Interested in what is currently studied in Canada? Want to know more about key topics and under-explored realities? Join us for a monthly online seminar, starting in October 2025 until April 2026.
Topics Include:
- Black Canadian labour migration
- Disability arts and culture
- Environmental policy
- Immigration policy
- Trust and political leadership in Canada
And more to be announced.
WIHIC Events Calendar
Canada鈥檚 Democratic Trajectory in an Age of Uncertainty: What is the Future of Political Leadership?
A 'What is Happening in Canada?' Webinar
With Dr. Cristine de Clercy, Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership, Trent University
October 8, 2025 | 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Abstract
There is much evidence we are in a new era that challenges democratic leaders as never before. AI, foreign interference, political extremism, changing trade relationships and outdated institutional norms present a complicated context for citizens and their leaders. How can we adapt to this uncertain new reality? What tools and abilities do today鈥檚 decision-makers and 鈥 more importantly 鈥 the next generation of leaders need to ensure Canada successfully navigates such difficulties? How might the new Canadian Jarislowsky Network of Chairs in Trust and Political Leadership contribute key resources? Join us for a talk by Trent University鈥檚 Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership, Dr. Cristine de Clercy, about Canada鈥檚 democratic trajectory and the future of political leadership. This talk will be moderated by Dr. Heather Nicol, Director of the School for the 快播视频 of Canada and a Professor of Geography in the School of the Environment at Trent University.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Cristine de Clercy is Trent University's inaugural Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership and Professor of Political Studies. Her work focuses on how political leaders mobilize support in mass democracies, the role of character in leadership, and populism's effects on democratic leadership. Her most recent work is an edited thematic collection of new research about "Ethics, Democracy and Political Leadership" published by the Politics and Governance journal in August 2025, open access here:https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/issue/view/425.
Canada Twixt the US and Europe: Climate Policy Choices and the Way Forward
A "What is Happening in Canada?" Event
With Dr. Debora L. VanNijnatten, Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
Thursday November 6, 2025 | 1:00 - 2:00 pm EST
Abstract
This lecture will examine the current moment in Canadian climate policy-making as the country faces difficult choices enroute to meeting its Net Zero targets, in a more uncertain continental and global context. On the one hand, Canada must respond to the climate policy retrenchment of its closest trade partner, the United States, with whom its economic prosperity is entwined. On the other, Canada is seeking deeper economic and policy alignment with the European Union, long a climate policy leader. Further, these conflicting policy impulses - to be a climate policy leader vs. abandoning Net Zero targets as unrealistic and incompatible with Canada's economic well-being - are mirrored within Canada and especially across provincial administrations. In trying to navigate different alliances and conflicting policy impulses, how can Canada maintain course and continue to pursue greenhouse gas reductions? This talk will be moderated by Kevin Spooner, Director, Laurier Centre for the 快播视频 of Canada (LCSC).
Speaker Biography
Debora L. VanNijnatten is Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is the editor/author of 6 books and has published more than 50 articles and book chapters - all in the area of environmental policy and governance. She has been writing on Canadian climate policy for 20 years, both in terms of mitigation efforts and transboundary cooperation with the U.S. Her current research in this area focuses on 鈥楴et Zero鈥 as a scientific concept, policy instrument and political target, and actively interrogates the utility of Net Zero in reaching our climate goals in Canada, North America and Europe.
On Disability Arts & Culture
A 'What is Happening in Canada?" Event
With Dr. Emilia Nielsen, Associate Professor, Health & Society, 快播视频
Tuesday December 9, 2025 | 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
Disability arts and culture constitute a vibrant force in Canada with recent examples of this generativity emblematic of a commitment to make creative worlds for disability and disabled people鈥攊n the past, in the present and in the future. This presentation will be less of a lecture and more of an invitation to explore together the rich cultural landscape of disability arts and culture in Canada with specific attention paid to just a few of the great many artists, creators, and organizations at work today. It could be argued there is still much to do to reimagine the place of disability arts and culture within critical, interdisciplinary studies of Canada. As such, there are opportunities to envisage collaborative research projects that incorporate a critical disability studies framework when engaging with Canadian disability arts and culture.
This talk will be moderated by Jean Michel Montsion, Associate Professor in Canadian Studies at Glendon Campus (快播视频) and Director of the Robarts Centre.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Emilia Nielsen is an associate professor in the Health and Society program at 快播视频. She is the author of two critically noted collections of poetry, Body Work and Surge Narrows, and her scholarly book, Disrupting Breast Cancer Narratives: Stories of Rage and Repair (University of Toronto Press, 2019), received the Elli K枚ng盲s-Maranda Prize. Her most recent funded research explores experiential knowledge of chronic illness, hybrid forms of life-writing, and critical-creative approaches. She hosts and executive produces the podcast 鈥淥n Being Ill鈥: Conversations on Creativity, Disability and Identity with support from the .
100 Years of Labour Migration and Race in Atlantic Canada
A "What is Happening in Canada?" Event
With Dr. Claudine Bonner, Associate Professor, Mount Allison University
Wednesday, January 28, 2026 | 10:00 am - 11:00 am EST |
This paper examines migrant worker experiences in Atlantic Canada and situates them within Canada鈥檚 national temporary labour regime. Drawing on the 2024 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative鈥檚 report, Falling Short: Troubles with the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Nova Scotia, as well as on national scholarship on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, it argues that Atlantic Canada exemplifies dominant regulatory logics relative to migrant labour. Here, despite smaller scale and lower visibility, migrant workers face employer-tied permits, employer-controlled housing, restricted mobility, and limited access to healthcare. The paper contrasts contemporary experiences with that of Caribbean industrial migration to Nova Scotia in the 1920s, highlighting how settlement has been systematically foreclosed, especially to those in low-wage sectors.
This talk will be moderated by Krista Johnston, Associate Professor in Feminist & Gender Studies and Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Claudine Bonner (she/her) is the Canada Research Chair in Racial justice and African Diaspora migration in the Atlantic Region at Mount Allison University and an Associate Professor in Sociology. Her teaching focuses on issues of equity and racial justice. She served as the inaugural Vice Provost of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Acadia University. Her recent publication "" is a collection of essays co-edited with Drs. Nina Reid-Maroney and Boulou Ebanda de B b猫ri. This collection, spanning the period from the 1850s to the early twentieth century, is the first in the field to bring together original historical and Communication Studies research that position pioneering Canadian Black journalists as effective intellectual activists. Her current research explores post-Confederation Caribbean migration to Atlantic Canada.
The Politics of Academic Voice in Canadian Immigration Debates
A "What is Happening in Canada?" Event
With Dr. Jennifer Elrick, Associate Professor, Sociology, Research Chair in Multiculturalism, McGill University
Wednesday February 18, 2026 | 1:00 - 2:00 pm EST |
What role should scholars play in public debates on political issues? The history of sociological theory offers two diametrically opposed visions. One sees the scholar as a neutral figure who pursues knowledge for its own sake and refrains from engaging in debates about its practical or political implications. The other sees the scholar as fundamentally embedded in the unequal social worlds they study, making neutrality impossible and political activism a valid component of professional duties. This talk considers the challenges faced by scholars on both sides of this spectrum in the context of increasingly polarized debates about immigration in Canada. In doing so, it provides the academic 鈥渂ackstory鈥 to my forthcoming, co-authored book, Immigration and Canada: Sixteen Questions (MQUP).
This talk will be moderated by Daniel B茅land, Director of the McGill Institute for the 快播视频 of Canada and James McGill Professor at the Department of Political Science at McGill.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Jennifer Elrick (she/her) is Associate Professor of Sociology at McGill University, where she also holds the Research Chair in Multiculturalism. Her research focuses broadly on how migration governance creates and perpetuates gender, racial/ethnic, and/or class inequalities, and how these affect both newcomers and receiving societies. While most of her work focuses on institutions, her most recent, SSHRC-funded project looks at public perceptions of the different immigrant groups that are defined by immigration policy. Her first book - - was published in 2021 by University of Toronto Press. Her forthcoming book - Immigration and Canada: 16 Questions - draws on the latest research to provide readers with a comprehensive and accessible overview of Canada鈥檚 immigration system and its effects on immigrants and Canadian society. This compact 鈥渆xplainer鈥 is co-authored with Mireille Paquet (Concordia University) and will be available soon as part of the Canadian Essentials series at McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press.
