Global Talks
One of the central objectives of the Centre for Global Studies is the creation of a community of scholars and of scholarship. “Global Talks” are weekly discussions/presentations set aside where we are able to listen to presentations from researchers within CFGS, the university more broadly, and also invited guest speakers. Essentially, this is our dedicated time that we can get together to learn from each other and the broader scholarly community in a shared space.
These take place weekly on Wednesdays from 10:30-noon. Usually we have presenters speak for 45 minutes and then have a round table discussion for the remaining time.
In an effort to continue providing an enriching environment where our members can share ideas and insights, while fostering a sense of community, we offer a hybridity to our Global Talk series using a virtual platform.
Most of our Global Talk recordings are available on our YouTube channel.
For the presentations that are uploaded to our YouTube page, the video is embedded directly on our site. However, there a number of presentations that are linked through the Blackboard virtual platform. For these we recommend using Google Chrome to view.
If you have any issues accessing the recordings, please contact the CFGS Events & Administrative Assistant, Lia Lancaster, at cfgs@uvic.ca
March 2022 Signature Series
"The Russian Aggression against Ukraine: Contextualizing the Unthinkable"
CFGS Fellow Serhy Yekelchyk gave a compelling Global Talk exploring and contextualizing the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. He touched on various aspects of Russian and Ukrainian history that underpin Putin's recent aggression, explaining the complicated web of forces in play.
The Centre is fortunate to have such an expert as Serhy on site to help make sense of the troubling news coming from Ukraine.
January 2022 Signatures Series
"Project Showcase"
The fourth annual CFGS Project Showcase took place on January 12th. During the talk, representatives from each of our projects presented on their main research focus, current activities, upcoming opportunities, and future goals. At the end there was an extended discussion period.
December 2021 Signatures Series
"The governance of 'vulnerable' migrants - who decides?"
Legal and policy instruments at the global and European level increasingly emphasize the need to address the specific needs of vulnerable migrants. But what does it mean to be vulnerable?
This talk is part of a larger, three-year, international research project (VULNER) funded by SSHRC, the FRQSC and the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. The aim of the VULNER project is to investigate this question through field research in Europe (Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Norway), Africa (Uganda and South Africa), the Middle East (Lebanon), and North America (Canada).
Currently, there is no solid understanding of the concrete meanings, practical consequences, and legal implications of “vulnerability”. Meeting this research gap becomes even more crucial when it is recognized that every migrant is vulnerable to some extent, according to the context, their resources, and intersecting social identities, such as ethnicity, gender, age, and nationality. Without empirical data and analyses that provide a clear and non-stereotyped understanding and conceptualization of the vulnerabilities that are actually lived and experienced by migrants, such policy choices run the risk of failing to address some vulnerabilities, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities, or even producing new ones.
The talk will present some of our early, Canadian findings. It will contrast the way that vulnerability is currently employed throughout Canada’s refugee resettlement program with that of Canada’s inland asylum determinations.
June 2021 Signature Series
"Cuba: Living Between Hurricanes ~ Film Screening & Discussion"
is a film about the elements – hurricanes and rain, the sea and the earth. The story is told against the background of the Cuban Revolution, but the rule of the communist state is only the latest stage in the history of an island that has always suffered extreme weather events, of which hurricanes are only the most dramatic. As Cuba’s President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, told a meeting of Caribbean countries in Managua in 2019: “Living between hurricanes has conditioned our lives; it has modified our geographies and spurred our migrations. And it has also educated us in the need to further study the phenomena that await us and work to reverse their damage.” Cuba: Living Between Hurricanes takes a step in that direction. This event will begin with a screening of the film, followed by a discussion with Michael Chanan (Director and Editor) and Jean Stubbs (Producer and Writer).
May 2021 Signature Series
"The State of Global Democracy After Biden's First 100 Days"
While much is left to be seen regarding the long-term effects and legacy of the Trump Administration, Trump’s presidency brought to the surface a number of political issues within American society that challenge the state of democracy - political polarization, economic and social inequality, and right-wing populism, nationalism, “conspirituality”, and extremism. However, these issues are by no means limited to the American context. Over the last decade, we have seen the rise of right-wing, anti-immigrant forces throughout Europe, and ethnonationalism, polarization, and corruption challenging the resiliency of democracies in Asia.
President Biden ran on a platform of healing the divides in America, and restoring American leadership internationally. In his first foreign policy speech as President, he announced that, “America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy” and he outlined his plans to “course-correct [American] foreign policy and better unite [American] democratic values with [their] diplomatic leadership.” He spoke of rebuilding democractic alliances, addressing the military coup in Myanmar, and challenging China’s economic and human rights abuses. The purpose of this event is to look back on the first 100-Days of the Biden administration and, in recognition of the urgency at which these issues must be addressed, discuss what has been done and what challenges the Biden administration faces going forward.
March 2021 Signature Series
"Creating Spaces of Engagement: Policy Justice and the Practical Craft of Deliberative Democracy"
On March 3rd, 2021 we welcome Dr. Sarah Marie Wiebe (School of Public Administration, 番茄社区) for a Signature Series Global Talk on her recently co-edited book with Dr. Leah Levac ‘Creating Spaces of Engagement: Policy Justice and the Practical Craft of Deliberative Democracy’. Sarah discussed the guiding framework of “policy justice” and its application to the theory and practice of public engagement and drew upon specific local and global examples from the collection. She also elaborated upon some of the contributions of her chapter ‘Storytelling as Engagement: Learning from Youth Voices in Attawapiskat’, which speaks to a mixed media storytelling methodology to advance create approaches to community-engaged scholarship for social and environmental justice.
December 2020 Signature Series
"Beyond Shanghai: The Modern Chinese Artist in Paris"
On December 2nd, 2020 we welcomed CFGS Faculty Fellow Angie Chau for a CFGS Signature Series Global Talk presentation, 'Beyond Shanghai: The Modern Chinese Artist in Paris'. Her presentation conceptualised the art of transposition as a creative strategy that views artistic difference as its desired end result, foregrounding why and how writers and artists were compelled to adapt, borrow, and incorporate iconic markers of Chinese cultural identity. As an alternative to translation studies, transposition can better account for the fluid movement of texts and images among media, linguistic, and national modes. Viewing literature and art through the lens of transposition uncovers what remained recognisable overseas and also what was transformed in this context, showing how cultural difference was circulated and promoted to challenge existing notions about modern Chinese art to a global audience.
November 2020 Signature Series
"Exploring the Interdisciplinarity of Remembrance: The Relationship between Tourism and Sites of War Memory"
On November 4th, 2020 we welcome Dr. Geoffrey Bird to present as part of our Global Talk Signature Series. Travelling to a battlefield, concentration camp, or cemetery can be a powerful personal experience. But tourism is also a front line in the politics of memory, myth, and legend along with what is silenced and forgotten. His presentation explored what has been happening at sites of war memory around the world, including Canada. Drawing on the work of the War Heritage Research Initiative and other sources, this discussion also explored how and what kind of inter- and intradisciplinary topics and approaches can deepen our understanding of the significance and role that war memory and remembrance play in shaping how we are as individuals, as a culture, and as a nation.
October 2020 Signature Series
"Our Two Far Norths: Environmental, Indigenous, Identity, and Security Challenges in Canada and Russia's Arcticsa's Arctics"
On Wednesday October 7th CFGS Faculty Fellow Megan Swift presented some of her research on Canada-Russia Arctic relations highlighting the Arctic as a trans-national area that is uniquely capable of moving Canada-Russia relations forward. Canada and Russia are two major stakeholders for decisions of global significance on the circumpolar Arctic. These decisions include changing national boundaries as polar ice melts, ownership of strategic shipping lanes, the presence of nuclear submarines, ecological preservation through the declaration of national parks and other designated areas, indigenous territorial and language rights, changed patterns of migration and impacts to traditional ways of life. All of these themes are important not just for the Arctic regions themselves, but for Canadian and Russian national self-imagination, since both cultural identities are strongly tied to a geographical and imaginary North and far North.
June 2020 Signature Series
On June 3rd, CFGS welcomed Dr. Michael C. Wolfson for a Signature Series Global Talk to discuss how the COVID crisis has sparked a new found urgency in addressing the challenges associated with long-term care. With baby boomers aging, the cost of long-term care is set to triple in the next 30 years. What’s our plan for dealing with this? We’ve known for decades that the boomer generation and Canadian demographic changes are coming. Sadly, in recent months this crisis has come to the forefront as the majority of deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in long term care facilities. Join Dr. Michael Wolfson to examine this urgency and how addressing the long-term care challenge must now more than ever be a national priority.
May 2020 Signature Series
"Israel’s Borders - As Yet Unfinished Business" with David Newman
On May 6th Dr. David Newman joined us virtually from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev to examine the changing dynamics of Israel's borders, with a particular focus on Israel, the West Bank, and a future Palestinian State. Borders between Israel and her neighbours remain fragile, at the best, and undemarcated at the worst. Out of Israels’ five borders, only two (with Egypt and Jordan) have de jure international status, two (with Lebanon and Syria) remain to be finally agreed and demarcated, while a potential fifth border (with a future Palestinian State) remains undetermined as to whether it will eventually emerge.The traditional mantra of returning to the 1967 Green Line has largely been obliterated by Israeli de facto annexation and mass settlement activity (now numbering 500,000 settlers ). The recent Trump Peace Deal (the so called deal of the century) has attempted to change the ground rules for border demarcation by accepting Israel’s right to formally annex most of the settlements, enable land / territorial exchanges between the two sides, but still leaving any future Palestinian State with far less territory than that of the West Bank.
This presentation examines the changing dynamics of Israel’s borders, with a particular focus on Israel, the West bank and a future Palestinian State.
The COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges & Insights One-Year On with Dr. Mitchell Hammond, Dr. Robert Huish, and Dr. Dzifa Dordunoo
It has been a year since the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 virus the cause of a worldwide pandemic. On March 17th, 2021 we welcomed Dr. Mitchell Hammond (番茄社区), Dr. Robert Huish (Dalhousie University), and Dr. Dzifa Dordunoo (番茄社区) for a discussion on how our world has changed over the past year. Speakers discussed the tensions that have emerged as individuals and nations considered their interests and obligations at various levels of society. Discussion focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted issues of public shaming, pandemic stigma, and scientific racism.
The COVID Pandemic and the Climate Emergency: Lessons in Governance with Jon O'Riordan
This presentation covers the following three topics: "What are the elements of good governance for managing emergencies?"; "How fit for purpose are current levels of government?" and "What creative solutions in governance are required to tackle the climate emergency?". The conclusions are that none of the current forms of governance can avert a climate emergency. The creative solutions involve some form of polycentric governance as the issues are global in scale; a shift to ecological citizenship and substantive citizen engagement and education.
with Katia and Kelly Bannister
COVID-19 has put an end to the organizing of youth climate activists in the streets, but youth are continuing to fight for climate justice. Since social isolation requirements were put in place, youth have been climate striking digitally every week on Fridays. Despite the COVID crisis, the climate remains in peril so continuing to draw attention to the climate crisis is crucial. And the root cause of the current pandemic is more climate-related than one might think. But the dramatic response to the COVID-19 pandemic is in stark contrast to the lack of effective action on climate change, despite a number of similarities between the two threats. The visceral and immediate feelings that COVID-19 can trigger in the general public are not that different from the ones many youth activists feel about climate change–and a future earth that is inhospitable to humans within their lifetime. The time for climate action remains now and intergenerational collaboration is key.
with Robert Huish
On April 29th, CFGS Visiting Fellow Robert Huish spoke about Cuba's medical internationalism, which is of exponential importance especially in times of corona.
In Cuba, it has been normal practice for decades to send health workers to various countries around the world to assist in emergencies. The well-being of the population is seen as the most important task of the state. Dr. Huish emphasized that benefits are generated there through cooperation and solidarity, and that it is therefore of enormous advantage to take Cuba as an example and model to follow and understand our options in uncertain times.
with Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly and Elisabeth Vallet
On April 15th, Dr. Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly and Dr. Elisabeth Vallet offered a special joint presentation on the effects of COVID-19 on borders and boundary lines.
Dr. Brunet-Jailly began by exploring the various policy options that have been implemented around the world and discussed why international boundary lines are not the best place to implement health policies to control the spread of COVID-19. Then, Dr. Vallet continued the discussion on how, globally, states have reacted to COVID-19 by closing borders, and how public policies have been urgently defined at boy local and national levels. Arguing that the outcomes of the global health crisis rests on the notion of trust (or lack of trust) at the heart of the relationships not only between those who govern and those who are governed but also between states.
"Stock Market Swings & the Economic Outlook in the Era of COVID-19 - &" with Michael R. King and Chris Lawless
Concerned about the wild gyrations in global stock markets over the past three weeks? Wondering what the impact of COVID-19 will be on the economy? Or curious about the impact of government policy measures and how investors may be addressing these challenges? Prof. Michael R. King and Chris Lawless, Executive-in-Residence and former Chief Economist at BCI, discuss historical precedents that provide insights for today's events.
The first portion of the presentation reviewed the timeline of events and market reactions to date, while the second portion focused attention on the economic outlook and implications.
1.5-Degree Target Not Currently Plausible: Social Change More Important than Physical Tipping Points with Antje Wiener
Is limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius currently plausible? The talk will present the most recent findings of the Cluster of Excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS) at Universität Hamburg. It is based on a new study on climate futures (presented to the public at a first press conference on 1st February 2023). In this study an interdisciplinary group of 63 researchers systematically assessed to what extent social changes are already underway – while also analyzing certain physical processes frequently discussed as tipping points. The finding is that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is currently not plausible. It thus cautions against both optimism and dramatic conclusions. Thus, the study includes progress of climate policy as including external disruptive events such as COVID and the Ukraine crisis. The participating team of interdisciplinary researchers systematically assessed to what extent social changes are already underway – while also analyzing certain physical processes frequently discussed as tipping points. The key conclusion is that social change is essential to meeting the temperature targets set in Paris. But what has been achieved to date is insufficient. Accordingly, climate adaptation will also have to be approached from a new angle.
