Canadian Studies is please to introduce Lianne Koren as the recipient of an Edward E. Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowship for Summer-Fall 2024.
Lianne is a PhD student in History, with a designated emphasis on Jewish studies. Her current project looks at a history of the Canadian state through the lens of Jewish institutions. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Montreal's growing Jewish community organized its own educational and healthcare institutions under the confessional system then prevalent in Quebec. As the government expanded its role in public services over the 20th century, these institutions operated in dialogue with authorities increasingly involved in funding and regulating areas once exclusively overseen by religious bodies. Lianne's project asks what the trajectory of these institutions reveals about relations between the Jewish community and the government during the 20th century.
Lianne's Hildebrand Fellowship will allow her to conduct archival research in the two Jewish community archives in Montreal, as well as visit the national archives in Ottawa and the Archives nationales in Quebec City.
Lianne holds a BA in history and religious studies, and a master's in history from McGill University. Her previous research includes a study on a brief immigration program in the 1950s that allowed North African Jews to settle in Canada during a period of restrictive immigration policy, as a result of lobbying by Jewish organizations. Her research languages are English, French, and Hebrew.