Canadian Studies Announcements

In this issue:

“It Was One of My Most Interesting Experiences at Cal”

Catching Up With 2017 Ross Prize Winner Evan Walsh

Evan Walsh is a Class of 2018 Berkeley graduate. A dual US-Canadian citizen, he received his B.A. in economics, with a minor in public policy. In 2017, Evan won the Rita Ross Undergraduate Prize in Canadian Studies for his research paper comparing housing policy in Vancouver and the San Francisco Bay Area. Evan currently works at a large tech company in the South Bay.

Canadian Studies asked current Hildebrand Fellow Desirée Valadares to check in with Evan, and find out how Canadian Studies had impacted his career, both at Berkeley and after graduation. Read her full interview with Evan here.

How did the Ross Prize support your educational or career goals?

The Ross Prize helped me pursue my interest in public policy on both sides of the border. My research project explored potential policy solutions to Vancouver’s housing crisis. (As someone who’s lived in both Vancouver and the Bay Area, I guess I like to live in unaffordable places!) I particularly enjoyed exploring how the Canadian policy response intersected and differed from the response to the crisis in the Bay. More importantly, it was very affirming to know there is a community on campus interested in this work!

What was your favorite experience with Canadian Studies?

Definitely meeting Canadian Green Party leader Elizabeth May! Having lunch with a party leader was something I never thought I would experience. Being able to meet a policymaker and hear her thoughts on current events was certainly beneficial for all the public policy courses and projects I was working on. It still stands out as one of the most interesting experiences I had at Cal.

What is the role of Canadian Studies in an American university?

Canadian Studies creates a really important community that connects a lot of different areas. After all, as someone who has lived in both Canada and the US, both countries are intricately tied together in just about every way. Many Canadians study in the US, and many Americans study in Canada. So as the program evolves, I hope it can continue to facilitate cross-border learning on topics important to both countries.

How has your time at Berkeley influenced your career since graduating?

I’ve been working in tech for the last year in the Bay Area. Cal is still playing a big role in my career; namely, it opens up doors about everywhere. Being able to take courses from leaders in so many different fields has also helped be aware of the many of the different paths I can go down, especially this early in my career.

CANADIAN NEWS

Canada-US Border Closure Extended Until September 21

The Government of Canada has announced an agreement with the United States to extend restrictions on non-essential travel between the two countries until September 21. The restrictions aim to combat the spread of COVID-19 in Canada, and the extension comes as the U.S. continues to suffer from high rates of new coronavirus cases, and faces an increase in the percentage of deaths attributed to the virus. Under the agreement, Canadian and American residents currently will continue to be allowed to return to their respective home country.

UPCOMING EVENTS

No Safe Country for Refugees? The Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement Before the Canadian Courts

Panel | September 1 | 12:30 PM | Online – RSVP required

Until recently, certain asylum claimants who entered Canada were routinely returned to the United States under the the Safe Third County Agreement. However, in July Canada’s Federal Court ordered the agreement suspended, asserting that the US is “not safe” for refugees due to the risk of imprisonment and other basic rights violations. Audrey Macklin, an expert in human rights law at the University of Toronto, joins Berkeley Law professor Leti Volpp to unpack the ruling and what it means for migrants and US-Canada relations. The conversation will be moderated by immigration scholar and Canadian Studies director Irene Bloemraad.

Please RSVP at canada@berkeley.edu to receive a webcast link.

New Security Policy for Digital Events: All Participants Must Sign In

To ensure the security of university-hosted meetings, UC Berkeley recently implemented new security measures for digital events. The most important change is as of August 15, all participants are required to sign into a Zoom account prior to joining meetings hosted by UC Berkeley. UC Berkeley affiliates can use their CalNet ID’s to sign in to Zoom. Participants who are not eligible for a UC Berkeley-provided Zoom account can create a free, consumer Zoom account or can dial in via phone.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Moses Hall #2308

WEBSITE | EMAIL

Fall 2020 Events Calendar

Canadian Studies is pleased to bring you our events schedule for the Fall 2020 semester. Due to ongoing health and safety concerns, all events will be held virtually via Zoom conferencing through at least December. Please note that a new campus security policy require all participants to have a Zoom account to join meetings; more information on this change can be found at the end. All times posted are Pacific.

No Safe Country for Refugees? The Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement Before the Canadian Courts

Panel | September 1 | 12:30 PM | Online – RSVP required

Until recently, certain asylum claimants who entered Canada were routinely returned to the United States under the the Safe Third County Agreement. However, in July Canada’s Federal Court ordered the agreement suspended, asserting that the US is “not safe” for refugees due to the risk of imprisonment and other basic rights violations. Audrey Macklin, an expert in human rights law at the University of Toronto, joins Berkeley Law professor Leti Volpp to unpack the ruling and what it means for migrants and US-Canada relations in a conversation moderated by immigration scholar and Canadian Studies director Irene Bloemraad.

Return: On Blackness and Belonging in North America

Lecture | September 15 | 12:30 p.m. | Online – RSVP required

McGill University professor Debra Thompson, an expert on race and ethnic politics, will explore the complex experience of Black people in North America, juxtaposing her deep, ancestral links to the United States with a parallel but at times competing national affinity with the land to which many enslaved Black Americans once fled: Canada. Thompson uses personal narrative to explore the boundaries of racial belonging; to identify key facets of Canadian ideas about race and racism, including the intersection of racial formations and settler colonialism; to analyze the transnational nuances and contours of the African diaspora in North America; and ultimately, to think through what it means to be in a place, but not be of that place.

Social Movements and Legal Mobilisation in Times of Crisis: Migrant Farm Worker Rights in Canada

Lecture | October 6 | 12:30 p.m. | Online – RSVP required

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected migrant farm workers. Former Hildebrand Fellow Vasanthi Venkatesh, a professor of law at the University of Windsor specializing in social movements and immigration, gives context to the crisis by showing how the pandemic has overlaid itself onto existing systemic racial discrimination against migrant farm workers embedded in law and policy. She also shows how migrant farm worker advocates have responded to the crisis by exposing the racial capitalism of the Canadian agricultural economy, using radical narratives to challenge these systems.

Virtual Canadian Family Thanksgiving

Event | October, date TBD | Online

While we can’t meet in person this year, Canadian Studies and the Digital Moose Lounge are working hard to offer you a way to celebrate the holiday with the Canadian community in the Bay Area (and beyond!) Stay turned for updates.

Hildebrand Graduate Research Colloquium

Colloquium | October 20 | 12:30 p.m. | Online – RSVP required

Learn about the research Canadian Studies funds through our Edward Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowships, as recipients present short overviews of their projects. Participating scholars are Desirée Valadares, (“Idling No More: Reading Japanese Canadian World War II Road Camps Alongside Specters of Indigeneity on the Hope-Princeton Highway in British Columbia, Canada”) and Martha Herrera-Lasso Gonzalez (“Regionalizing NAFTA: Theaters of Translation in Mexico City and Quebec”).

What the US Election Means for US-Canada Relations

Round table | November 10 or 17 | Online – RSVP required

What will the results of the 2020 United States presidential election mean for the future of US-Canada relations? This special colloquium will consider the outcomes of the US elections for bilateral relations and their impact on Canada. Participants will include Frédérick Gagnon, a professor of political science at the Université du Québec à Montréal and a past Fulbright Chair and Sproul Fellow in the Canadian Studies Program.

New Security Policy for Digital Events: All Participants Must Sign In

To ensure the security of university-hosted meetings, UC Berkeley recently implemented new security measures for digital events. The most important change is that starting August 15, all participants will be required to sign into a Zoom account prior to joining meetings hosted by UC Berkeley. UC Berkeley affiliates can use their CalNet ID’s to sign in to Zoom. Participants who are not eligible for a UC Berkeley-provided Zoom account can create a free, consumer Zoom account or can dial in via phone.

AFFILIATE EVENTS

Community Q&A: Facing Border Closure Together to Flatten the Curve

Forum | August 12 | 4:00 p.m. PT | Online – RSVP required

Please join the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco and the Digital Moose Lounge for an important conversation about the continued extension of the US/Canada border closure. This is an open format community discussion and an opportunity for you to have your questions answered by experts. The panel will consist of Consul General Rana Sarkar; Senior Consular Officer Marni Kellison; and Pavan Dhillon, an immigration attorney and board member at Berkeley’s Canadian Studies Program.

