In This Issue:

Upcoming Events

• Panel: “Constructing Canadian Identity from Abroad”

Program News

• Last chance to get your 2022 remembrance poppy!
• UC Berkeley, University of Toronto, and University of British Columba lead global sustainability rankings
• Faculty affiliate Hidetaka Hirota delivers talk on 19th-Century Japanese immigration at University of Toronto

Research Opportunities

• University of Waterloo postdoctoral funding opportunities
• Applications open for Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholarship

External Events

• “Home Away From Home: Reflections on the Canadian Expat Experience”

UPCOMING EVENTS

Panel: “Constructing Canadian Identity from Abroad”

Wednesday, November 9 | 2:30 pm PT | 223 Moses | RSVP here

Celebrate 40 years of Canadian Studies at Berkeley with a lively discussion on how Canadian expatriates think about their home country, and contribute to Canada’s perception of itself. The conversation will feature contributors to the recently-published book The Construction of Canadian Identity from Abroad, a collection of essays that explores the topic from both a theoretical and personal perspective.

The panel will be moderated by the volume’s co-editor, Christopher Kirkey, director of the Center for the Study of Canada and Institute on Québec Studies at the SUNY Plattsburgh. Panelists will include Berkeley Canadian Studies Program director Irene Bloemraad; volume co-editor Richard Nimijean, Undergraduate Supervisor of Canadian Studies at Carleton University; Julie Burelle, an expert on Indigenous, Quebec, and performance studies at UC San Diego. Also joining the panel will be Berkeley Canadian Studies Advisory Board chair David Stewart, who recently published his own memoir (see below).

Please note that this event takes place later than our normal Colloquium time.

PROGRAM NEWS

Last Chance to Get Your 2022 Remembrance Poppy!

Don’t forget to get your official Remembrance Day poppy before Friday! Dating back to the First World War, the National Poppy Campaign honours Canada’s war veterans, and commemorates those who fell. Canadian Studies is proud to partner with Royal Canadian Legion, US Branch #25 to serve as the official distributor of remembrance poppies for the Berkeley community.

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 through the Legion National Foundation.

UC Berkeley, University of Toronto, and University of British Columbia lead global sustainability rankings

A new report has rated UC Berkeley and two Canadian universities as the most sustainable of 700 global institutions of higher education surveyed. The report, published by QS World University Rankings, is the first of its kind for the well-established British publication, and evaluated institutions on social and environmental sustainability performance. Berkeley received the number one spot, with a perfect score of 100 in both social impact and environmental impact rankings. It was followed closely by the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, which ranked overall #2 and #3.

Faculty Affiliate Hidetaka Hirota Delivers Talk on 19th-Century Japanese Immigration at University of Toronto

Canadian Studies faculty affiliate Hidetaka Hirota, an associate professor of history at UC Berkeley, travelled to Canada recently to deliver a lecture on his research at the University of Toronto. The lecture, titled “The Transnational Business, Racial Politics, and Diplomacy of Japanese Border Crossing in North America“, was sponsored by the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies. Drawing from his current book project that examines the tensions between nativism and demand for foreign labor in the United States, his presentation explored the social, legal, and diplomatic contexts in which Japanese migration to North America was contested at the turn of the twentieth century.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

University of Waterloo Postdoctoral Funding Opportunities

Application deadline: December 1, 2022

The University of Waterloo is accepting applications for its 2023 postdoctoral funding competition. Postdoctoral scholars at the University of Waterloo are a vital component in supporting the overall intellectual strength of the institution. They play an active role in planning for and carrying out Waterloo’s research programs, build alliances and intellectual bridges to other institutions and provide mentorship to our students. In return, Waterloo offers postdoctoral scholars a supportive infrastructure and mechanisms for advancing their goals. Opportunities are available in the following programs:

• Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars
• Provost’s Program for Black and Indigenous Postdoctoral Scholars
• AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship

Applicants are encouraged to review the eligibility criteria for these programs before submitting their application. Applicants may only apply to one of the three funding opportunities and must have endorsement from a University of Waterloo faculty member prior to applying. To learn more about the competition and apply, click here.

Application deadline: December 2, 2022

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation aims to empower scholars to have meaningful impact in their institutions and communities. This three-year leadership program is designed to train engaged leaders, equipping individuals with the skills to translate their ideas into action, for the betterment of their communities, Canada, and the world. Scholars are selected each year and receive leadership training in the context of Brave Spaces, in addition to generous funding for their studies. Foundation Scholars receive:

• Up to $40,000 per year for three years to cover tuition and reasonable living expenses to focus on their doctoral studies and the Foundation’s leadership program
• Up to $20,000 per year for three years, for the learning of languages, for travel and accommodations for the Foundation’s leadership program and for research, networking, and travel related to their doctoral research
• Membership in a vibrant community of scholars, mentors, and fellows, all of whom are leaders in their respective disciplines and sectors
• Leadership training from mentors and fellows, including unique experiential learning opportunities that enrich and complement their academic experience
• Lifelong membership in the Foundation’s alumni network.

To apply to the Scholarship, you must meet the following eligibility criteria:

1. You must be already accepted into or in year one or two of a full-time doctoral program, and expected to complete your doctoral studies in 2026 or later.
2. Your field of study is broadly related to the humanities or human sciences of direct relevance to the future of Canada.
3. Your doctoral work must relate to at least one of the Foundation’s Four Themes: Human Rights and Dignity, Responsible Citizenship, Canada and the World, People and their Natural Environment.
4. Be a Canadian citizen studying at a Canadian or foreign institution, or a non-Canadian (permanent resident of Canada or foreign national) enrolled in a doctoral program at a Canadian institution.

To learn more about the program and apply, visit the Foundation’s website.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Home Away From Home: Reflections on the Canadian Expat Experience

Thursday, November 17 | 4:00 pm PT | Online | RSVP

Western Washington University will host our board chair, David Stewart, for a conversation on his new memoir, True North, Down South: Tales of a Professional Canadian in America. Using a Canadian émigré lens, the essay collection entertains and educates readers about immigrant and national identity, cultural misunderstandings, and belonging in the modern world.

David Stewart is a Bay Area-based consultant, helping Canadian tech clusters connect into the local ecosystem. He is a former “chairmoose” of the Digital Moose Lounge, an association of Canadians in Silicon Valley, and the advisory board chair of Canadian Studies at UC Berkeley. His essays have received awards in San Francisco’s Soul-Making Keats literary competition and have appeared in Potato Soup Journal, Bewildering Stories, and The Quiet Reader.

This event will be available via Zoom: to RSVP, click here. The talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Canadian-American Studies, the Institute for Global Engagement, and the Ray Wolpow Institute in partnership with the WWU Alumni Association.

In This Issue:

Upcoming Events

• Panel: “Constructing Canadian Identity from Abroad”

Program News

• Get your 2022 remembrance poppy

Canadian Culture

• Happy Halloween!

Research Opportunities

• Call for Papers: Context and Meaning XXII – Scandal

External Events

• Canadian films at the 47th American Indian Film Festival
• Remembrance Day service
• Sin La Habana at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival

UPCOMING EVENTS

Panel: “Constructing Canadian Identity from Abroad”

Wednesday, November 9 | 2:30 pm PT | 223 Moses | RSVP here

Celebrate 40 years of Canadian Studies at Berkeley with a lively discussion on how Canadian expatriates think about their home country, and contribute to Canada’s perception of itself. The conversation will feature contributors to the recently-published book The Construction of Canadian Identity from Abroad, a collection of essays that explores the topic from both a theoretical and personal perspective.

