Research

The Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Vote in a More Tolerant Canada

Dr. Eric Guntermann and Dr. Edana Beauvais

Scholars have long been interested in the distinctive political preferences of different social groups. One of the most distinctive and understudied groups, particularly in Canada, is the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) community. Research on LGB people in Canada and elsewhere has found that they have political attitudes that are distinctively left-of-centre. The main mechanisms proposed to account for these distinct preferences are that LGB individuals share interests, they are influenced by the LGB community, and the people who are attracted to the same sex who also have left-wing attitudes are more likely to identify as LGB.

Students at Lord Strathcona Elementary School in Vancouver

The Three Tales of Chinatown: Why Racism Is Not Enough to Create a Race-based Coalition among Marginalized Groups

Dr. Jae Yeon Kim

In the post-World War II period, urban renewal projects threatened the existence of Chinatowns across the United States and Canada because these ethnic enclaves were founded and located near central business areas. Community activists mobilized and formed community-based organizations in the 1960s and 1970s to stop these projects and call for affordable housing. But despite the shared legacy of anti-Asian racism, these Chinatowns across the U.S. and Canadian border produced distinct movements.

The Architectural Residues of Second World War Internment Landscapes in British Columbia

Desirée Valadares

On April 1st 2017, the British Columbia Register of Historic Places recognized more than 56 sites, buildings, and landscapes as part of the Provincial Recognition Program’s Japanese-Canadian Historic Places Project. This cultural landscape is symbolic of the ways in which moral anxieties and civic ambiguities surface in times of war, and provide an enduring testimony to the conditions endured by “civilian enemy aliens” interned on the basis of their ethnic and racial identity.

Hildebrand Fellow Kimberly Huynh on Wetland Emissions and Climate Change

Kimberly Huynh

In Summer 2018, Kimberly received a Hildebrand Fellowship to support field research into greenhouse gas emissions from wetland areas near Vancouver, British Columbia. Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas, and wetlands are its largest natural source. Improving how scientists quantify and predict methane emissions from wetlands is important because of its implications on climate change.