In This Issue:

Program News

• Get to know our new director, Dr. Richard A. Rhodes

News from Berkeley

• Cal alumna Camryn Rogers claims women’s hammer throw gold for Canada

Upcoming Events

• Canadian Studies Student Meet-and-Greet
• ACB-FGC: A Culturally Responsive Program to Support Black Families Involved with the Ontario Child Welfare System

Academic Opportunities

• Last Chance: ACSUS undergraduate research awards
• Call for Papers: Liminal Spaces: Two Days of Rural Canada

PROGRAM NEWS

Get to Know Our New Director, Dr. Richard A. Rhodes

Earlier this summer, the Canadian Studies Program faced a historic change in leadership when longtime director Irene Bloemraad stepped down after ten years of service. At such a pivotal time, we are grateful to rely on the steady, experienced leadership provided by our interim director, Dr. Richard A. Rhodes. A professor emeritus of linguistics, Rich has been a Canadian Studies affiliate almost since the program’s founding, and served as Irene’s co-director for several years. But even old friends may wonder what his connection to Canada is, and what sparked his initial interest in the program all those years ago.

Rich was born and raised outside of Philadelphia. He went to Michigan State as an undergraduate, then, after a stint in the US Army that included time in Vietnam, returned to the University of Michigan for grad school in 1971. While still a beginning grad student he was tasked with learning Ojibwe and starting a college-level language class in it, because, at the time, the University of Michigan was under political pressure to have such a class, but no professor wanted to do it. That lead to years of extensive fieldwork in southern Ontario, mostly on the Walpole Island Reserve (near Wallaceburg, ON), but also up and down the Blue Water region from Walpole to Sarnia, and on Manitoulin Island. Rich spent several summers at the University of Western Ontario (London, ON) and Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, ON) as an instructor in the provincial Native Language Instructor Program, teaching native-speaking elementary school teachers from across Ontario basic linguistics and Ojibwe (and Cree) grammar so that they can make better use of curricular resources for their classes.

In 1985, Rich published a dictionary encompassing two dialects of Ojibwe, Odawa and Eastern Ojibwe. After he finished his PhD in 1976 writing about Ojibwe grammar, he was invited to go spend a summer in North Dakota working on Michif, a Métis language that is half Plains Cree and half French. (While primarily spoken in Manitoba, in the 1970’s one of the strongholds of the Michif language was the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, ND.) Rich would go on to write many articles on the Michif language and is still a recognized authority. He has also done significant work on Sayula Popoluca, a small, endangered, Indigenous language of southern Mexico.

After finishing his PhD, Rich was hired back by the University of Michigan as a lecturer to continue the Ojibwe language class. (The real teacher in that class was the assistant, a native speaker originally from the Curve Lake First Nation Indian Reserve, near Peterborough, ON.) He was also tasked with teaching a course in the University of Michigan Program in American Cultures on Algonquian culture and folklore, past and present. In 1986, Rich was hired at Berkeley, and soon thereafter he began teaching a course in the Berkeley American Cultures program, drawing in part on the Michigan course. His Berkeley American Cultures course, which was taught more than 20 times over the span of 25 years, had significant Canadian content because of the central role the fur trade played to the history of Native North America.

Professionally, Rich was, until his retirement, active in the international Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, serving in leadership and as the president (2009-2011). Even in retirement, he continues his 50-year long participation in the Algonquian Conference, including having twice been the organizer of the annual meeting. He taught as a visiting professor in Austria several semesters over the course of his career and was twice a guest at the Max Planck Institute at Leipzig. In addition, between 1994-2004 he participated in the Project for the Documentation of the Languages of Mesoamerica.

At Berkeley, he was active in the Faculty Senate from 2007-2022, and served as a dean in the L&S Advising office from 2001 to 2022, with only brief breaks for sabbaticals.

His relevant external service includes having been an external reviewer for the Bachelor of Arts Program in Anishinaabemowin, at Algoma University (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) and having served as an expert witness in a Native land claims case.

NEWS FROM BERKELEY

UC Berkeley alumna Camryn Rogers ’22 made history last week with a first-place finish at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. As reported by the CBC, the Richmond, BC native is the first Canadian woman to win the world title in 20 years. Her victory also earned Canada its first-ever hammer-throw double, with fellow BC native Ethan Katzberg taking home the men’s gold.

The victory is just the latest triumph for the 24-year old athlete, who has risen to the top of her sport with the assistance of Cal track and field coach Mo Saatara. Rogers made headlines as a Berkeley student when she broke the collegiate women’s hammer throw record twice in one day. She also competed for Canada at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

In May, Rogers again broke records with a throw of 78.62 meters (257.94 ft), earning her the all-time Canadian record for women’s hammer toss and fifth place globally. A profile in the San Francisco Chronicle last January called Rogers “the best Bay Area athlete you’ve never heard of.”

Rogers has been no less energetic in her academic pursuits. The athlete is a double Cal alumna; in addition to her undergraduate degree, she completed work on a master’s in cultural studies in sports and education earlier this month. And with future plans to attend law school, perhaps she’ll make it a trifecta with a JD from Berkeley Law.

In the meantime, Rogers begins a job next month as a special education advocate. Now a professional athlete, she is currently looking for sponsors as she prepares for Paris 2024, when she’ll have her next chance at Olympic gold. We look forward to seeing what the future brings from this Berkeley Canadian champion!

Image: Christian Petersen/Getty Images for World Athletics, via CBC Sports

UPCOMING EVENTS

Canadian Studies Student Meet-and-Greet

Wed., Sept. 6 | 12:00-2:00 pm | Class of 1925 Courtyard | RSVP

The Canadian Studies Program invites you to kick off the fall semester with a back-to-school meet-and-greet for students! Get to know more about our program and meet fellow students while enjoying a complimentary lunch on us.

Please RSVP here if you plan to attend, so we can ensure we purchase enough food.

ACB-FGC: A Culturally Responsive Program to Support Black Families Involved with the Ontario Child Welfare System

Tues., Sept. 26 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

The disparate treatment of African American families in the American child welfare system is well documented, but researchers are only just beginning to examine the experiences of African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) Canadian families in Canada. In the province of Ontario, recent studies find that Black families are represented in the child welfare system at disproportionate rates. Experiences of Black youth, caregivers, and workers also highlight differential and punitive treatment within the system. These findings have given rise to the development of the African, Caribbean, Black Family Group Conferencing Project (ACB-FGC), a restorative, culturally responsive innovation to support Black families at risk of, or already engaged in, the child welfare system in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). In this presentation, Dr. Lance T. McCready, co-director of ACB-FGC, describes the community-based research that led to the development of the program and implications of ACB-FGC for provincial policies to address anti-Black racism in the child welfare system and among partner institutions.

Dr. Lance McCready is the lead researcher for the Making Spaces Lab, and an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He holds a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. and Ph.D. in education, all from UC Berkeley. He is the recipient of the 2017 Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize from the University of Toronto, and the 2018 Distinguished Research Scholar Award from the Ontario Education Research Symposium. Dr. McCready held a Sproul Fellowship with Canadian Studies at Berkeley in Spring 2023, where he worked on several projects related to the health and welfare of Black families, youth, and GBT/MSM individuals in Canada.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Last Chance: ACSUS Undergraduate Research Awards

Deadline: September 1, 2023

The Executive Committee of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) is seeking nominations for the following two awards. Both awards recognize outstanding, original undergraduate research that contributes to our knowledge of Canada. For more details and submission requirements, please click on the links below.

• The Jeanne Kissner Undergraduate Essay in Humanities Award
• The Martin Lubin Undergraduate Award in the Social Sciences

Call for Papers: Liminal Spaces: Two Days of Rural Canada

Deadline: September 15, 2023

The Centre for Canadian Studies at Brock University (St. Catharine’s, ON) invites paper submissions or panel proposals on the theme “Rural Canada.” When considering Canada, most people think of Canadian cities or the wonder of its vast wilderness. We often overlook, sometimes literally, rural Canada, those spaces in‐between. We fly over them and drive through them, but don’t often stop to consider what the people and the places contribute to Canada as a nation.

This conference will consider the world between the cities and the wilderness, those liminal spaces, and the people, culture, politics, and issues of concern within them. Scholars from a range of disciplines are invited to submit both individual papers and panel proposals; learn more here.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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In This Issue:

Program News

• Haikun Liu receives research grant to study “altruism” of Canada’s foreign aid
• Reminder: Check out our Fall course recommendations for Berkeley students!

Local News

• Canada sees opportunity in mass Bay Area tech layoffs

Academic Opportunities

• ACSUS undergraduate research awards

External Events

• Canadian Films at the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival

PROGRAM NEWS

Haikun Liu Receives Research Grant to Study “Altruism” of Canada’s Foreign Aid

Canadian Studies is pleased to announce that Haikun Liu has been awarded an undergraduate research fellowship to conduct fieldwork in Canada this August. His fellowship will expand upon his previous work, an empirical examination of the ‘altruism’ of Canadian Official Development Assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa, which was awarded the 2023 Ross Prize in Canadian Studies.

Haikun’s project seeks to supplement the “countercyclical donation” model he has developed with a rhetorical analysis of the language surrounding aid. His fellowship will support archival research in Ottawa, where he will consult official documents produced by the Canadian International Development Agency. Haikun will compare the use of altruistic language in these documents with the empirical outcomes of Canadian government aid allocation over the period of 2010 to 2020. By gaining a better understanding of the motivations behind foreign aid, Haikun’s research will seek to hold nations accountable to their apparent claims on the stage of international development.

Haikun is a senior at UC Berkeley, studying economics, data science, and politics. He is interested in economic development, economic history, and the role of foreign aid in developing countries. Prior to starting his undergraduate studies at Berkeley, Haikun attended high school in Toronto and developed a passion for economic development through his volunteer experiences. While at Berkeley, Haikun has gained research experience under professors Edward Miguel and Brad DeLong (both Dept. of Economics). He is currently the Anne H. Scott Memorial Scholar at the Institute of East Asian Studies, and has also served as a Fellow at the Institute of International Studies.

If you’re a student with room in your fall 2023 schedule, this is a reminder that Canadian Studies curates a list of courses with Canadian content each semester! Visit our website to learn more about this semester’s offerings – including a course on 20th-century Canadian songwriting, and another covering early interactions between Indigenous people and colonists in the St. Lawrence River Valley!

LOCAL NEWS

Canada Sees Opportunity in Mass Bay Area Tech Layoffs

It’s been a tense year for workers in the Bay Area’s tech sector. Over the course of the spring, companies slashed thousands of jobs as they adjusted to lower than expected post-pandemic growth. The mass layoffs affected not only perpetually volatile start-ups and troubled companies like Twitter, but even industry giants like Amazon, Alphabet (Google), and Meta (Facebook).

But bad news for Silicon Valley may be good news for Canadian employers. A recent article in the Mercury News highlights how Canadian officials see these layoffs as an opportunity to bolster Canada’s own tech sector. The Canadian government has long sought to attract Silicon Valley talent, and the new initiative is just the latest drive in recent years to recruit effort skilled immigrants with industry experience.

As in the past, the current campaign is largely aimed at immigrant workers caught in the complex US immigration system. Canada specifically targets holders of American H1-B visas, a temporary speciality work permit widely used in the tech sector. These immigrants are particularly vulnerable during layoffs, because their legal residency in the US is tied to their employment. If H1-B visa holders don’t find a new job within 60 days, they are forced to leave the country. For at least a decade, both the Canadian government and industry groups have run outreach billboards around San Francisco (see here and here) suggesting tech workers try Canada if they lose their US visas.

The Canadian government is accepting up to 10,000 applications for the new initiative, which grants a three-year open work permits to H1-B visa holders, as well as temporary residency for their families. Participants will be able to attain permanent residency after three years, and citizenship just a few years after that. Applications opened July 16, and have already attracted a surge of interest.

While Canada offers lower pay than the United States, some H1-B visa holders find the prospect of stability and guaranteed residency attractive after wrangling with the US immigration system. Restrictions on H1-B visas and spousal work permit were tightened during the Trump Administration, which argued that recruiting foreign workers stole jobs from Americans. And adult, noncitizen children of H1-B holders face an equally uncertain future and potential deportation from the United States under current laws.

Rana Sarkar, the Canadian consul general in San Francisco-Silicon Valley, says that he hopes that those recruited will be “catalysts” for the growth of Canada’s own tech sector and larger economy. H1-B workers, he says, are a “proven pool of talent”, who can serve as the “stem cells” of future industry growth in Canada. And indeed, the H1-B visa initiative is only one part of a multi-pronged recruitment effort. Canada will also offer opportunities to “digital nomads” who want to work remotely for American companies. And it plans to expand programs that offer residency and citizenship to entrepreneurs, as well as those who invest large sums of money in Canadian businesses.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

ACSUS Undergraduate Research Awards

Deadline: September 1, 2023

The Executive Committee of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) is seeking nominations for the following two awards. Both awards recognize outstanding, original undergraduate research that contributes to our knowledge of Canada. For more details and submission requirements, please click on the links below.

• The Jeanne Kissner Undergraduate Essay in Humanities Award
• The Martin Lubin Undergraduate Award in the Social Sciences

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Canadian Films at the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival

August 15-30 | San Jose, CA | Buy tickets

Several Canadian films will be show at this year’s Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival. A highlight will be the world premiere of Valley of Exile on August 19. This new drama by Canadian-Iranian-American director Anna Fahr follows two sisters who flee war-torn Syria for Lebanon. As they find themselves on different paths, they realize that their journey is a test of loyalty to their country, their family, and each other.

Other Canadian entries in the festival include Midnight at the Paradise, Star Wars Kid: The Rise of the Digital Shadows, Wintertide, and The Young Arsonists.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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