imperial, and environmental contestations.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Sodomy and Settler Self-Government in the Canadian Colonies

Tues., April 16 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

This talk will explore the history of anti-sodomy legislation and its historical consequences in early 19th-century Canada. It argues that the new anti-sodomy statutes sanctioned by the then-new United Province of Canada in 1841 and 1842 reveal an unsettled understanding of the implications of queerness upon settler-colonial manhood. It highlights the complexities surrounding the anti-sodomy debates and their relation to the 1842 capital sodomy trials of Samuel Moore and Patrick Kelly. While the shifting sexual politics of the empire underscores an emerging consensus among colonial legislators that perceived queer sex and individuals as a threat to the colonial project, the cases of Moore and Kelly and Governor General Bagot’s moderate response demonstrate that dissenting voices did exist. By contextualizing these events within a broader trans-imperial framework, the talk will reveal competing understandings of same-gender sex, highlight the intersections of power and privilege, and expose efforts to orient the sexual structures of settler society in 1840s Canada toward straightness.

About the Speaker

Dr. Jarett Henderson is a lecturer in the Department of History at UC Santa Barbara, where he coordinates the Gender + Sexualities Research Cluster. His research explores the history of gender and sexuality in Canada and the wider British Empire. Dr. Henderson earned his PhD in Canadian history from York University in Toronto, and his MA and BA in history from the University of Manitoba. Before arriving in California, Dr. Henderson was an associate professor of history at Mount Royal University in Calgary. His current book project, Unnatural Sex and Uncivil Subjects: A Queer History of Straight Settler State Making in Early Canada, examines the debates over the implementation of white settler self-government in the Canadian colonies alongside efforts to re-criminalize sex between men in the first half of the nineteenth century.

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

Learn about the research Canadian Studies funds through our Edward E. Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowships, as recipients present overviews of their projects. This panel will explore how Canadian artists grapple with themes of “identity” in their work.

“Settler Colonial Wellness Fantasies and Transpacific Korean Diasporic Critique”

Claire Chun, PhD candidate, Ethnic Studies

Claire’s research explores how modern conceptualizations of “Korean” and “Asian” beauty, wellness, and aesthetics are shaped by overlapping forces of militarism, tourism, and humanitarianism. Her Hildebrand Fellowship field research in Toronto and Vancouver examined how Korea-born and Vancouver-based artist Jin-me Yoon’s work addresses and responds to ongoing colonial frontier-building violences that link the transpacific militarized geographies of Korea and Western Canada together.

“Seeking Sweet Beaver: On the Hunt for Joyce Wieland’s Canadian Nationalist Musk”

Madeleine Morris, PhD student, History of Art

Last summer, Madeleine traveled to three Canadian cities to track Canadian nationalist artist Joyce Wieland’s olfactory work Sweet Beaver. Looking at the context of Wieland’s 1971 exhibition True Patriot Love, Madeleine accessed archival documents to examine the use of the sensory in her exhibition. At Canadian art institutions, she also studied artworks by Group of Seven father Tom Thomson, a point of obsession for Wieland and important link for her ecocritical understanding of landscape amid her concerns over Canadian national identity that incorporated both anglophone and francophone Canadians.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Emerging Morphological Patterns in Non-Binary French Noun Formation

Wednesday, April 17 | 11:30 am PT | Online | RSVP

Canadian Studies is pleased to announce that our Hildebrand Fellow Jennifer Kaplan will give a talk as part of the “Populations Rendered ‘Surplus’ in Canada” series, sponsored by the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University. Jennifer is a fourth-year PhD student in the Romance Languages and Literatures Program at UC Berkeley. Her work focuses on queer linguistics, with special attention to the evolving use of inclusive, non-binary, and neutral language in Romance languages. She has published on the competing morphological systems of inclusive French; her current work is focused on language attitudes among trans, non-binary, and genderqueer Montrealers.

Michael Ondaatje: A Year of Last Things: Poems

Wed., Apr. 17 | 7:00 pm | San Rafael, CA | Tickets

Acclaimed Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje will visit the Bay Area this month to talk about his new poetry collection, A Year of Last Things. One of the Globe and Mail’s most anticipated books of 2024, the collection is Ondaatje’s long-awaited return to poetry. In pieces that are sometimes witty, sometimes moving, and always wise, we journey back through time by way of alchemical leaps, unearthing writings by revered masters, moments of shared tenderness, and the abandoned landscapes we hold on to to rediscover the influence of every border crossed. From Sri Lanka to the California coast and his beloved Canadian rivers, Ondaatje casts a brilliant eye that merges memory with the present, in the way memory as the distant shores of art and lost friends continue to influence everything that surrounds him.

