The Canada Program had a busy start to 2021, with several webinar series in the spring. One series focused on a wide variety of topics such as racial justice, Canada’s oil industry, citizenship revocation, asylum and resettlement processes, and nature-society interactions in the Anthropocene. Another series—Animals, Capital, and the Law—was a four-part exploration of animal rights. Finally, the Ecology of Economic Thought series convened more than thirty scholars who were tasked with discussing economics and environmental issues over the course of two months.
This fall, Vincent Chiao, associate professor of law at the University of Toronto, joins us as the 2021–2022 William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies. Professor Chiao chaired the recent Weatherhead Forum on “The Legacy of Residential Schools in Canada and the United States,” which delved into the atrocities committed against Indigenous populations in both countries. Professor Chiao’s own research focuses on criminal law and procedure, philosophy of punishment, and political philosophy. He is teaching courses this year through the Department of Philosophy and Harvard Law School.
Marlene Gaynair joins us as one of our two 2021–2022 William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellows. Her recent dissertation explored Jamaican diasporas in Canada and the United States, and her accompanying digital project, Islands in the North, is a historical and visual archive of Black Toronto—a digital map that challenges the “Great White North” narrative.
Katie Mazer returns as a 2021–2022 William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow. Professor Mazer’s work centers around natural resources, poverty, nationalism, and settler colonialism. This spring she will teach the undergraduate course, “The Politics of Land, Resources, and Colonialism in North America" through the Department of Government.
Finally, Francine McKenzie returns to the Canada Program this year as a visiting scholar. Professor McKenzie is an international historian at the University of Western Ontario whose work on diplomatic history is guided by her interest in how people, groups, and governments cooperate.
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Collage of Canada Program affiliates, clockwise from top left: Marlene Gaynair, Vincent Chiao, Francine McKenzie, Katie Mazer. Collage credit: Lauren McLaughlin