Canada Program

Image of Naomi Klein

In 2017, the Canada Program is commemorating fifty years of Canadian Studies at Harvard, thanks to the William Lyon Mackenzie King Endowment. Since 1967, the program has hosted visiting Canadianist scholars in the social sciences and humanities, presented a distinguished speaker series on Canadian topics, and supported Harvard student dissertation and thesis research.

In the spring, the program held a number of events: a public lecture titled “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate,” with Canadian journalist and author Naomi Klein; a workshop called “Critical Indigenous STS: Technoscience & Transition in Native North America,” organized by the 2016–17 William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow Tom Özden-Schilling; and a faculty research conference called "Economic Issues Facing Indigenous People in Canada and the United States," organized by the 2016–17 WLMK Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies Krishna Pendakur. And in November, the program—along with the Mahindra Center for the Humanities—will co-host an event presenting Canadian author Michael Ondaatje, writer of the award-winning book The English Patient.

Eight Harvard students—representing the Law School, the T. H. Chan School of Public Health, the Graduate School of Design, and the College—are named Canada Research Fellows for the 2017–18 academic year. The Canada Program will be awarding over $60,000 in support to the students with research interests ranging from national identity in Canada to the socioecological impact of Canadian-owned mineral extraction sites located in indigenous territories around the world.

In the fall, the program will welcome the 2017–18 William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Charmaine Nelson, an art historian from McGill University. Nelson will be appointed through the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

Mireille Paquet, an assistant professor of political science at Concordia University, will join us as a 2017–18 William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow. Paquet studies public policies for immigrant selection and integration in Canada.

And Paul May, our 2016–17 William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow, will return in 2017–18, for a second year. May studies multiculturalism and the impact of immigration on Western democracies.

Photo Caption

Naomi Klein presented "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate" on April 19, as part of the Canada Program's fiftieth anniversary. Photo credit: Mike DeStefano