Imagining Canada through Heated Rivalry: a queer of colour perspective
A 'What is Happening in Canada?' Event
With Dr. John Paul (JP) Catungal, Assistant Professor, Social Justice Institute, University of British Columbia
Wednesday March 11, 1:00 - 2:00 PM EST |
In this talk, I examine the ascendance of the TV series Heated Rivalry (HR) into a global phenomenon. I focus in particular on the work that Canadian national imaginaries do within the show鈥檚 internal universe and through its circulation in popular media and public discourse. I argue that the relatively easy integration of HR into national mythmaking needs to be understood within the longer history of the use of queerness for Canadian geopolitical self-positioning. Such homonationalist integration has limits, ones that can be gleaned from the show鈥檚 own narrative, if one looks closely. Engaging a queer of colour perspective, I highlight how Heated Rivalry鈥榮 narrative socio-spatialities 鈥 especially the ice, the cottage and the international stage 鈥 shine light on key racial, gendered and sexual anxieties that haunt the making of Canada as a nation.
This talk will be moderated by Minelle Mahtani, Associate Professor and Chair of Canadian Studies at the University of British Columbia.
Speaker biography
Dr. John Paul (JP) Catungal (he/him) is Co-Director of the Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement and Assistant Professor in Social Justice Institute at the University of British Columbia. His scholarship generally concerns the community organizing and cultural production efforts of migrant, racialized and LGBTQ+ communities He has been especially active in the development of Filipinx Canadian studies: he co-edited Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility (2012, University of Toronto) and the latest BC Studies special issue titled 鈥淔ilipino Canadian studies in, on and through British Columbia鈥. He is also designer and author of the Heated Rivalry syllabus, . He received the UBC Killam Teaching Prize in 2025.
This 鈥淲hat is Happening in Canada?鈥 event is a collaboration with the UBC Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement and the UBC Canadian Studies Program.
Defining Canada: Mark Carney in the Tradition of Canadian Prime Ministerial Rhetoric
Wednesday April 15, 2026, 1:00 - 2:00 pm ET |
Speaker: Dr. Raymond Blake, Professor, History, University of Regina
Since confederation, prime ministers have created narratives and stories based on a series of unifying national ideas that have been reformulated and expanded over time to keep Canada, a geographically large, ethnically diverse, and regionalized nation, together. This paper shows how prime ministers were identity entrepreneurs: regardless of political stripe, they worked to build national unity, forged a citizenship based on inclusion, and defined a place for Canada in the world. Collectively, they told a national story of Canada as a progressive liberal state with a fundamental belief in universal rights and freedoms. Mark Carney has continued that tradition, resurrecting earlier narratives about Canada鈥檚 place in the world, hope for an economic union, and rekindling a sense of identity that has been weakened in the previous decade. The challenge for him is to build a narrative of Canada that moves beyond Canadians鈥 anger and frustration with Mr. Trump. This talk will be moderated by Laura Bisaillon (Associate Professor, Sociology, University of Toronto).
Speaker Biography
Raymond B. Blake, Professor of history at the University of Regina and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has written and edited more than 20 books. His 2024 book, Canada鈥檚 Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity, won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. His most recent book, A History of Canada in 15 Moments: Making and Remaking a Nation since 1867, with Jeff Keshen was published earlier this year. He is with Laura Bisaillon co-president of The Canadian Studies Network-R茅seau d'茅udes canadiennes.
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For any questions and concerns, reach out to robarts@yorku.ca.
This series is made possible by the participation of the , the , the , the , Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, and the, , with the support of the.