The panel will be moderated by the volume’s editor, Christopher Kirkey, director of the Center for the Study of Canada and Institute on Québec Studies at the SUNY Plattsburgh. Panelists will include Berkeley Canadian Studies Program director Irene Bloemraad; Richard Nimijean, Undergraduate Supervisor of Canadian Studies at Carleton University; Julie Burelle, an expert on Indigenous, Quebec, and performance studies at UC San Diego. Also joining the panel will be Berkeley Canadian Studies Advisory Board chair David Stewart, who recently published his own memoir (see below).

Please note that this event takes place later than our normal Colloquium time.

PROGRAM NEWS

Get Your 2022 Remembrance Poppy!

On October 28, the Royal Canadian Legion kicked off its 2022 National Poppy Campaign. Dating back to the First World War, the traditional red remembrance poppy honours Canada’s war veterans, and commemorates those who fell. Canadian Studies is proud to partner with Royal Canadian Legion, US Branch #25 to serve as an official distributor of remembrance poppies for the Berkeley community.

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 through the Legion National Foundation.

CANADIAN CULTURE

Happy Halloween! 

Today, children and adults across the United States and Canada will celebrate Halloween, a festive celebration of all things spooky. But while Halloween is often thought of as an “American” holiday, did you know that many of our most cherished holiday traditions may be more Canadian than you knew?

The celebration of Halloween originates in Scotland and Ireland. Scholars theorize that it has its roots in the ancient festival Samhain, which marked the start of winter. The ancient Celts believed that on that day, the boundaries between the worlds were thinnest, allowing fairies and spirits of the dead to enter our world and cause mischief. Some people left offerings of food to appease them, while others wore disguises to scare or fool evil ghosts. By the 16th century, these two traditions combined into “guising”, an early form of trick-or-treating in costume. (A similar Christmas tradition, mummering, is still celebrated in Newfoundland.) After the Christianization of Britain and Ireland, Samhain was likely assimilated into the Christian feast of All Hallow’s Eve, from which Halloween draws its modern name.

Irish and Scottish immigrants brought these traditions to North America in the 19th century, and by the early 1900s the celebration was well -established across Canada. Many staple Halloween customs were actually reported in Canada before the United States. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the wearing of Halloween costumes was first recorded in Vancouver in 1898, while the first recorded use of the term “trick or treat” was in Lethbridge, Alberta, in 1927. Even first recorded practice of trick-or-treating (then still called “guising”) in North America was reported in Kingston, Ontario in 1911.

But what about that Halloween icon, the Jack-o’-lantern? While myths abound about its origin, the practice of carving vegetable lanterns with grotesque faces began in Ireland or Scotland, perhaps to ward off evil spirits. However, in Europe, these lanterns were usually made from turnips or other root vegetables. Immigrants to the Americas, lacking these vegetables, turned instead to the native pumpkin – giving us today’s crookedly-smiling Jack-o’-lantern.

Image: Halloween ghost vector by pikisuperstar on Freepik.com

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Papers: Context and Meaning XXII – Scandal

Submission deadline: November 17, 2022

Conference Dates: February 2-4, 2023

The Graduate Visual Culture Association (GVCA) at Queen’s University is seeking submissions for a graduate research conference exploring the intersections of art and Scandal. Hosted by the Department of Art History and Art Conservation and the GVCA, this year’s hybrid conference will take place from Thursday, February 2nd to Saturday, February 4th, 2023.

This year’s conference engages broadly with the complex relationship between art and scandal. A scandal can be broadly defined as reactions, outrage, or shock, in response to people or events that are perceived to have deviated from socio-cultural norms. Scandals may be false, factual, or a combination of both. Sociologist and expert on scandal, Ari Adut, presents four main concepts associated with scandal: scandals are public events reliant on publicity; scandals have become so commonplace that it can be difficult to recognize them; artistic creativity is linked to scandal; and, scandals can provide opportunities for those who participate in them. While scandal is the revealing of wrongdoing, the act of covering them up can also itself be a scandal. Art world scandals may relate to methods of production, subject or style, contexts of display or lack thereof, and artistic personas, influenced by politics, society, religion, money, and morality.

If you are interested in participating in Context and Meaning XXII, please click here to submit an abstract of no more than 300 words with the title of your paper, and a 150-word bio. You will be prompted to indicate your preference to present either in-person or online. Presenters will be asked to deliver a 15-minute presentation that will be followed by a panel discussion period.

The deadline to submit an abstract will be Thursday, November 17th, 2022. In order to allow for the most applicants this is the last possible submission deadline. Thank you to all who apply!

EXTERNAL EVENTS

47th American Indian Film Festival (AIFF)

November 4-12 | San Francisco

The Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco is pleased to support the 47th annual American Indian Film Festival (AIFF), November 4-12, 2022 in San Francisco. Since its inception in 1975, the mission of AIFF has steadfastly been the cultural exchange – via the power of film – of Native American and Canada’s First Nations cultures. While the content is by, for and about Indigenous storytellers, AIFF remains a film festival for all audiences – from filmmakers whose intent is to inform, educate, enlighten and entertain all viewers.

The Festival features several films from First Nations filmmakers:

• Program 4 (Saturday, Nov. 5): Thrillers Shadow of the Rougarou and L’Inhumain
• Program 5 (Sunday, Nov. 6): Documentaries Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair, Interwoven, and Imalirijit
• Program 10 (Tuesday, Nov. 8): Sci-fi shorts N’xaxaitkw, MisTik, The Faraway Place, and The Golden Age

To view the full film schedule and purchase tickets, click here.

Remembrance Day Service

Saturday, November 5 | 11:00 am | Petaluma, CA | RSVP here

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. Guests are welcome at the cemetery. The service will also be streamed live and recorded through Zoom webinar. Please contact Michael Barbour at the Royal Canadian Legion if you plan to attend.

Sin La Habana at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival

Sunday, November 6 | 3:30 pm | San Francisco | Buy tickets

The Consulate General of Canada is supporting the screening of the Canadian narrative film, Sin La Habana on Saturday, November 6 at the Brava Theater in San Francisco, as part of the 13th annual San Francisco Dance Film Festival. The film tells the story of Leonardo, a classical dancer, and Sara, a lawyer, who are young, beautiful and in love. They’re also ambitious, but their dreams are trapped by Cuba’s closed borders. Their ticket to a brighter future lies with Nasim, an Iranian-born Canadian tourist with a taste for the exotic, but she has her own demons to face. Power, money, and creativity intertwine in a passionate love triangle with a hint of destiny, and cultures clash in a torrid dance between Quebec’s winter and Havana’s sultry Malecón.

For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.

In This Issue:

Program News

• Happy Thanksgiving to Canadians near and far!
• Photos from our 5th annual Canadian Thanksgiving dinner
• Former Hildebrand Fellow Aaron Gregory appointed professor at Cal Poly Humboldt

Upcoming Events:

• Book talk: Converging Empires: Citizens and Subjects in the North Pacific Borderlands, 1867–1945
• Graduate student discussion with Prof. Andrea Geiger

 Happy Thanksgiving to Canadians Near and Far! 

Dear friends,

On behalf of the Canadian Studies Program, it is my pleasure to wish you and your families a very happy Canadian Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a day to spend with those closest to you, and to appreciate the people and things that matter. This fall, Canadian Studies is celebrating our 40th anniversary at Berkeley. At this landmark moment, we’re more grateful than ever for the support our friends have shown for us over the last four decades. Whether you’ve been with us since the very beginning or are just joining us, your friendship and engagement are critical to sustaining and growing the program. We enjoyed seeing so many of you at our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner this weekend (see photos below).

I would like to also recognize that today is Indigenous Peoples Day in California, which celebrates Native American people, their cultures, and their history. The holiday originated in Berkeley in 1992, and last year President Biden recognized it for the first time nationally. I encourage our American readers, as well as Canadians resident in the US, to take some time to learn about the tribes in your area and the contributions that Native Americans have made, and continue to make, to the United States.

In friendship,

PROGRAM NEWS

Canadian Studies celebrated Thanksgiving with our Bay Area friends on Saturday at our 5th annual community Thanksgiving dinner. Together with our partners at the Digital Moose Lounge, we served a fantastic turkey dinner to one hundred local Canadians and friends of Canada from across the area, including consul general Rana Sarkar. A special raffle sent guests home with prizes ranging from hand-knit Inuit toques to free airline tickets courtesy of Air Canada. But the heart of the event was being able to connect with fellow Canadians and meeting friends new and old. We can’t wait for next year!

Left: Professor Bloemraad with Rana Sarkar, Consul General of Canada in San Francisco; David Stewart, chair of the Canadian Studies Advisory Board; and Sarah Price, Prime Moose, Digital Moose Lounge. Right: Dinner at Clark Kerr Campus.

Former Hildebrand Fellow Aaron Gregory Appointed Professor at Cal Poly Humboldt

Canadian Studies is proud to announce Aaron Gregory, a former Hildebrand Fellowship recipient, has been appointed assistant professor of Native American studies at Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly Humboldt State University), in northern California

Dr. Gregory received his Ph.D. from Berkeley last year in community and regional planning. His research is situated at the intersection of science & technology studies (STS), critical infrastructure studies, and political ecology as they relate to Indigenous histories, communities and contexts.

Dr. Gregory’s primary research interest is in Indigenous-led renewable energy projects, and he received a Hildebrand Fellowship in 2021 for research into one such effort on Vancouver Island. His previous fieldwork examined the role of technology in Indigenous land restitution projects. We wish him the best in his new position!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Book Talk: Converging Empires: Citizens and Subjects in the North Pacific Borderlands, 1867–1945

Wednesday, October 19 | 12:30 pm | 223 Moses | RSVP here

Andrea Geiger will discuss her new book, Converging Empires: Citizens and Subjects in the North Pacific Borderlands, 1867–1945 (University of North Carolina Press, 2022). Making a vital contribution to our understanding of North American borderlands history through its examination of the northernmost stretches of the U.S.-Canada border, the book highlights the role that the North Pacific borderlands played in the construction of race and citizenship on both sides of the international border from 1867, when the United States acquired Russia’s interests in Alaska, through the end of World War II. Imperial, national, provincial, territorial, reserve, and municipal borders worked together to create a dynamic legal landscape that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people negotiated in myriad ways as they traversed these borderlands. Adventurers, prospectors, laborers, and settlers from Europe, Canada, the United States, Latin America, and Asia made and remade themselves as they crossed from one jurisdiction to another.

Within this broader framework, Geiger pays particular attention to the ways in which Japanese migrants and the Indigenous people who had made this borderlands region their home for millennia negotiated the web of intersecting boundaries that emerged over time, charting the ways in which they infused these reconfigured national, provincial, and territorial spaces with new meanings. To see the North Pacific borderlands only as a remote outpost that marked the westernmost edges of the U.S. or British empire, is to miss not only the central place it occupied in the lives of the Indigenous peoples whose home it continues to be, but the extent to which it functioned, in the eyes of Japanese entrepreneurs, as an economic hinterland for an expanding Japanese empire, as well as the role it played in shaping wartime policy with regard to citizens and subjects of Japanese ancestry in both Canada and the United States.

Andrea Geiger is professor emerita of history at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests include transpacific and borderlands history, race, migration, and legal history. She received a J.D. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington, and is the author of the award-winning Subverting Exclusion: Transpacific Encounters with Race, Caste, and Borders, 1885–1928.

This event is co-sponsored by the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI), the Center for Race and Gender, and the Department of History.

UC Berkeley students with a research interest in Professor Geiger’s work are welcome to attend a small group discussion with the speaker following her public presentation. For more information, please email canada@berkeley.edu.