Borders With/In Transnational Culture with Victor Konrad
Border culture is no longer culture at the margins, but rather it is culture at the heart of geopolitics. Culture has not readily negotiated the transnational turn; culture is at once driving and responding to the turn. Culture’s immutability has centred culture in transnationalism, and it has enabled the flexibility and adaptability of culture in transnational processes. There are borders with transnational culture, borders in transnational culture, and borders with/in transnational culture. In this presentation, Victor Konrad addresses how border culture is embedded in the profusion of border experience in globalization, yet also clarifies the definition and meaning of home. He examines how the “suture” of the border both separates and connects transnational space, and the nature of the landscapes that emerge in this bordered geography. Victor draws attention to the dispossession, violence, and gendering that occurs in transnational space. Finally, he concludes with a pre-script and post-script to address culture at the post-humanistic border.
Transpacific Lessons: Media Accounts of Nikkei Incarceration in Australia, Canada and the U.S with Johnathan Van Harmelen
During the Second World War, several states in the Pacific world forcibly removed and incarcerated their Japanese, or Nikkei, communities as a war measure, often with disregard for the civil liberties and human rights of the confined. In the Anglophone states of Australia, Canada, and the U.S., most media agencies vocally supported detention policies, and in some instance were influential in government decisions for the incarceration. This presentation therefore maps newspaper portrayals of Nikkei incarceration during the Second World War and their influence on government policies. This presentation likewise shows how newspapers in several states across the Pacific commented on specific policies, namely those of the U.S., as a point of comparison.
Delivery as Dispossession: Land Occupation and Eviction in the Post-Apartheid City with Zachary Levenson
Delivery as Dispossession explains why nearly 30 years after the transition to democracy, the South African government continues to evict squatters from urban land. It argues that housing officials view occupiers as threats to the government’s housing delivery program, which, they insist, requires order and state control. Drawing on a decade of sustained ethnographic fieldwork in two such occupations in Cape Town, this study explains why one was evicted, whereas the other was ultimately tolerated, answering a central question in urban studies: how do governments decide when to evict, and conversely, when to tolerate? These decisions are not made in a vacuum but instead require an analysis that expands what we typically call “the state.” This book argues that the state does not simply “see” occupations, as if they were a feature of the natural landscape. Rather, occupiers collectively project themselves to government actors, affecting how they are seen. But residents are not only seen; they also see, which shapes how they organize themselves. When residents see the state as an antagonist, they tend to unify under a single leadership; but when they see it as a potential ally, they often remain atomized as if they were individual customers. The unity in the former case projects an orderly population, less likely to be evicted; but the fragmentation in the latter case projects a disorderly mass, serving to legitimate eviction rulings.
Russia's Attack on Ukraine: Memory, Identity and a New Political Reality with Oliver Schmidtke
The effects of the war in Ukraine continue to be felt across the globe and especially in Eastern and Central Europe. Indeed, the war between Ukraine and Russia has impacted in particular Europe in a multitude of ways, from looking after refugees to seeking alternative energy supplies and propping up Ukraine’s defensive capabilities. Countries around the world (including Canada) have also been supplying financial support and arms to Ukraine as well, often drawing Moscow’s ire. And in Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s foreign policy and a $113 billion special fund to rebuild the German armed forces. Oliver Schmidtke will share his insight into the European debate, the competing responses to the Russian aggression, and the way it has affected the continent politically. This presentation is also meant as an invitation to engage in a deliberation of Russia’s war in Ukraine as a fundamental challenge to traditional notions of geopolitical stability and peace.
Strategic Framing of Energy Transition and Climate Discourse by Economic Stakeholders with Lori Thorlakson
Firms are influential political actors and key actors in energy transition, and their lobbying has shaped—and often impeded—climate policy. The way that firms strategically and symbolically communicate about climate change and energy transition can signal shifts in its politics and the potential for political mobilization, for example influencing the framing of debate, agenda setting and impacting public support for climate policy. It can also signal the potential for the emergence of new discourse coalitions. This paper seeks to identify how firms frame energy transition, climate policy and climate related risk and tests competing explanations driving frame diffusion across time, regions and industry. To do this, we conduct a frame analysis of energy transition and climate related risk discourse in the 2013 and 2019 annual reports of 150 companies from five industries, drawn from the S&P/TSX 60 (Canada), S&P 500 (US) and STOXX 600 (Europe) indices. We hand-code frame elements that are central to the mobilization of political support for climate policies, including the acknowledgment of climate change and its urgency, economic consequences of both climate change and climate policy, the costs and opportunities of energy transition, climate-related risk and adversarial framing. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, we identify how these frame elements combine to form five climate and energy transition frames. We supplement this content analysis with an automated textual analysis of 600 annual reports from the three indices.
The Dynamic of Law and Environmental Movements in Thailand: the Cycle of Empowerment with Songkrant Pongboonjun
From the legal system perspective, the written law that the state enacted to guarantee Thai people’s environmental rights can gain its credibility only when this law at least delivers some of what the text states. However, many obstacles stand between progressive law and its implementation, preventing good law from delivering good results. As this research asserts, the success of environmental movements in this research is possible not only because of the presence of new legal opportunities but also the presence of resilient communities, PIELs, and NGOs. Without these important factors, it is unlikely that the new legal opportunities would be able to create unprecedented changes, as presented in this research. In this sense, these factors make it possible for the legal system to fulfill its goals in delivering what the law states. This point resonates with Epp’s argument that successful law reform needs both progressive law and a support structure. On the one hand, the new legal opportunities make the environmental movements more effective in solving and pushing forward their issues. On the other hand, resilient environmental movements are the key driver that makes it possible to transform progressive constitutional provisions and laws into reality. In this sense, the new legal opportunities and resilient communities create a positive feedback loop where the presence of each side empowers the other creating a virtuous cycle of environmental rights empowerment.
Transatlantic Black Worlding with Samuel Adesubokan
Through the examination of Black speculative fiction, Samuel Adesubokan re-interpreted the concept of worlding, first popularized by Martin Heidegger, to mean an imaginative and hermeneutical remaking of the world in promoting freedom relationally and globally within the context of Black experiences. Presenting thematic arguments from the standpoints of ecology, gender and sexuality, and migration and belonging, Samuel analysed fiction by Octavia Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, NK Jemisin, Namwali Serpell, and Nalo Hopkinson to drew upon their productive tension as well as aesthetic and political contributions to the understanding of Black lives and, by extension, the world.
State of Emergency Declaration: Democratic Participation through Community-Engaged Research with Sarah Wiebe
When state of emergency declarations become the norm, the health of democratic societies is called into question. This presentation brings a feminist critical lens to investigate the political environment of two distinct yet related emergency scenarios. The first draws upon a ten-year project that involved arts-based community-engaged research with members of the Attawapiskat nation, which challenges hegemonic narratives that frame the community as constantly in crisis. In conversation with a knowledge democracy approach, findings from this project centre counterstories grounded in the lived-experiences and stories of community-members, including former Chief Theresa Spence, as discussed in Wiebe’s book Life against States of Emergency: Revitalizing Treaty Relations from Attawapiskat, forthcoming with UBC Press in 2023. The second scenario bridges this research with the current climate emergency crisis, highlighting some avenues for future research and collaboration, while raising and responding to critical questions about the implications of state of emergency declarations for political participation. Wiebe’s presentation will offer some reflections and lessons learned about the politics of framing and reframing through this participatory, mixed media approach.
Lost Voices of the Commons: The Radical Democratic Theory of Mary Follett with Avigail Eisenberg
In the early 20th Century, numerous thinkers and political actors turned to relational ideas in politics, psychology and legal theory to propose new ways of organizing society, the economy and politics. Relational ideas were proposed as alternatives to the organizing principles of liberal individualism, consent and contract. Avigail Eisenberg’s current research focuses on the thought of three ‘lost voices’ of the early 20th Century, all of whom were women committed to what today is called ‘relational politics’. This talk focuses on Mary Parker Follett, a leading theorist of democracy and labor-capitalist relations. In the 1910s and 20s, Follett proposed a radical democratic theory according to which community is a ‘creative’ process which involves confronting ‘constructive conflict’ and adopting an ‘integrative approach’ to social diversity. Follett applied her approach to addressing conflicts between capital and labour and between states in the aftermath of WW1. Today, Follett is remembered as a management theorist and an early thinker behind the ‘Getting to Yes’ approach in modern negotiation theory, which is championed by the Harvard Business school. How did this radical democratic critic come to be adopted within a leading approach to liberal-capitalist negotiation? This paper explores this question and considers what of Follett, which has been lost, is worth retrieving.
COVID-19 Impacts on the Livelihoods of Waste Pickers in Brazil with Jutta Gutberlet
This event discussed the results from a study carried out in 2020 with waste picker organizations in the state of São Paulo, highlighting some of the impacts of Covid-19 on the livelihoods and activities of waste pickers. Waste pickers play a very important role in global environmental health. With their help, resources get redirected into recycling, reducing resource extraction and thus also waste generated at the beginning of the material chain. Waste pickers are the real grassroots protagonists that move the circular economy in these parts of the world. Without them, cities would have a larger footprint and the recycling industry would have less supply. Yet, vulnerable and poor populations have been most affected by the consequences of the pandemic, often being ‘invisible’ and not reachable by public policies. Social movements have been acting as a bridge between government, private companies and waste pickers to fill the gaps and support their livelihoods. Qualitative online research (document analysis, questionnaire applications and interviews) will shed some light on the structural and systemic problems that have emerged during the pandemic, demonstrating their political demands as social movement.
Devaluation of Eldercare: Perspectives from Singapore and Taiwan with Lynn Ng
Lynn Ng discussed her comparative study of eldercare systems in Singapore and Taiwan—two Confucian cultural societies and welfare states where filial piety prevails, wherein aging-in-place at home is the default arrangement. This talk introduces the ideas of a chapter in her PhD dissertation, tentatively titled "Choosing who to care for: Children versus elderly," in which she compares eldercare with childcare. This line of analysis - hierarchies of care work - is important for feminist theorising of 'domestic' labour as a broad umbrella category. This chapter includes in-depth interviews with a variety of informant groups, especially domestic employers and NGO workers. Overall, Lynn discussed, through a comparative lens, why eldercare is the most despised and least valued form of care work.
Everyday Nationalism in Hungary: Constructing Utopia in the Carpathian Basin with Dr. Robert Imre
In this discussion Dr. Imre highlights a particular set of current social media conversations around the utopic nature of the Carpathian Basin. He will also discuss a few of these conversations via actors from the ‘epistemic periphery’ or ‘stigmatized knowledges’ and how they may have manifested in some more mainstream media outlets. This is an indication of a revival of a specific kind of traditional romantic-nationalist mythic past seeking to deliver a populist response to the challenges of globalization and EU membership. This is a special kind of irredentism that posits the geo-location of the Carpathian Basin or the Pannonian plain as the gathering place for a specific ‘civilization’: namely the ‘Greater Hungary’ of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This civilizational argument/discourse operates in discourses throughout both mainstream and social media outlets of all kinds in the region, reinforcing this special kind of nationalism in the semi-periphery.
A Legacy of Exploitation: Early Capitalism in the Red River Colony, 1763-1821 with Susan Diane Brophy
A Legacy of Exploitation, Susan Diane Brophy turns to Marxist thought and uses a dialectical materialist framework to study dispossession. Although it lends itself to the analysis of history as constant motion, this approach also reveals the limitations of certain Marxist tenets when it comes to comprehending dispossession in the settler colonial context. On the occasion of this talk, Diane reflects on this modified Marxist framework. She maintains that the value of her dialectical materialist approach is that it reveals the extent to which transformations associated with the settlement at Red River were informed by reactions to Indigenous producers’ relative autonomy. As she elaborates on this point over the course of the book, Diane confronts two assumptions: first, that the history of settler colonialism entails a conspicuous shift from violent dispossession to administrative containment, and second, that the history of settler colonialism begins with the dispossession of land. In challenging the first assumption, she questions the basic version of the transition to capitalism thesis in Marxist thought; in challenging the second, she adopts a longer historical account of dispossession that is more attuned to Indigenous peoples’ agency. Taken together, they show a different way of thinking about dispossession in the Canadian settler colonial context.
"In the Shadow of the Red Brick Building" Book Launch Celebration with Elder Raymond Tony Charlie
A gathering was held on June 2, 2022 on the territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples at the 番茄社区 (B.C., Canada) to celebrate the launch of a new book, "In the Shadow of the Red Brick Building" written by Coast Salish Elder Raymond Tony Charlie (Penelakut Tribe). In the book, Elder Ray Tony shares his moving personal story as a residential school survivor and his journey to healing. The book launch opened with a welcome and prayer from 番茄社区 Elder-in-Residence May Sam (Tsartlip Nation) and a blessing for Elder Ray Tony and all those in attendance. Centre for Global Studies (CFGS) Acting Director Dr. Martin Bunton, Centre for Indigenous Research and Community-Led Engagement (CIRCLE) Director Dr. Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, and POLIS Project Co-Director Dr. Kelly Bannister also offered opening remarks to begin the event. Penelakut Elder Florence James and Penelakut Tribe member Rocky James shared opening words as relatives and provided cultural support at the event. The Elders blanketed Ray Tony to protect him before he spoke, as is Coast Salish custom. Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants who are affiliated with CFGS and POLIS gathered in circle with Elder Ray Tony and several members of his family to listen, witness, and continue together in the difficult learning about the shameful history of our country through Ray Tony’s personal experience. The event was also live streamed to share with a wider audience. Elder Ray Tony (beginning at 41 min in the video) generously shared details of his personal story as a residential school survivor and the significant role that writing this memoir had on his path towards healing. He honoured his wife Lorraine Charlie and all those in attendance, the support of friends and family, and the support and encouragement of CFGS and POLIS in bringing his story to a wider audience. Ray Tony ended by reading a poem he wrote, which is included in his new book. This recording of the gathering was made with the permission of the speakers to share with the public for educational purposes, in the spirit of reconciliation and healing.
The International Political Economy of Fossil Fuel Supply with Amy Janzwood
Fossil fuels account for approximately 86 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions over the last decade, yet the Paris Agreement makes no mention of fossil fuels. In advance of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change called for revised national climate plans to enhance countries’ climate commitments. Simultaneously, transnational activists have launched a campaign for a “Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty,” which calls on governments to phase out fossil fuel production. We asses how fossil-fuel producing states respond to calls to address the production of fossil fuels. We compare the updated Nationally Determined Contributions of 59 fossil fuel-producing countries with data to analyze how countries articulate policy measures around the production of fossil fuels. Our analysis finds that despite theoretical expectations to the contrary, most countries have taken limited measures to address the supply of fossil fuels. Our study also highlights divergent pathways for countries that are primarily fossil fuel exporters and those that reply on imports to supplement domestic production. By providing an international political economy analysis of fossil fuel supply, we draw out implications for domestic just energy transitions.
The “Freedom Convoys”: a case study in cross-border radicalization with Edwin Hodge
Edwin Hodge discussed the "Freedom Convoys" movement, the dramatic and ongoing series of protests and blockades that gripped Canada for more than a month. Organized in opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, the movement has since spiraled into broader social and political discourse.
Worker and Union Solidarity with China: Why and How? with Kent Wong
Solidarity exchanges between trade unions in China, Canada and US were put on hold by COVID. At the same time economic and geo-political conflicts between nations have created new challenges to workers and unions. This webinar explores the value of worker-to-worker relationships despite those conflicts — indeed, made more important in a climate of anti-Asian racism and protectionism.
Understanding Ukrainian nationhood, resilience and persistence with Mychailo Wynnyckyj, Serhy Yekelchyk and Tamara Krawchenko
Ukrainian identity had endured despite centuries of Russian colonialism. While Ukraine fights for its very right to exist at this moment, Ukrainian leadership and civil society continue to plan for a resilient and thriving future based on the principles of dignity, freedom and respect. Join us as we welcome Dr. Mychailo Wynnyckyj, Kyiv Mohyla Academia, to help us understand the broader sociology and politics of Ukraine and Ukrainian nationhood.
Compulsory Vaccination during the COVID19 Pandemic and Fundamental Human Rights in the World of Work with Sara Hungler
During the COVID-19 epidemiological emergency, several countries adopted regulations which have affected the world of work. The impact of these measures on workers and other employers has been the subject of numerous studies. Among the legislation, there are some that applies to specific occupational groups, such as healthcare workers, and others that apply more generally to a broad section of society. What they have in common is that they restrict the fundamental rights of workers to an extent that justifies a thorough human rights and constitutional rights analysis. The aim of this talk is to discuss the issue of compulsory vaccination focusing primarily on the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and its effect to domestic regulation in Hungary.
Unsettling taken-for-granted knowledge through dialogue with Menno Salverda
This talk will explain how some experiences in international economic development led to participatory research in the areas of education, dialogue, power and stigma. The research specifically looked at how a specific design for dialogue can un-settle taken-for-granted knowledge held by dominant groups; health professionals in the Central Okanagan. Menno will discuss the key findings from his research as well as how it connects to his current position with the Okanagan Nation Alliance where he works as a non-indigenous individual towards sovereignty of livelihoods and culture of the Syilx People.
Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, & the Political Economy of Plunder in North America with Michael Witgen
Against long odds, the Anishinaabeg resisted removal, retaining thousands of acres of their homeland in what is now Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Their success rested partly on their roles as sellers of natural resources and buyers of trade goods, which made them key players in the political economy of plunder that drove white settlement and U.S. development in the Old Northwest. But, as Michael Witgen demonstrates, the credit for Native persistence rested with the Anishinaabeg themselves. Outnumbering white settlers well into the nineteenth century, they leveraged their political savvy to advance a dual citizenship that enabled mixed-race tribal members to lay claim to a place in U.S. civil society.
What can ethical research praxis look like between Global North and South partners? A case study with Debra Torok
This talk will share Debra’s reflections on ethical and anti-oppressive research engagement between Global North and South partners, drawing from her experiences co-facilitating a transnational community-based participatory research project. This ongoing partnership project is between the 番茄社区 and Suwannimit Foundation, a forced migrant-led social service agency on the Myanmar-Thai border. Debra will describe the process of applying anti-oppressive research principles to this project, elaborating on the benefits, complexities, and lessons learned from doing so, particularly in a virtual pandemic context.
Resilience to online disinformation: A framework comparing 18 countries (including Canada) with Frank Esser
Online disinformation is considered a major challenge for modern democracies. It is widely understood as misleading content produced to generate profits, pursue political goals, or maliciously deceive. My starting point is the assumption that some countries are more resilient to online disinformation than others. To understand what conditions influence this resilience, I choose a comparative cross-national approach. In the first step, I develop a theoretical framework that presents these country conditions as theoretical dimensions. In the second step, I translate the dimensions into quantifiable indicators that allow me to measure their significance on a comparative cross-country basis. In the third part of the study, I empirically examine eighteen Western democracies. A cluster analysis yields three country groups: one group with high resilience to online disinformation (including Canada, for instance) and two country groups with low resilience (including the polarized Southern European countries and the United States). In the final part, I discuss the heuristic value of the framework for comparative political communication research in the age of information pollution.
Stakeholder perspectives on cocoa’s living income and sustainability trade-off’s in Ghana with Marshall Adams
Through this research we are interested in understanding stakeholder perspectives on the Living Income Differential (LID). LID was introduced in 2019 as a strategic pricing mechanism that aims to raise the farmgate price for cocoa farmers in the two biggest cocoa producing countries the world: Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. In particular we focus on to what extent the stakeholders engaged in this policy implementation considering ‘unintended consequences of LID in Ghana’. Through the application of Q mixed methods and Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, we found that despite the lack of an official cocoa living income policy document, the stakeholders’ views cluster around three dominant perspectives (or factors). To better understand these perspectives, especially the contentious issues in which key stakeholders are know to have opposing views, we estimated the aggregated perspective within each group regarding the perceived characteristics of the LID mechanism. Our results suggest that ‘LID creates opportunities for cocoa farmers to invest in more sustainable farming practices’ is the most controversial statement where respondents have the most opposing views. This suggests that LID is not enough to cover their basic subsistence and survival (i.e. poverty alleviation), but also inadequate to afford a decent standard of living, and to produce cocoa sustainably. The identified areas of consensus can also provide strategic starting points towards engaging diverse cocoa sector stakeholders to build upon mutual interests and collectively develop cocoa sector governance mechanisms that are effective and implementable.
The Russian Aggression against Ukraine: Contextualizing the Unthinkable with Serhy Yekelchyk
CFGS Fellow Serhy Yekelchyk gave a compelling Global Talk exploring and contextualizing the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. He touched on various aspects of Russian and Ukrainian history that underpin Putin's recent aggression, explaining the complicated web of forces in play. The Centre is fortunate to have such an expert as Serhy on site to help make sense of the troubling news coming from Ukraine.
Radical Women? Exploring the Gender Gap in Nordic Radical Right Politics with Maria Finnsdottir
The European radical right, a family of political parties characterized by antiestablishment populism and anti-immigrant xenophobia, has seen renewed electoral success over recent decades. The Nordic nations are no exception to this trend. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden all have thriving and successful radical right political parties. Despite the resurgence of these politics in Nordic countries, women have been slow to turn to radical right politics, lagging behind their male counterparts both as voters and politicians. This has remained the case even as the Nordic radical right has elevated women leaders – namely Pia Kjærsgaard and Siv Jensen – and has appropriated discourses of women’s rights and gender equality. This gender imbalance in both the party and the base raises important questions about the gender gap in radical right voting, the characteristic of women voters, and the position of women politicians within the party. In response, my research examines the gendered differences underlying the gender gap in voting, as well as the gendered inequalities present within the parties.
Disaggregated Borders & the Global Erosion of the Right of Asylum: Research in Progress with Julianna Nielsen
How does the changing nature of borders—shifting where and how boundaries are exercised by states and experienced by people on the move – interact with the right and practice of seeking asylum under the 1951 Refugee Convention and, in particular, its 31st Article? Walls, fences, deportations, and detentions have become flashpoints in academic and popular condemnations of the inhumane and violent means through which states exercise borders and manage mobilities. Although there remains much to be said about the very real human impacts of what Wendy Brown (2010) described as the theatrics of national security, stability, and sovereignty, manifest in the global proliferation of wall-building projects, the intent of this talk is the examine the theoretical and the human consequences of quiet administrative and technical strategies of border and migration governance. Reflecting on her early stages of research, this discussion explores some of the methodological questions and debates shaping contemporary approaches to understanding (and critiquing) contemporary border practices which increasingly challenge the application and spirit of the Refugee Convention.
The Birth of a Ridiculous Mouse: U.S. Citizen Diplomacy in the Creation of American Democracy Abroad with Katrina Ponti
This discussion explores a framework of strategies used by U.S. citizens abroad the expand the nation’s definition of democracy after the Revolution. This perpetuated a more nuanced, ad hoc foreign policy that included global pushes for economic and public relations that helped pave the way for the long-term security of American democracy in a world of aristocratic empires.
The governance of ‘vulnerable’ migrants - who decides? with Dagmar Soennecken
Legal and policy instruments at the global and European level increasingly emphasize the need to address the specific needs of vulnerable migrants. But what does it mean to be vulnerable?
This talk is part of a larger, three-year, international research project (VULNER) funded by SSHRC, the FRQSC and the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. The aim of the VULNER project is to investigate this question through field research in Europe (Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Norway), Africa (Uganda and South Africa), the Middle East (Lebanon), and North America (Canada).
The talk will present some of our early, Canadian findings. It will contrast the way that vulnerability is currently employed throughout Canada’s refugee resettlement program with that of Canada’s inland asylum determinations.
Reimagining international law(s): Part 1 with Natalie Oman
This talk is part of a larger project that aims to make the classical sources of international law "do new work in the present." This project reinterprets these sources – which include treaties, customary international law, and general principles – from within the dominant occidental paradigm of international law, in order to reveal and challenge the foundational assumptions of an exclusionary system of international law built upon the non-recognition of Indigenous and other non-state peoples.
In part of a two-part series of Global Talks, Natalie Oman examines a historically-neglected class of general principles that, unlike other established sources of international law, does not originate in the juris generative authority of states. General principles of this class include human rights and human rights protection norms such as sustainable development, the principles of prevention and precaution, and the right to a healthy environment. The democratizing and inclusionary potential of this source of international law will be the focus of this presentation.
The effects of multi-level structures on the fulfilment of international environmental commitments. A comparative study of Canada, the European Union and beyond with Johannes Müller Gómez
Why do France and Australia perform better in implementing the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands than Germany and Switzerland? Why is the EU more on track to meet its Paris climate targets than Canada? Johannes' research project aims to advance our knowledge of a political system’s capability to fulfil its international environmental commitments by bringing comparative federalism into international compliance research. Multi-level structures, i.e. federalism and decentral governance, increase the number of veto players, fragment decision-making processes and significantly influence the incentive structures of political actors. Nevertheless, the literature has so far neglected these effects. Johannes' project shows that multi-level structures matter in the fulfilment of international commitments and can affect the process both positively and negatively.
Understanding and Improving Transboundary Water(shed) Governance with Ben Perrier
The purpose of this Global Talk was to exchange on the current state of transboundary water governance between Canada and the United States, with a focus on the evolution of the Columbia River Treaty. It is also a question of asking ourselves about the challenges and evolution in progress as well as about the future prospects. The theoretical aspect is based on the distinction between international law and transnational law. The main argument is to stress that the legal approach to transnational law effectively complements the dimension of classical international relations. According to us, this legal transnationalism would strengthen the inter-local governance of transboundary watersheds in addition to the classical international relations. In doing so, these transnational relations are also a field of study of legal pluralism and of possible paradigm shifts between hierarchical national/international law and a more open and inclusive networked law. In a word, transnational relations are a type of subsidiarity in relation to international law. With regard to the process of modernization of the Columbia River Treaty, it is necessary to question the role and legal power of all political and legal entities concerned with the Columbia River, and in particular of authorities and legitimacies other than those of the federal states and the federated states. The Canada-U.S. border thus appears to be a privileged place to study critically the existence of international and transnational relationships for the benefit of the shared and balanced governance of complex ecosystems. The transnational governance of waters and transboundary basins may appear as one of the most promising ways to respond to ecosystemic logics and future challenges.
The Global State of Democracy after Biden's First 100 Days with Amarnath Amarasingam, Chris Kilford and Carole Petersen
CFGS partnered with the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives and the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society to host a panel discussion reflecting on the global state of democracy after President Biden's first 100 days in office. From the rise of QAnon to the crisis in Hong Kong, Dr. Amarnath Amarasingam, Dr. Chris Kilford, and Dr. Carole Peterson discussed how issues of political polarisation, economic and social inequality, right-wing populism, national, 'conspirituality' and extremism all challenge the global state of democracy. By looking back on the first 100 days of the Biden administration and, in recognition of the urgency at which these issues must be addressed, panellists discussed what has already been done and what challenges the Biden administration faces going forward. This event was co-moderated by Dr. Paul Bramadat (Director, Centre for Studies in Religion and Society), Dr. Paul Ramraj (Director, Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives), and Dr. Oliver Schmidtke (Director, Centre for Global Studies).
How can participatory media raise citizen voice in international development contexts? with Tamara Plush
In this talk, Dr. Plush presented her findings into how participatory media practice might sufficiently raise citizen voice when situated in international development contexts. The resulting knowledge and conceptual framework from her PhD aim to help PV practitioners—and those interested in applying community-based media approaches in development and research—navigate complex development environments that hold potential to either enable or diminish the voices of society’s most vulnerable citizens. The discussion focused on how participatory media practitioners can expand possibilities for practice to meaningfully support citizen voice in being heard, valued and influential.
A Configurational Approach to the Effectiveness of Organizational Responses to Plural and Complex Institutional Environments: Lessons from the Canadian Oil Pipeline Industry with Juan Francisco Chavez
On March 31st we welcome CFGS Graduate Student Fellow, Juan Francisco Chavez to present on his doctoral research. His study analyses the hearing transcripts of 35 oil pipeline projects reviewed by the National Energy Board of Canada between 1993 and 2018 to explore the casual complexity of the effectiveness of organisational responses to plural and complex institutional environments. The preliminary results of this study suggest that notions of plurality and complexity can and should be operationalized separately as they influence differently the higher or lower effectiveness of organisational responses. Likewise, he observes that the effectiveness of organisational responses to plural and complex institutional environments depends on the interplay of being responsive to stakeholders concerns while addressing these concerns with specialists rather than generalists.
The COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges & Insights One-Year On with Dr. Mitchell Hammond, Dr. Robert Huish, and Dr. Dzifa Dordunoo
It has been a year since the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 virus the cause of a worldwide pandemic. On March 17th, 2021 we welcomed Dr. Mitchell Hammond (番茄社区), Dr. Robert Huish (Dalhousie University), and Dr. Dzifa Dordunoo (番茄社区) for a discussion on how our world has changed over the past year. Speakers discussed the tensions that have emerged as individuals and nations considered their interests and obligations at various levels of society. Discussion focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted issues of public shaming, pandemic stigma, and scientific racism.
Sex Based Discrimination and the Indian Act: Time for Repatriations? with Éloïse Ouellet-Décoste
On March 10th we welcome Visiting Graduate Student Éloïse Ouellet-Décoste to present on her dissertation research. Éloïse's presentation discussed Canada’s obligation under international law to provide adequate, full and effective reparation for the historic and contemporary violations of Indigenous women’s rights in order to explore the scope and content of the right to reparation in the context of Settler colonialism.
Creating Spaces of Engagement: Policy Justice and the Practical Craft of Deliberative Democracy with Sarah Wiebe
In this talk, Sarah discussed her recently co-edited book with Dr. Leah Levac ‘Creating Spaces of Engagement: Policy Justice and the Practical Craft of Deliberative Democracy’. She discussed the guiding framework of “policy justice” and its application to the theory and practice of public engagement and drew upon specific local and global examples from the collection. She also elaborated upon some of the contributions of her chapter ‘Storytelling as Engagement: Learning from Youth Voices in Attawapiskat’, which speaks to a mixed media storytelling methodology to advance create approaches to community-engaged scholarship for social and environmental justice.
"Reconciliation is Dead”: Pluralism, Populism and Protest in the Wet’suwet’en Conflict with CFGS Graduate Student Fellow Keith Cherry
For decades, Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders have been asserting their jurisdiction over their lands and refusing consent for pipeline developments. In January 2019, Canadian police arrested 14 Wet’suwet’en members and forcibly opened their lands to pipeline construction. In response, the Wet’suwet’en called on their supporters to “Shut Down Canada”. Supporters responded with a nation-wide series of rail, port, and road blockades and occupations. The slogan of these protests became “reconciliation is dead”, signaling not just opposition to a pipeline, but rather a wholesale rejection of the current relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state. In this talk, Keith Cherry began to unpack some of the historical and ideological context of the Wet’suwet’en crisis and explored what it can tell us about pluralism, populism and the relationships between them.
"Guides of Water": Indigenous Hydro-Social Territories beyond Adaptation to Climate Change with CFGS Visiting Scholar Julian Yates
Julian's presentation focused on the role of kamayoq in contemporary water-related adaptation programs. Kamayoq are Quechua agents of animation and transformation in Peru’s Southern Andes. Their praxis pre-dates their role in the Inka state (1438-1533), as well as their contemporary roles in development and adaptation programing. In contemporary programs, kamayoq are regarded as community-based experts and educators in areas such as water and pastoral management. He addressed the implications of incorporating kamayoq knowledges, community relations, and hydro-pastoral practices into adaptation programming. His insights raise implications for our understanding of situated transformational processes (in environmental change), the co-production of knowledges in inter-cultural collective learning spaces, and a decolonial climate change politics.
Pursuit of the Unknown: Refugees in the Realm of ‘Crisis’ with CFGS Graduate Student Fellow Mehdi Hashemi
Over the past few years, the international community has faced several humanitarian crises resulting in recording high 74.70 million individuals seeking humanitarian protection within or outside of their home countries. While some refugee populations have been constructed as a refugee 'crisis' and have received international attention, other have not received a similar recognition. This crisis- versus non-crisis binary and its impact on refugee experiences and behaviours is at the forefront of Mehdi's research project: Does the international refugee crisis discourse impact individual refugees’ experiences and behaviours throughout their journeys? If so, what are the implications of such discourses? To answer this question, Mehdi is conducting a comparative case study of Syrian and Iranian refugees in the following six countries: Canada, the United States, England, Germany, Lebanon, and Turkey.
Exploring the Interdisciplinarity of Remembrance: The Relationship between Tourism and Sites of War Memory with Dr. Geoffrey Bird
Travelling to a battlefield, concentration camp, or cemetery can be a powerful personal experience. But tourism is also a front line in the politics of memory, myth, and legend along with what is silenced and forgotten. This presentation explored what has been happening at sites of war memory around the world, including Canada. Drawing on the work of the War Heritage Research Initiative and other sources, this discussion also explored how and what kind of inter- and intradisciplinary topics and approaches can deepen our understanding of the significance and role that war memory and remembrance play in shaping how we are as individuals, as a culture, and as a nation.
1, 2, 3, Action! Inuit Youth Engagement on Climate Change using Participatory Video with CFGS Graduate Student Fellow Maeva Gauthier
During this presentation, Maeva shared her journey of using participatory video to engage youth in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, on a topic they chose: climate change. She focused on knowledge co-production and, guided by a team of partners, these youth interviewed community members and other youth on the topic with the goal of producing a 22-minute video.
Beyond Shanghai: The Modern Chinese Artist in Paris with CFGS Faculty Fellow Angie Chau
This presentation conceptualised the art of transposition as a creative strategy that views artistic difference as its desired end result, foregrounding why and how writers and artists were compelled to adapt, borrow, and incorporate iconic markers of Chinese cultural identity. As an alternative to translation studies, transposition can better account for the fluid movement of texts and images among media, linguistic, and national modes. Viewing literature and art through the lens of transposition uncovers what remained recognisable overseas and also what was transformed in this context, showing how cultural difference was circulated and promoted to challenge existing notions about modern Chinese art to a global audience.
The Contentious Politics of Mega Oil Sands Pipeline Projects with CFGS Visiting Graduate Student Amy Janzwood
While the vast majority of oil pipeline projects in Canada have been successfully built, several mega oil sands projects within and passing through Canada have been cancelled or significantly delayed. In recent years, several proposed oil sands pipelines have received intense scrutiny from a variety of actors. However, scholars have not yet understood the linkages between social movements and the outcomes of pipeline projects. The presentation focuses on the causal influence of campaign coalitions against new mega oil sands pipelines using two in-depth cases studies - the Northern Gateway Pipelines (NGP) proposal and the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.
Our Two Far Norths: Environmental, Indigenous, Identity, and Security Challenges in Canada and Russia's Arcticsa's Arctics with CFGS Faculty Fellow Megan Swift
Canada and Russia are two major stakeholders for decisions of global significance on the circumpolar Arctic. These decisions include changing national boundaries as polar ice melts, ownership of strategic shipping lanes, the presence of nuclear submarines, ecological preservation through the declaration of national parks and other designated areas, indigenous territorial and language rights, changed patterns of migration and impacts to traditional ways of life. All of these themes are important not just for the Arctic regions themselves, but for Canadian and Russian national self-imagination, since both cultural identities are strongly tied to a geographical and imaginary North and far North.
