2021 Bridgewater Symposium

Bridgewater State University Undergraduate Research Conference

The conference, hosted by the American Studies Program and the Canadian Studies Program and featuring three WWU students, took place on Friday, April 2, 2021.

Student Presentation Topics

Panel 1A. Immigrant and Refugee Experiences: Then and Now

Lucienne Quirk, Bridgewater State University
The Vietnam Brain Drain: An Exodus of Educated Americans to Canada

Jonnell Richard, SUNY Plattsburgh
Social Reactions to Haitian Immigrants in Canada and the United States Post World War II

Stephanie E. Amoah and Sofia Palma Florido, McMaster University
The Alien Womb: Systematic review of the gendered experience of migrant mothers and their interactions with receiving communities in the United States of America

Sophie Sklar, McGill University
Mapping the Journey to Freedom: The Voice of a Fugitive and Canada as a Safe Haven for Escaped Slaves

Cian McEneaney, Bridgewater State University
Irish Famine Immigration and the Quebecois

Panel 1B. Women, War, and the Quest for Oui

Rylie Moscato, Acadia University
Writing Women into History: Margaret Atwood’s and Dionne Brand’s Interrogation and Relocation of Power

Candace Gagne, Bridgewater State University
Women’s Rights and the Suffrage Movement in Quebec

Jennifer Munson, University of Maine
The Dieppe Raid: Avoidable Disaster or Lesson in Amphibious Assault?

Zachariah Rowland, Bridgewater State University
French Canadians and the Canadian Army, c. 1867-1918

Juan Morales, Bridgewater State University
The 1995 Referendum in Quebec

Panel 2A. Immigration and Refugee Policy

Emmelyn Affeldt, Western Washington University
Community Sponsorship of Refugees: How Canada Can be a Model for the United States

Charles Hongseok Choi, McGill University
Preferential Refugee Policies in Postwar Canada

Katherine Jardine, Acadia University
Gender, Sexuality, and Immigration Policy: Chinese-Canadian Experiences

M. Joseph, York University
Out of Place: Racialized Bodies at the USA-Canada Border

Panel 2B. Education and Popular Culture in Canada and Quebec

Christopher Smith, Bridgewater State University
Les insolences du Frère Untel and Education Reform in Quebec’s Quiet Revolution

Hannah Smelter, St. Lawrence University
Expo ’67:  Celebrating Canada as a Different Kind of North American Nation

Kat Rice, Brock University
Setting the Expectation: How American Success at the World Junior Hockey Championships Is a Canadian Product

Derek Williams, Bridgewater State University
Hockey and Indigenous Identities in Quebec

James Wright, Bridgewater State University
Competing Nationalisms in Quebec Sport: Nordiques vs Canadiens in the 1980s

Panel 2C. Indigenous Peoples

Alex Crisman, Bridgewater State University
Indigenous Peoples and Nationalism in Quebec

Natale Szabo, Western Washington University
Indigenous Free Movement:  A First Step Towards Reconciliation in the U.S. and Canada

Mallory Forcier, Bridgewater State University,
Indigenous Peoples in Quebec

Beverly Marsden, Brock University
Burying the Hatchet: Addressing Disproportionate Media Representations of Indigenous Missing and Murdered Peoples

Thomas Gadbois, Bridgewater State University
Conflicts between the Quebec State and Indigenous Peoples

Keynote Address

Dr. Neil Forkey, Department of History, St. Lawrence University (Canton, NY)
“Powering Dissent: Popular Opposition to Public Utilities in the St. Lawrence River Watershed, Ontario-New York-Quebec, c. 1970s”

Panel 3A. Trade, Security, Diplomacy, and Borders

Alexandra Selene, Western Washington University
The Economic Effects of the COVID-19 Border Closure between America and Canada in Small Border Towns

Sebastian Farkas, Acadia University
Canadian Climate Change Policy: A Commitment to Environmental Securitization and its effects on the Athabasca Oil Sands

John Oshei, University at Buffalo
Canadian Trade and Technology between China and the USMCA

Dael Vasquez, York University
Branding as Soft Power: How Canada’s International Image Renders Hard Borders Pliable  

Lauren Millett, Acadia University 
Extractive Expansion: Transnational Trade and Colonialism in through the British East India Company, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the Russian-American Company 

Panel 3B. Themes in Canada-United States-Quebec Relations

Amy Doucette, University of Lethbridge
Gun Violence in Canada and the United States of America

Philippe Granger, Université du Québec à Montréal
A Matter of Perspective? A Comparative Analysis of Progressivism in Quebec and in the United States

Deitrich Wahl, Bridgewater State University
Quebec, the Civil War, and Canadian Confederation

Jake Cuneo, Bridgewater State University
The CCTC the AFL and the Rise of Labor Nationalism in Quebec

Katharine Desmarais, Bridgewater State University
American Television: The Canadian-American Border