This event is hosted by the Institute for Leadership Studies at Dominican University of California and Book Passage. A copy of the book will be included with ticket purchase.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL | DONATE

Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Program News

• Hildebrand Fellow Allison Evans assesses effectiveness of Toronto’s housing affordability strategy

Upcoming Events

• Sodomy and Settler Self-Government in the Canadian Colonies

Academic Opportunities

• Call for papers: American Council for Québec Studies Biennial Conference

External Events

• Resurgence: Bridging Existing Curricula with Indigenous Voices and Pedagogies
• Emerging Morphological Patterns in Non-Binary French Noun Formation
• Michael Ondaatje: A Year of Last Things: Poems

PROGRAM NEWS

Hildebrand Fellow Allison Evans Assesses Effectiveness of Toronto’s Housing Affordability Strategy

Allison Evans is a second year PhD student in the Department of City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. She previously studied at York University in Toronto. Her research focuses on the intersection of urban housing and politics, including how people navigate an increasingly unaffordable housing landscape. Allison received the Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowship in Summer 2023 to study the efficacy of the City of Toronto’s Housing Now policy.

I studied the City of Toronto’s Housing Now policy during the summer of 2023 with the generous support of the Canadian Studies Program. Perhaps the greatest surprise of my research was the lack of policy movement during the pandemic. Many media articles scrutinized the city for its inability to produce affordable housing as quickly as the policy’s name implied. In addition, a mayoral crisis led to a sudden shift in leadership, ushering in new housing plans alongside the existing policies. Despite these setbacks, I met with several housing advocates, and I learned a great deal about the timeline of the policy and the role of activism in holding politicians to campaign promises regarding affordable housing.

The Hildebrand Fellowship allowed me to travel to Toronto to conduct my field research. This included networking with local housing advocates who created and continue to operate HousingNowTO, a largely social-media-based urban movement comprised of planners, architects, data scientists, and other urbanists. Members of the group review city planning and policies and often recommend changes to the city’s development proposals, zoning by-laws, and built-form guidelines to enhance access to affordable housing. In addition, I consulted literature about land value capture, a topic primarily explored from global South perspectives. The Housing Now program’s land leases, surplus land use, cross-subsidies, and public-private partnership structure are key policy elements. Thus, the program offers a rare example of land value capture in the global North, despite the lack of land value capture language in the policy documents.

I conducted six semi-structured interviews with members of HousingNowTO. I learned that they are committed to holding the City of Toronto to its policies, and they continue to push for increased densities beyond the current zoning by-laws and built-form guidelines to provide more affordable housing. Since the city’s key mechanism to provide affordability is private market rentals and ownership units, the more units available at market rate theoretically provide more housing units below average market rates. The group also works with various student groups at Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Toronto. These student groups select additional surplus land in the city and develop detailed pro formas to demonstrate the viability and encourage the city to add the sites to its affordable-housing-ready roster. I also accompanied the HousingNowTO group on an affordable housing bike tour with a mayoral candidate, which was an exciting opportunity.

Based on my preliminary research activities, I hope to eventually write two papers. The first will examine the land value capture aspects of the Housing Now policy and its current trajectory since the city finally broke ground on its first site in July 2023. The second paper will examine “urban technician” movements and the role of groups like HousingNowTO in impacting city policy through their advocacy, including the various channels used to spread their message and their connections to broader housing movements. I also plan to return to Canada this summer to supplement my research with a study of encampment formation in a small Ontario town.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Sodomy and Settler Self-Government in the Canadian Colonies

Tues., April 16 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

This talk will explore the history of anti-sodomy legislation and its historical consequences in early 19th-century Canada. It argues that the new anti-sodomy statutes sanctioned by the then-new United Province of Canada in 1841 and 1842 reveal an unsettled understanding of the implications of queerness upon settler-colonial manhood. It highlights the complexities surrounding the anti-sodomy debates and their relation to the 1842 capital sodomy trials of Samuel Moore and Patrick Kelly. While the shifting sexual politics of the empire underscores an emerging consensus among colonial legislators that perceived queer sex and individuals as a threat to the colonial project, the cases of Moore and Kelly and Governor General Bagot’s moderate response demonstrate that dissenting voices did exist. By contextualizing these events within a broader trans-imperial framework, the talk will reveal competing understandings of same-gender sex, highlight the intersections of power and privilege, and expose efforts to orient the sexual structures of settler society in 1840s Canada toward straightness.