Democracy and Community: Exploring a Conceptual Link in Light of the Populist Resugence with CFGS Director Oliver Schmidtke
A central force in propelling contemporary right-wing populist parties is their ability to offer a mobilizing and emotionally charged sense of community. A nationalist rhetoric and anti-immigrant sentiments are constitutive elements of right-wing populism. Manifestly, the plea of populists to re-establish the sovereign rights of the ‘people’ is not based on a democratic, participatory empowerment of the people in whose populist leaders claim to speak. Against the background of the populist surge in Western democracies, the presentation explored the link between democracy and community from a theoretical perspective arguing that the practice of democratic self-governance is indeed reliant on a substantial, functionally and procedurally pertinent sense of communal existence and shared collective identity.
Ethical Principles for Knowledge Sharing & Knowledge Coproduction with Elder Florence James, Ira Provost, Elmer Ghostkeeper, Karin Smith Fargey, Gleb Raygorodetsky, and Kelly Bannister
This co-presentation shared background information and highlighted some key elements of the new "Ethical Principles for Knowledge Sharing & Knowledge Coproduction" that are being developed as a tool to enable relationship-building and collaboration between western trained scientists and Indigenous communities. The Ethical Guidelines are comprised of nine interrelated principles that support the co-creation of ethical space for respectful cross-cultural knowledge exchanges while maintaining the integrity of the knowledge systems.
"Boomerangst": Affording an Aging Population and Long Term Care with Michael C. Wolfson
With baby boomers aging, the cost of long-term care is set to triple in the next 30 years. What’s our plan for dealing with this? We’ve known for decades that the boomer generation and Canadian demographic changes are coming. Sadly, in recent months this crisis has come to the forefront as the majority of deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in long term care facilities. Join Dr. Michael Wolfson to examine this urgency and how addressing the long-term care challenge must now more than ever be a national priority.
The COVID Pandemic and the Climate Emergency: Lessons in Governance with CFGS Associate Fellow Jon O'Riordan
This presentation covers the following three topics: "What are the elements of good governance for managing emergencies?"; "How fit for purpose are current levels of government?" and "What creative solutions in governance are required to tackle the climate emergency?". The conclusions are that none of the current forms of governance can avert a climate emergency. The creative solutions involve some form of polycentric governance as the issues are global in scale; a shift to ecological citizenship and substantive citizen engagement and education.
Geoengineering: Scenarios of potential geopolitical threats and governance responses with CFGS Associate Fellow Edward A. (Ted) Parson
The potential of engineered responses to actively manipulate the global environment and partly offset risks from elevated greenhouse gases has been a disruptive force on the margins of climate-change policy debates for a decade, which has grown more salient due to continued delays in enacting serious emissions controls and the current pandemic. A recent scenario exercise examined several possible forms of future geopolitical challenge from various actors’ pursuit of geoengineering deployment, and implications for near-term initiatives to develop international governance capacity.
Watch Edward A. (Ted) Parson's presentation !
with Katia Bannister and POLIS Co-Director Kelly Bannister
COVID-19 has put an end to the organizing of youth climate activists in the streets, but youth are continuing to fight for climate justice. Since social isolation requirements were put in place, youth have been climate striking digitally every week on Fridays. Despite the COVID crisis, the climate remains in peril so continuing to draw attention to the climate crisis is crucial. And the root cause of the current pandemic is more climate-related than one might think. But the dramatic response to the COVID-19 pandemic is in stark contrast to the lack of effective action on climate change, despite a number of similarities between the two threats. The visceral and immediate feelings that COVID-19 can trigger in the general public are not that different from the ones many youth activists feel about climate change–and a future earth that is inhospitable to humans within their lifetime. The time for climate action remains now and intergenerational collaboration is key.
"Israel’s Borders - As Yet Unfinished Business" with David Newman
Borders between Israel and her neighbours remain fragile, at the best, and undemarcated at the worst. Out of Israels’ five borders, only two (with Egypt and Jordan) have de jure international status, two (with Lebanon and Syria) remain to be finally agreed and demarcated, while a potential fifth border (with a future Palestinian State) remains undetermined as to whether it will eventually emerge.The traditional mantra of returning to the 1967 Green Line has largely been obliterated by Israeli de facto annexation and mass settlement activity (now numbering 500,000 settlers ). The recent Trump Peace Deal (the so called deal of the century) has attempted to change the ground rules for border demarcation by accepting Israel’s right to formally annex most of the settlements, enable land / territorial exchanges between the two sides, but still leaving any future Palestinian State with far less territory than that of the West Bank.
This presentation examines the changing dynamics of Israel’s borders, with a particular focus on Israel, the West bank and a future Palestinian State.
with CFGS Visiting Research Fellow Robert Huish
On April 29th, CFGS Visiting Fellow Robert Huish spoke about Cuba's medical internationalism, which is of exponential importance especially in times of corona.
In Cuba, it has been normal practice for decades to send health workers to various countries around the world to assist in emergencies. The well-being of the population is seen as the most important task of the state. Dr. Huish emphasized that benefits are generated there through cooperation and solidarity, and that it is therefore of enormous advantage to take Cuba as an example and model to follow and understand our options in uncertain times.
with CFGS Visiting Graduate Student David Romero Espitia
On April 22nd, CFGS Graduate Student David Romero Espitia presented his Global Talk all the way from Columbia! In this talk David argued that a new peacebuilding framework, one that reconsiders the terms of engagement between international, national and local actors is needed in order to foster effective peacebuilding efforts in contested transitional states. To support his argument, David used Columbia as a case study where he says a liberal "minimalist" peacebuilding effort is underway and the international community is contributing to the space for emancipation and the participation of civil society.
with BIG Project Lead Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly and Elisabeth Vallet
On April 15th, Dr. Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly and Dr. Elisabeth Vallet offered a special joint presentation on the effects of COVID-19 on borders and boundary lines. Dr. Brunet-Jailly began by exploring the various policy options that have been implemented around the world and discussed why international boundary lines are not the best place to implement health policies to control the spread of COVID-19. Then, Dr. Vallet continued the discussion on how, globally, states have reacted to COVID-19 by closing borders, and how public policies have been urgently defined at boy local and national levels. Arguing that the outcomes of the global health crisis rests on the notion of trust (or lack of trust) at the heart of the relationships not only between those who govern and those who are governed but also between states.
with CFGS Associate Fellow Budd Hall
Budd Hall and Rajesh Tandon, a UVic Honorary Doctorate recipient, and founding President of Participatory Research in Asia have worked together on matters of research and social justice for 40 years. In 2012, they were invited by UNESCO to apply for a Chair on the topic of Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility. Their mandate is to build research capacity in the global South and the excluded North in the field of community-based participatory research. Their work has involved several major global studies, extensive policy and advocacy work and since December of 2017, the creation of the Knowledge for Change Global Consortium on Training for Community Based Participatory Research.
Budd's presentation will briefly cover the mandate of the Chair, major activities to date and will explore a number of the challenges which currently engage both Budd and Rajesh Tandon.
"Stock Market Swings & the Economic Outlook in the Era of COVID-19 - &" with Michael R. King and Chris Lawless
Concerned about the wild gyrations in global stock markets over the past three weeks? Wondering what the impact of COVID-19 will be on the economy? Or curious about the impact of government policy measures and how investors may be addressing these challenges? Prof. Michael R. King and Chris Lawless, Executive-in-Residence and former Chief Economist at BCI, discuss historical precedents that provide insights for today's events.
The first portion of the presentation reviewed the timeline of events and market reactions to date, while the second portion focused attention on the economic outlook and implications.