Past Events

From 16 to 18 June 2026, the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies will host an online Summer Institute for undergraduate and graduate students focused on the configurations and impacts of socio-legal systems in Canada. The program will feature expert talks and hands-on workshops.

Hannah Arendt, Sherene Razack and others have shown that a lot can be learned about a society by examining who, in practice, has a right to assert their claims and identity through socio-legal frameworks. This is especially the case for individuals and groups whose claims are intersecting or overlapping, who often finding themselves caught in the crack of siloed systems. This year’s Summer Institute will examine how individuals and groups in Canada interact with socio-legal systems in complex and interlocking ways, including based on gender and gender identity, race, class, ability, age, language, sexual orientation, geography, migration status and so forth.

Specialized lectures will cover topics such as consequences of legal frameworks on particular groups, and how individuals navigate such systems for their claims to prevail. Workshops will address critical approaches to online archival work, use of multi-media data collection for analysis, and publishing practices in the humanities and social sciences.

Registration for the Summer Institute will open on 7 January 2026 and last until 29 May 2026.

To register and learn more, please visit https://www.yorku.ca/research/robarts/robarts-summer-institute-2026-online/.  

Participants who attend eight (8) sessions will have the option of receiving a certificate of completion.

International Symposium (online)
Hi/Stories at the Crossroads: Intersectionality and Canadian Narratives
Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, York University, Toronto | May 22, 2026

Intersectionality, as a framework for understanding how multiple social identities and systems of inequality overlap to shape people’s experiences of privilege and oppression, helps explain why the effects of different forms of discrimination are not experienced in isolation but interact in complex ways.  Engaging intersectionality in Canadian narratives involves looking at how overlapping identities (race, gender, class, disability, sexuality, indigeneity, immigration status, etc.) shape characters, communities, and storytelling across genres and media. We are interested in exploring complex colonial and Indigenous sovereignties; multicultural and multilingual fabric; regional diversity and geography; policy and institutional contexts; Indigenous resurgence and reconciliation discourse; diverse media ecosystems and formats; histories of migration, bilingualism, and transnational connections; and Canada as a social project.

This international symposium hopes to open a discussion about the possibilities and limitations that various intersectionality theories set for practicing literary and cultural analysis.

This event is co-organized by the Institute of Literature and New Media, Faculty of Humanities, University of Szczecin; and Institute of Romance Studies, Faculty of Modern Languages, University of Warsaw.

We invite you to join us ONLINE on Friday, May 22, 2026.
Click on the following link to register (free):
https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/qOBLmgdQRYO0NVEHS0cQcw

For the full event schedule:
https://www.yorku.ca/research/robarts/2026/05/09/hi-stories/

CHAIR

• Soma Chatterjee, Associate Professor, Social Work, York University

MODERATOR

• Roopa Desai Trilokekar, Associate Professor, Education, York University

SPEAKERS FROM THE RAIS COLLECTIVE

• Ann H. Kim, Associate Professor, Sociology, York University
• Sophie Xiaoyi Liu, PhD Candidate, Sociology, University of British Columbia
• Lori Wilkinson, Professor, Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba
• Jean Michel Montsion, Professor, Department of Global & Social Studies, York University

DISCUSSANT

• Lisa Brunner, Research Associate, Centre for Migration Studies, University of British Columbia

This event is co-sponsored by Fernwood Publishing and the York Centre for Asian Research.

Gateways to Trade: Global Value Chains and Governance in Canadian Cities

16 April 2026, 1:00 pm EST (Zoom) | Register Here

A book launch presented by the CIVIS: Urban Governance and Citizenship
Research Cluster, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies

Join us for a book launch with the authors of Gateways to Trade, a groundbreaking study investigating the role of global value chains, infrastructure, and governance in four Canadian cities, and the corresponding challenges posed to urban democracy.

This talk will be moderated by Patricia Wood (Faculty Lead, CIVIS).

Authors

Dorval Brunelle, Retired Professor, Sociology, Université du Québec à Montréal

Claudia De Fuentes, Professor, Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University

Peter V. Hall, Professor, Urban Studies, Simon Fraser University

Jean Michel Montsion, Professor, Global and Social Studies, Glendon College

Discussants

Mariana Valverde, Professor, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto

Sergio Montero, Associate Professor, Geography & Planning, University of Toronto

Jean Paul Addie, Associate Professor, Urban Studies, Georgia State University

Defining Canada: Mark Carney in the Tradition of Canadian Prime Ministerial Rhetoric

Wednesday April 15, 2026, 1:00 - 2:00 pm ET | Register Here

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’s 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’ 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’s 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-Réseau d'éudes canadiennes.