E-mail wade.wallerstein@international.gc.ca to RSVP.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Moses Hall #2308 WEBSITE | EMAIL

Canadian Studies Announcements

In this issue:

“Canadian Studies was a major draw for why I came to Berkeley”:

Catching Up With 2016 Hildebrand Fellow Julia Lewandoski

Dr. Julia Lewandoski is a historian of early North America, who received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2019. She completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard and her M.A. at McGill University. While working on her dissertation at Berkeley, she received a Hildebrand Fellowship to fund her research into Indigenous property ownership in Lower Canada. Dr. Lewandoski was recently accepted as a tenure-track faculty member at California State University San Marcos, where she will begin this fall. She is also currently working on a book project that explores how small Indigenous nations across North America exploited imperial transitions to defend land as property in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Hildebrand Fellow Desirée Valadares sat down with Dr. Lewandoski to find out how Canadian Studies and the Hildebrand Fellowship supported her during her studies at Berkeley, and how her research experience has shaped her career since. Highlights from the interview are below: read our full interview with Dr. Lewandoski here.

What are your research interests? How do they intersect with Canadian Studies?

My research focuses on small Indigenous communities who used land ownership to survive colonialism and keep their communities together outside of the treaty system in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I knew I wanted to tell a story that wasn’t just about U.S. history, but about settler colonial processes across the North American continent. Bringing in a Canadian piece helped me get away from the nation-state centric frame of U.S. history, and to reflect on how imperial processes have impacted Indigenous communities similarly and differently in the U.S. and Canada. I’ve also been influenced by exposure to Canadian scholarship in history, which tends to focus more on settler colonialism and historical geography, as well as Indigenous studies, where so many of the major thinkers are at Canadian universities!

How did you discover Canadian Studies, and why did you join?

I was worried about leaving Montreal and losing my connection to the Québec history that I had really grown to treasure at McGill. Would anyone in California know or care about Québec history? Knowing that Canadian Studies was here made me feel confident that I could keep my connection to Canadian scholarship and keep doing research in Québec. It was actually a major draw in deciding to come to Berkeley! I also appreciated the way that Canadian Studies works hard to integrate graduate students by giving us opportunities to share our research and practice presenting our work in a supportive environment.

How did the Hildebrand Fellowship support your research?

My project would not have been possible without the support of the Hildebrand Fellowship. I spent several summers and quite a few winter months in Québec. I photographed a lot of historic maps in Québec City, and in Montreal and Trois-Rivières I sorted through thousands of property documents. I was able to visit with Abenaki community leaders and historians at Odanak, and get a better sense of how historic property ownership informs the legal battles they are undertaking today as they defend and reclaim territory in southeastern Québec. I did quite a bit of driving around and exploring the landscape, which turned out to be really important in terms of understanding what pieces of land were claimed, owned, and fought for. I also sampled a lot of poutines!

What do you see as the future of Canadian studies?

Canadian scholarship is leading the way right now in multiple important fields, especially Indigenous studies, and energy, climate change, and environment. Scholars who study the U.S. in the U.S., can always have their perspective enriched and enlarged by considering Canadian scholarship on really any issue… Beyond content, I think the Canadian academic system encourages a more collaborative model in the humanities and social sciences. Something I’d love to see spread more widely is a more collaborative and less competitive approach to academia.

UPCOMING AFFILIATE EVENTS

Pandemic Immigration Consternation for the United States and Canada

Panel | August 5 | 2:30 PM ET / 11:30 AM PT | Online – RSVP required

The Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars invites you to join them for a virtual panel discussion among experts to consider the implications of recent COVID-related travel restrictions between the US and Canada. In response to COVID-19, both nations have reassessed the risks of cross-border migration. In March, the United States suspended visa processing at US embassies and consulates around the world. In June, the US announced it was suspending H-1B visas, H-2B visas, L visas, and certain J visas through Dec. 31. Then on July 22, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canada’s asylum agreement with the United States, known as the Safe Third Country Agreement, violated the Canadian Constitution, and gave Ottawa six months to address the issue before the court orders the agreement invalid on January 22, 2021. How will these changes affect business, families, and individuals? And how might these challenges be resolved in coming months?

Panelists will include Theresa Brown, Director of Immigration and Cross-Border Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center; Meena Rafie, managing attorney at Erickson Immigration Group; and Richard Sanders, a global fellow at the Canada Institute. The panel will be moderated by Christopher Sands, director of the Canada Institute and board member at the Canadian Studies Program at UC Berkeley.

RSVP and view the webcast here. Please email questions for the Q&A session to canada@wilsoncenter.org.

Community Q&A: Facing Border Closure Together to Flatten the Curve

Forum | August 12 | 4:00 p.m. PT | Online – RSVP required

Please join the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco and the Digital Moose Lounge for an important conversation about the continued extension of the US/Canada border closure. This is an open format community discussion and an opportunity for you to have your questions answered by experts. The panel will consist of Consul General Rana Sarkar; Senior Consular Officer Marni Kellison; and Pavan Dhillon, an immigration attorney and board member at Berkeley’s Canadian Studies Program.

E-mail wade.wallerstein@international.gc.ca to RSVP.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Moses Hall #2308 WEBSITE | EMAIL

Canadian Studies Announcements

In this issue:

New Hildebrand Fellow, Mindy Price, Studies the

Intersection of Agriculture and Indigenous Rights

Canadian Studies is pleased to welcome the latest recipient of the Edward Hildebrand Fellowship, Mindy Price. Mindy is a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. An environmental sociologist and political ecologist, her research focuses on indigenous food sovereignty and the effects of climate change on agriculture in the far north. Mindy received her B.A. in sociology from Emory University, and her Master of Public Health in global health practice from the University of South Florida.

Mindy’s project will examine recent government agricultural initiatives in the Northwest Territories through the context of Indigenous sovereignty. As climate change and economic shifts increased the attractiveness of farming in the far north, pressure is increasing to settle over 300,000 acres of disputed Indigenous land claims and open these areas to farming. Do these forces represent a threat to Indigenous land sovereignty, and their traditional methods of resource management? What are the benefits and drawbacks these projects present for Indigenous communities and other residents of the Northwest Territories? Mindy plans to conduct interviews and field research in Yellowknife, Hay River, and the Mackenzie River delta to find answers to these questions.

Affiliate Event Tomorrow: Canada at the United Nations, What Next? A Conversation with Canada’s New Ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae

July 21 | 10:00 a.m. PT | Conference call

The Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars will host a discussion tomorrow with Canada’s next Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the Honourable Bob Rae.

Recently, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s four-year campaign effort to secure a rotating seat on the UN Security Council ended in defeat in June. Following Canada’s failure to secure a seat on the agency’s decision-making body, questions arose about whether the vote would alter Canada’s contribution to the UN. Ambassador Rae will highlight Canada’s contribution to the United Nations, and present his vision to further engage international partners and promote the Canadian values of peace, freedom, democracy, and human rights in a time of global uncertainty. The conversation will be moderated by Canada Institute director Dr. Christopher Sands, who is also a board member of Berkeley’s Canadian Studies Program.

To RSVP for this event and view call-in numbers, please click here.

Last Chance to Watch Canadian Films at the Seattle International Film Festival

Streaming through Wednesday, July 23

Two recent films from award-winning Canadian directors will end their virtual run this Wednesday, July 23. The films are being screened by the Seattle International Film Festival, in cooperation with the University of Washington’s Canadian Studies Center, and showcase the talent of two contemporary Canadian filmmakers. Watch them both online here.

And the Birds Rained Down (2019)

Louise Archambault (Québec)

127 minutes; French with English subtitles.

Three elderly hermits live deep in the woods, cut off from the rest of the world. While wildfires threaten the region, their quiet life is about to be shaken by the arrival of two women in this gentle, elegiac study of intertwined lives.

One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (2019)

Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit Nunangat)

111 minutes; Inuktitut with English subtitles.

In 1961, Noah Piugattuck and his band of nomadic Inuit hunters are approached by a brutish white man known as “Boss” who pressures them to abandon their traditional way of life and move into settlement housing.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Moses Hall #2308 WEBSITE | EMAIL