Dr. Elizabeth Elliot-Meisel, associate professor of History at Creighton University (Omaha, Nebraska), will serve as Trent’s first Fulbright Research Chair in Comparative Canada-U.S. Studies after being appointed by the School for the Study of Canada and the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Foundation. 

Dr. Elliot-Meisel’s research takes an interdisciplinary and cross-border approach to U.S.-Canada relations in the Arctic, specifically the Northwest Passage. 

In a press release, the Director of the School for the Study of Canada, Dr. Heather Nicol, noted Dr. Elliot-Meisel “will be an incredibly rich resource for students seeking a better understanding of our historical relationship with our southern neighbours.”

“Trent’s long-standing reputation as a leader in Canadian Studies stands, in part, on its encouragement of students to ask challenging questions about Canada’s past,” Dr. Elliot-Meisel said. “I’m looking forward to engaging in this discourse and helping to deepen students’ understanding of Canada and its relationship with the United States.”

While at Trent, Dr. Elliot-Meisel will teach a four-year course on Comparative Public Memory and Public History in both the United States and Canada.

In recognition of the inaugural Fulbright Research Chair and the continuing celebration of fifty years of Canadian Studies, the School for the Study of Canada hosted a public lecture by Fulbright Canada’s CEO, Dr. Michael Hawes, titled “Canada-U.S. Relations in a Complex and Uncertain World” in Bagnani Hall at Traill College on September 27th.

During his lecture, Dr. Hawes traced the relationship between successive Canadian Prime Ministers and U.S. Presidents over the past fifty years in an attempt to understand how domestic policy decisions over the course of this period demonstrate the dependence each nation has on the other. 

The question and answer period allowed community members to engage in discussions about what they see as the contemporary influence of American culture in Canadian politics which allowed Dr. Hawes the opportunity to elaborate on where he sees the relationship moving in the future and what we might expect. 

In the end, Dr. Hawes did not seem convinced that any measure of “Americanization” would infiltrate our political or social systems, despite audience members raising concerns about the creeping privatization of Ontario’s medical system and the fact Pierre Poilievre recently won the CPC leadership race by claiming he was a “Candidate for Prime Minister.”  

Dr. Hawes, who began his academic career at Queen’s University in 1985, has led Fulbright Canada since 2001. His most recent books include 1968: A Year and Its Legacies (2021), Canadian Public Diplomacy (2018), and Canadian Foreign Policy in a Unipolar World (2018).