About the Speaker

Dr. Jarett Henderson is a lecturer in the Department of History at UC Santa Barbara, where he coordinates the Gender + Sexualities Research Cluster. His research explores the history of gender and sexuality in Canada and the wider British Empire. Dr. Henderson earned his PhD in Canadian history from York University in Toronto, and his MA and BA in history from the University of Manitoba. Before arriving in California, Dr. Henderson was an associate professor of history at Mount Royal University in Calgary. His current book project, Unnatural Sex and Uncivil Subjects: A Queer History of Straight Settler State Making in Early Canada, examines the debates over the implementation of white settler self-government in the Canadian colonies alongside efforts to re-criminalize sex between men in the first half of the nineteenth century.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Papers: American Council for Québec Studies Biennial Conference

Deadline: May 1, 2024

The American Council for Québec Studies invites proposals for papers and panels for their upcoming conference from October 3-6, 2024. ACQS welcomes and will consider proposals related to any aspect of Québec studies, including Québec’s diasporas and the Francophone presence in the Americas. The conference is open to a wide range of approaches across the social and physical sciences and humanities. Submissions of both individual papers and complete panels are encouraged, and conference presentations can be made in French or English.

Graduate students and junior faculty are invited to apply to the Emerging Scholars Colloquium. Selected participants are mentored by senior scholars in the field and benefit from close connections with other graduate students and junior faculty. Acceptance into the colloquium is competitive, and is supported by a generous travel stipend, complimentary conference registration, and a two-year membership in ACQS.

For more information, or to submit an abstract, please click here.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Resurgence: Bridging Existing Curricula with Indigenous Voices and Pedagogies

Monday, April 15 | 4:00 pm PT | Online | RSVP

In this session, Anishinaabe educator Christine M’Lot will share collectively generated wisdom and knowledge from her groundbreaking textbook, Resurgence. This inspiring collection of contemporary Indigenous poetry, art, and narratives serves as a vital resource for K-12 teachers seeking to bridge existing curricula with Indigenous voices and pedagogies. Designed especially for educators, this session will provide valuable insights into Indigenous education, Indigenous content suitable for your classrooms, and Indigenous learning processes.

This session is part of the series “The Canadian Mosaic: Material & Methods for Teaching Multicultural Canada Spring 2024 Series”, organized by the Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine; the Center for the Study of Canada & Institute on Québec Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh; and the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University.

Emerging Morphological Patterns in Non-Binary French Noun Formation

Wednesday, April 17 | 11:30 am PT | Online | RSVP

Canadian Studies is pleased to announce that our Hildebrand Fellow Jennifer Kaplan will give a talk as part of the “Populations Rendered ‘Surplus’ in Canada” series, sponsored by the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University. Jennifer is a fourth-year PhD student in the Romance Languages and Literatures Program at UC Berkeley. Her work focuses on queer linguistics, with special attention to the evolving use of inclusive, non-binary, and neutral language in Romance languages. She has published on the competing morphological systems of inclusive French; her current work is focused on language attitudes among trans, non-binary, and genderqueer Montrealers.

Michael Ondaatje: A Year of Last Things: Poems

Wed., Apr. 17 | 7:00 pm | San Rafael, CA | Tickets

Acclaimed Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje will visit the Bay Area this month to talk about his new poetry collection, A Year of Last Things. One of the Globe and Mail’s most anticipated books of 2024, the collection is Ondaatje’s long-awaited return to poetry. In pieces that are sometimes witty, sometimes moving, and always wise, we journey back through time by way of alchemical leaps, unearthing writings by revered masters, moments of shared tenderness, and the abandoned landscapes we hold on to to rediscover the influence of every border crossed. From Sri Lanka to the California coast and his beloved Canadian rivers, Ondaatje casts a brilliant eye that merges memory with the present, in the way memory as the distant shores of art and lost friends continue to influence everything that surrounds him.

This event is hosted by the Institute for Leadership Studies at Dominican University of California and Book Passage. A copy of the book will be included with ticket purchase.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL | DONATE

Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Program News

• A Big Give appeal from our director
• Meet our new undergraduate apprentices!

Upcoming Events

• Come from Away: Newfoundland and Labrador’s Food Security Dilemma

External Events

• Complex Conflict, Women’s Rights, & the Promise of the Women, Peace & Security Agenda
• Roadmap at Three: Progress Report on a Renewed US-Canada Partnership
• Artmosphère: Francophone Arts Festival 2024
• 2024 Irving Tragen Lecture in Comparative Law: “Lawyers, Judges and Justice”, feat. former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella
• AI & Climate Change: A View From Quebec

A MESSAGE FROM OUR DIRECTOR

Dear friends,

This Thursday is Big Give, Berkeley’s annual fundraising drive. On behalf of Canadian Studies, I would like to make a special appeal highlighting the importance this day to our program; 90% of our funding comes from donors like you.

All donations we receive this Thursday will go directly to funding program activities and supporting students. Over the last year, your generosity has helped us take the program in exciting new directions. In addition to our regular monthly talks, we launched a new undergraduate fellowship (the inaugural holder of which won a national award for his research) and hosted two international conferences on the Berkeley campus.

This year, your gift will help us expanding our teaching footprint through several new initiatives designed to nurture the next generation of Canadianist scholars. I am most excited by our pilot undergraduate apprentice program (see below). But you will also help us continue to bring you free lectures that expand and challenge our understanding of Canada, and to share the exciting research our graduate students are undertaking “from sea to sea”.

Join us in celebrating everything that makes our program a vibrant hub of Canadianist learning and community. Affirm the importance of Canadian Studies with a donation this Thursday – we thank you in advance for your support.

Interim Program Director

Thomas G. Barnes Chair in Canadian Studies

PROGRAM NEWS

Undergraduate Apprentices Plan Student-Led Course on Canada

The Canadian Studies Program is pleased to introduce our undergraduate research apprentices for Spring 2024: Andrea, Lillian, and Dennis!

Under the supervision of Canadian Studies program director Richard A. Rhodes, the three students are working to develop a student-led “Intro to Canada” course. The class will give undergraduates an overview of Canadian society, history, and culture that is accessible to both Americans and Canadians. It will also engage with the challenges of defining “Canadian identity” in a nuanced and multifaceted way.

The students were selected through the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP), which connects students with faculty mentors across campus working on specialized research projects. Each of the students demonstrated a passionate interest in Canada and talents in organization, leadership, or independent research.

This initiative is intended to expand teaching on Canada at UC Berkeley, which has long been only sporadically available. The Canadian Studies Program is not a teaching unit, so past courses on Canada at Berkeley, such as those taught by Canadian Studies founder Thomas G. Barnes, have relied on the initiative of specific faculty members and approval by outside departments.

The “Intro to Canada” course, as envisioned, will revive the spirit of Professor Barnes’ classes, while modernizing the content and structure. The finished product is expected to be run through Berkeley’s DeCal program. DeCals are student-led courses overseen by tenured faculty and offer real university credit. Intended to “democratize” education at Berkeley, they often cover subjects not included in the traditional curriculum. Additionally, the bottom-up nature of DeCals allows them to be particularly flexible and responsive to student interests. And because the course can be taught be undergraduates, it could be offered without relying on the availability of specific faculty.

Of course, our URAP apprentices are just at the beginning of their research process; nevertheless, we expect that if things go well, we will be able to pilot this course as early as Spring 2025. We look forward to bringing you future updates!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Come from Away: Newfoundland and Labrador’s Food Security Dilemma

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

This presentation illuminates past and current complexities of Newfoundland and Labrador’s unique food system. Following confederation with Canada in 1949, the province’s once-abundant fisheries fed North America to the point of over-exploitation, creating both cultural and food system disruption. Currently, most food is imported into the province and transported by ferry, including produce from California’s Central Valley. Though hunting is prevalent in rural communities, high priced, pre-packaged, and processed food, rather than fish, are the dietary mainstay. Recent efforts to expand agricultural production within the province would improve local control over the food system. This would ostensibly be more expensive than most imported foods, given the province’s short growing season and relatively small, diffusely located population. Yet financially supporting such endeavors might be justifiable to facilitate a basic human right to access and produce food.

Note: The speaker will also share Newfoundland and Labrador artwork and handicrafts at the in-person presentation.

About the Speaker

Dr. Catherine Keske is a professor of management of complex systems in the School of Engineering at UC Merced. She is an agricultural economist and social scientist who studies sustainable food, energy, and waste systems. Prior to joining UC Merced in 2017, she was associate professor of environmental studies (economics) in the School of Science and the Environment at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her research on food security and Newfoundland and Labrador includes an edited book, Food Futures: Growing a Sustainable Food System for Newfoundland and Labrador, and “Economic feasibility of biochar and agriculture coproduction from Canadian black spruce forest” published in Food and Energy Security.

This event is cosponsored by the Berkeley Food Institute.

If you require an accommodation to fully participate in an event, please let us know at least 7 days in advance.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Tuesday, March 12 | 10:15 am PT | Online | RSVP

This event will mark International Women’s Day by bringing together diverse legal, policy, and civil society practitioners, working to advance women’s rights. The event will focus on the role of the women, peace and security agenda in addressing the broad terrain of complex conflict situations, including “new” and long-standing conflict contexts. The event will address the challenges of inclusion for women in conflict and peace processes, the ways in which women are harmed directly and indirectly by conflict and the impact of counter-terrorism measures on women’s human rights, including in addressing the targeting of human rights defenders and civil society advocates.

This event is hosted by the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota and Consulate General of Canada in Minneapolis. Panelists will include Natalka Cmoc, Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine; opening remarks will be by Beth Richardson, Consul General of Canada in Minneapolis.

Roadmap at Three: Progress Report on a Renewed US-Canada Partnership

Tuesday, March 12 | 11:00 am PT | Online | RSVP

In 2021, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau signed the “Roadmap for a Renewed US-Canada Partnership,” an affirmation of the special relationship between the two nations and a blueprint for how Canada and the United States could improve cooperation. The Wilson Center Canada Institute invites you to an update on the Roadmap three years in, featuring Ambassador of Canada to the United States Kirsten Hillman and Ambassador of the United States to Canada David L. Cohen. The ambassadors will discuss recent developments in the US-Canada relationship and outline ongoing avenues of collaboration. This virtual event will be moderated by Christopher Sands (Director, Canada Institute; Advisory Board member, UC Berkeley Canadian Studies), and is held in partnership with the Embassy of the United States in Ottawa and Embassy of Canada in Washington, DC.

Artmosphère: Francophone Arts Festival 2024

March 15-17 | San Francisco Bay Area | Learn more

PIAFF entertainment and the Alliance Française San Francisco, in partnership with the Consulate of Canada and Québéc Trade Office, invite you to celebrate the Mois de la Francophonie at Artmosphère, a three-day celebration of global Francophone arts. The festival will include several short films from Québec. Relevant screenings will take place at 7:00 pm Friday, in San Francisco (Short Movies, subtitled in English), and at 2:30 pm Saturday, at the École Bilingue de Berkeley (Courts Métrages PG-13, no subtitles). All events require prior registration.

2024 Irving Tragen Lecture in Comparative Law: “Lawyers, Judges and Justice”

Wednesday, March 20 | 4:00 pm | UC Berkeley | RSVP

UC Berkeley Law invites you to a discussion with Justice Rosalie Abella, the first Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Born in a Displaced Persons Camp in Germany, her family came to Canada as refugees. She was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2004, and served until her retirement in 2021. Since then, she has held visiting professorships at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Toronto. Justice Abella was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1997, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007, and to the American Philosophical Society in 2018. In 2020, she was awarded the Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Germany.

AI & Climate Change: A View From Quebec

Monday, March 25 | 6:00 pm | San José, CA | RSVP

The Quebec Trade Office in Silicon Valley and the Digital Moose Lounge invite you to a lively and timely discussion about the role of AI in solving today’s most pressing challenges. Since the surprise launch of Open AI’s consumer-facing ChatGPT product one year ago, AI innovation and investment have exploded. Meanwhile, governments and researchers are urgently seeking ways to combat the accelerating challenge of global climate change.

With its focus on “harnessing AI for the benefit of all”, leading thinkers from Mila (a Quebec-based AI research center) will engage with Silicon Valley practitioners to delve into the current challenges and opportunities for deploying AI to solve climate change.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL | DONATE