The Robarts Centre & Centre for Indigenous Knowledges & Languages Presents: Decolonizing Research

A Robarts Connects Event

26 March 2026 | 2:00 - 3:00 pm | Register Here

This workshop will engage with questions about how to decolonize research through working with Indigenous persons and communities. It will explore Indigenous research methods, such as two-eyed seeing and the Four Rs for Indigenous engagement (Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, Responsibility).

Speakers:

Ben Waswa (Eabametoong First Nation), PhD candidate in History, York University

Dr. Elaine Coburn, Professor of International Studies, Glendon College, York University

Moderator: Dr. Carolyn Podruchny, Professor of History, York University, Deputy Director, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies

You are invited to the launch of Soma Chatterjee’s new book, Skills to Build the Nation: Immigrant Labour Market and Canadian Nationalism (University of Toronto Press). Soma will be in conversation with York University faculty Shirin Shahrokni (Sociology), Lalaie Ameeriar (Anthropology) and Ethel Tungohan (Politics). Refreshments (Lebanese and Indian) will be served.

Click here to register.

Date: Thursday, March 12, 2026
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Venue: Another Story Bookshop
315 Roncesvalles Ave.
Toronto, ON
Canada M6R 2M6

This event is endorsed by the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, the Global Labour Research Centre, and the York Centre for Asian Research.

This is the inaugural event for of International Higher Education: Ethics, Politics, and Labour research cluster. More information about the cluster's research goals can be found here: https://www.yorku.ca/research/robarts/international-higher-education-ethics-politics-labour/.

Imagining Canada through Heated Rivalry: a queer of colour perspective

Wednesday March 11, 2026,1:00 – 2:00 pm EST | Register here

Speaker: Dr. John Paul (JP) Catungal, Assistant Professor, Social Justice Institute, University of British Columbia

Description

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’s 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’s own narrative, if one looks closely. Engaging a queer of colour perspective, I highlight how Heated Rivalry‘s narrative socio-spatialities – especially the ice, the cottage and the international stage – 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 “Filipino Canadian studies in, on and through British Columbia”. He is also designer and author of the Heated Rivalry syllabus, available here. He received the UBC Killam Teaching Prize in 2025.

This “What is Happening in Canada?” event is a collaboration with the UBC Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement and the UBC Canadian Studies Program.

What is ‘public’ about public transportation? The question of accessibility

27 February 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 am EST | Register Here

Although ‘the public’ in public transportation is rarely defined or interrogated, discourses about public transportation are shot through with assumptions about public space, public goods, and public life. Who is the ‘public’ of public transportation? To what extent do existing public transportation offerings provide universal, accessible, sustainable, and democratic urban mobility?

In this panel, researchers from different disciplines whose work is grounded in questions of dis/ability share some of their research and thoughts on how we should frame and explore accessibility in public transportation as a question of urban politics.

Speakers

• Ron Buliung, Geography, University of Toronto
• Mahtot Gebresselassie, EUC, York University
• Aimi Hamraie, Social Science, York University
• Commentary from James Perttula, Director of Transportation Planning, City of Toronto

This event is organized by the CIVIS research cluster at the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies and co-sponsored by the CITY Institute. The event will be supported with live captioning. Please contact robarts@yorku.ca for any access needs.

Robarts-CYPIRN Connects: Ethics in Research with Children and Young People
26 February 2026 | 11:30 am - 1:00 pm EST | Register Here

Are you conducting research with children and/or youth? Are you interested in learning more about research ethics with these populations?

Our speakers bring a range of research experience to this panel and will be sharing some of their encounters with ethical issues and dilemmas in their research projects with young people. Join us online for thought-provoking presentations followed by an open discussion with the speakers.

Speakers: 

• Dr. Stephanie Fearon, Faculty of Education, York University
• Dr. Abigail Shabtay, Children, Childhood & Youth Studies, York University
• Dr. Julia Sinclair-Palm, Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia
• Dr. Kael Reid, Children, Childhood & Youth Studies, York University

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 | Register Here

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 “backstory” to my forthcoming, co-authored book, Immigration and Canada: Sixteen Questions (MQUP).

This talk will be moderated by Daniel Béland, Director of the McGill Institute for the Study 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 - Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism: Immigration Bureaucrats and Policymaking in Postwar Canada- 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’s immigration system and its effects on immigrants and Canadian society. This compact “explainer” is co-authored with Mireille Paquet (Concordia University) and will be available soon as part of the Canadian Essentials series at McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Emerging Scholars Roundtable (CYPIRN)

30 January 2026 | 11:30 - 1:00 pm | 7th Floor, Kaneff Tower

Please join us for an interesting and varied panel by emerging scholars who conduct research that focuses on children and young people. All of the presenters are currently engaged in graduate-level research (MA, M.Ed., and PhD) here at York University. A discussion will follow the presentations and refreshments will be served.

Come and learn about important research projects and network with some of York's emerging scholars!

This event is co-hosted by the Children and Young People Interdisciplinary Research Network (CYPIRN) and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies.