Hildebrand Graduate Research Showcase
December 7, 2021 | 12:30 - 2 p.m. | Online
Speakers: Caylee Hong, Sophie Major
Learn about the research Canadian Studies funds through our Edward Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowships, as recipients present short overviews of their projects.
"Orphaned Wells: The Impact of Corporate Bankruptcy on Energy Infrastructures and Municipal Futures"
Caylee Hong, Ph.D. can., Anthropology
Mass bankruptcies of energy companies have orphaned thousands of oil and gas wells across Canada and the United States in recent years. Without solvent owners to plug and decommission them, such wells pose serious environmental, financial, and health and safety concerns, especially in urban areas. Caylee examines the ways that cities and their residents grapple with these oil and gas wells in their midst. In this talk, Caylee will draw upon her comparative research from several diverse urban environments in British Columbia, Alberta, and California.
"Engaging with Indigenous Political Theory From British Columbia"
Sophie Major, Ph.D. can., Energy & Resources Group
Sophie's research examines the marginalization of Indigenous people and Indigenous knowledge in political theory discourses and asks if and how political theorists ought to engage with Indigenous political thought. Incorporating original ethnographic work with First Nations peoples in British Columbia, Canada, Sophie's dissertation introduces a number of case studies, illustrating the strengths of an ethnographic, historicist, genealogical, and interpretive approach to the study of Indigenous political theory.
Studying Religious Symbols and Bias in Court Proceedings
November 9, 2021 | 12:30 - 2 p.m. | 223 Moses Hall
Speaker: Nicholas A. R. Fraser
Canadian Studies Sproul Fellow Nicholas A. R. Fraser will discuss some of his own research that examines bias within Canadian judicial procedures against religious minorities. Using his own experimental data, Dr. Fraser will use the example of courtroom oaths as a window into how Canadian cultural expectations can subtly affect an immigrant's experience of "integration."
Book Talk: Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism: Immigration Bureaucrats and Policymaking in Postwar Canada
October 12, 2021 | 12:30 - 2 p.m. | Online
Speaker: Jennifer Elrick
In the 1950s and 1960s, immigration bureaucrats played an important yet unacknowledged role in transforming Canada's immigration policy. Their perceptions and judgements about the admissibility of individuals influenced the creation of formal admissions criteria for skilled workers and family immigrants that continue to shape immigration to Canada. Bureaucrats emphasized not just economic utility, but also middle-class traits and values such as wealth accumulation, educational attainment, entrepreneurial spirit, resourcefulness and a strong work ethic. By making "middle-class multiculturalism" a basis of nation-building in Canada, they created a much-admired approach to managing racial diversity that has nevertheless generated significant social inequalities. Migration expert Jennifer Elrick will discuss insights from her forthcoming book examining the topic.
Jennifer Elrick is an assistant professor of sociology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Her research interests lie in the area of state classifications (in censuses and immigration policy) and their relationship to social stratification along the lines of race, gender, and social class. Her work is multi-national in scope, focusing on Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Canadian Family Thanksgiving
October 9, 2021 | 5 - 8 p.m. | Alumni House
Canadian Studies is pleased to announce that our annual Canadian Family Thanksgiving will be happening as scheduled this October! Join us and our partners at the Digital Moose Lounge for a special meal celebrating the Bay Area's Canadian community as we meet together for the first time since the pandemic. Mingle with your fellow SF Bay Canadians while enjoying entertainment and a delicious boxed turkey dinner. The dinner will take place outdoors and will observe all relevant public health measures.
Tickets may be purchased through the Digital Moose Lounge.
We're also looking for volunteers to help staff the event. A limited number of half-priced tickets are available to volunteers; please contact us for more information.
Elections Matter: The Politics of Coronavirus in Canada and the United States
September 14, 2021 | 12:30 - 2 p.m. | Online
Speaker: Daniel Béland
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have wide-ranging consequences on North American politics. The effect of the pandemic on Joe Biden's 2020 win remains debated; meanwhile, Justin Trudeau hopes to use the belated success of his vaccine procurement strategy to win his party a parliamentary majority at the September 20 federal elections. How has COVID-19 shaped electoral politics in Canada and the United States as it relates to crucial recent and ongoing policy choices? Political scientist Daniel Béland will address this question while discussing the potential political and policy consequences of the upcoming Canadian elections.
Daniel Béland is James McGill Professor of Political Science at McGill University and director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. His research focuses on public policy, political sociology, and federalism and territorial politics.
Psychedelics, Eh? Canada's Role in a Psychedelic Renaissance
April 27, 2021 | 12:30 - 2 p.m. | Online
Speaker: Erika Dyck
In the 1950's, the Canadian province of Saskatchewan was on the cutting edge of research into hallucinogenic drugs. Under the province's massive healthcare reforms, researchers received grants to pursue LSD treatments they thought could revolutionize psychiatry. What do these experiments say about Canada's healthcare system and society at the time? And what can we learn from the program's successes and failures at a time when psychedelics are attracting renewed scientific and public interest?
Erika Dyck is the Canada Research Chair in the History of Health & Social Justice at the University of Saskatchewan. She specializes in the history of psychiatry, and has written several books on the history of psychedelic research and eugenics in Canada. She is the author of "Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD from Clinic to Campus" (Johns Hopkins University Press), which covers the complex history of LSD in North America.
The Canadian Healthcare System: A Model for the US?
April 6, 2021 | 12:30 - 2 p.m. | Online
Speakers: Gregory Marchildon, Amanda Aronczyk, Daniel Béland
Most Canadians are proud of their national healthcare system, widely considered one of the best in the world. But when it comes to US healthcare reform, the Canadian example is much more divisive. A growing number of Americans view Canada as a model for a potential US single-payer system. However, for many others a "Canadian" system conjures images of long waits and rationing. Join Canadian Studies for a special panel exploring how Canada's healthcare system really works, and why its perception in the US is so polarized.
Gregory Marchildon is a professor of comparative healthcare at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He specializes in Canada's healthcare system and has written extensively on comparative policy.
Amanda Aronczyk is a journalist and co-host of the NPR show Planet Money. Her 2020 episode "Frame Canada" investigated the US insurance lobby's long-running PR campaign to block major healthcare reform by discrediting Canada's healthcare system.
Daniel Béland is the director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and James McGill Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. He studies social policy and health care reform, and their relationship to fiscal policy.
Film Talk on The Blinding Sea
March 9, 2021 | 12:30 - 2 p.m. | Online
Speaker: George Tombs
Filmmaker George Tombs will discuss his 2020 documentary The Blinding Sea. The film chronicles the life of Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928), the first person to lead a successful expedition through the Northwest Passage. It evokes the joys, sorrows, relationships, and missed opportunities in the life of Amundsen, who disappeared mysteriously without trace during a polar flight in 1928. The film places a special focus on Amundsen's relations with the Indigenous people he encountered on his voyages, particularly the Inuit. The documentary will be available online to registered participants beginning March 2. We request that all participants watch the film prior to joining the director's talk on March 9.
George Tombs is an award-winning author and filmmaker based in Montreal, who works in both English and French. He is currently writing a biography of Roald Amundsen. His past works include Robber Baron, a biography of controversial media tycoon Conrad Black, and his recent humorous novel Mind the Gap.
Social Diversity, Partisan Identities and the 2019 Canadian Election
February 2, 2021 | 12:30 - 2 p.m. | Online
Speaker: Allison Harell
In this talk, political scientist Allison Harell draws on the 2019 Canadian Election Study to explore the ways in which intergroup dynamics structure vote choice in Canada. She focuses in particular on how partisan identities and political preferences are anchored in key social cleavages in Canada that structured the way in which the 2019 election campaign played out.
Allison Harell holds the UQAM Research Chair in the Political Psychology of Social Solidarity in the Department of Political Science at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She is interested in how social diversity affects the political world, especially the ways in which prejudice influences public opinion formation. Drawing primarily on large-scale survey experimental research, Harell has analyzed many aspects of attitudes held about and by groups in industrialized democracies, and their effects on policy attitudes and political behaviour. She has been the principal and co-investigator on a number of large comparative studies (including the Canadian Election Study, the Comparative Youth Study, the Race, Gender and the Welfare State Survey and the Comparative Rights Survey) and has been at the forefront of developing experimental online protocols in Canada to measure the effect of group cues on public policy attitudes. Her current research focuses on how intergroup relations influence support for both economic and political solidarity, as well as how intergroup perceptions spill over into electoral politics.
Harell currently co-directs the Consortium on Electoral Democracy. She also founded the Public Opinion and Political Communication Lab at the Université du Québec à Montréal and is associate director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship.