Co-Presidents: 

Laura Bisaillon is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Toronto. She studies the social organization of medical, legal and bureaucratic knowledge. Her book Screening Out (2022) is an institutional ethnography of HIV-related practices in the Canadian immigration medical program. She was awarded Best Book in Canadian Studies from the Canadian Studies Network and Best Book Honourable Mention from the Canadian Sociological Association. Her documentary The Unmaking of Medical Inadmissibility debuted at the 2022 Canadian Labour International Film Festival. She is currently working on two books. The first is an ethnography of fishers’ responses to infrastructure projects beginning in 1950s in Rustico, Prince Edward Island. The second is a biography of the late feminist sociologist Dorothy E. Smith within the story of Canadian sociology during the 1970s and 1980s. These three books are conceptual companions that document, analyze and produce new understandings of Canadian society.

Raymond B. Blake is Professor of history at the University of Regina and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is formerly the Director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University and has held several appointments in Canadian Studies, including the Craig Dobbin Chair in Canadian Studies at University College Dublin. He is also the author, co-author and editor of more than 20 books. His most recent book is Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity.  

Outgoing-President:

Chantal Richard is a full professor in the Department of French at the University of New Brunswick. Her research focuses on languages and cultures in contact, and the emergence and evolution of Acadian identity from the 17th century to the contemporary period. Author of a critical edition of Napoléon Landry's Poèmes acadiens and co-author of volumes one and two of the Conventions nationales acadiennes, Chantal Richard recently guest-edited a special issue of the Journal of New Brunswick Studies/La Revue d’études sur le Nouveau-Brunswick on Acadians and the Wolastoqiyik people of the St. John River/Wolastoq. She has published numerous articles and book chapters in Acadian literature and history and created a dabatase of Acadian and New Brunswick Newspapers titled Vocabularies of Identity. She was also guest curator of an exhibit on the Acadians of Pointe Sainte-Anne (1692-1759) at the Fredericton Region Museum.

Secretary/Treasurer: 

Lindsay Thistle is a Sessional Faculty Member at Wilfrid Laurier University and Trent University where she teaches courses in English Literature, Communication Studies, Cultural Studies, and Canadian Studies. Her research focuses on plays about war in Canadian theatre from 1960 until present date and includes publications on radio drama about war, theatre as a site of reimagining history, representations of the “War on Terror” in the media and theatre, dramatic interventions in war legacies, and the use of fairy tale tropes in plays about war. In 2025, she’ll hold a Craig Dobbin Legacy Scholarship at University College Dublin for her current research project, “Staging World War II and the Holocaust: Violence and Victims in the Age of Heroism, 1945-1975.” Additionally, she is a passionate theatre artist who uses drama to interact with historical narratives and events.

Member at large:

Professor Eve Haque is the York Research Chair in Linguistic Diversity and Community Vitality at York University (Canada). She is also co-editor for the TOPIA: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. Her research and teaching interests include multiculturalism, white settler colonialism and language policy, with a focus on the regulation and representation of racialized im/migrants in white settler societies. She has published widely on these topics and is also the author of Multiculturalism within a Bilingual Framework: Language, Race and Belonging in Canada published with University of Toronto Press.

John Bessai is an Assistant Professor at Okanagan College and the University College of the North, specializing in Canadian history, media studies, and environmental communication. His research focuses on the intersections of media, public discourse, and cultural policy, particularly emphasizing the National Film Board of Canada (NFBC) and its role in shaping democratic engagement through storytelling. His doctoral dissertation, Art as a Public Service: The National Film Board of Canada’s Role in Shaping Democratic Dialogues and Societal Transformation, examines the NFBC’s contributions to public engagement, Indigenous representation, and digital media innovation.

In addition to his academic work, Bessai has an extensive background in media production. He is the creator and producer of GreenHeroes, a TV and web series aired on TVO that integrates environmental storytelling with interactive digital media. His previous projects include The Paul Kane Interactive Project, a museum-based digital storytelling initiative for the Royal Ontario Museum. His research and creative practice explore documentary filmmaking, transmedia narratives, and the role of publicly funded storytelling in democratic discourse.

Bessai has presented his research at leading international conferences, including James Madison University’s 15th Annual AAAD Interdisciplinary Conference, the Global New Voices Conference in London, the Northeast Conference on British Studies at Amherst College, and the Territory, Tension, and Taboo: Canada in Crisis conference at the University of Bremen. He has also contributed to discussions on Canadian cultural narratives, digital democracy, and media arts scholarship at institutions such as Yale University, Carleton University, San Francisco State University, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

His work has been published in Scaffold: The Journal of Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, and Culture and H-Net Reviews, with forthcoming articles in Literature, Critique, and Empire Today, Human Rights Education Review, Journal of Cultural Policy and Global Engagement, and Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies.

Committed to interdisciplinary research and public scholarship, Bessai continues developing courses integrating critical media analysis, digital storytelling, and public engagement. He is actively pursuing new academic opportunities and hopes to secure a tenure-track position. More information about his work can be found at www.johnbessai.com.

Graduate Student Representative:

Jenni Makahnouk, an Anishinaabe woman from Lac Seul First NationShe is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Education and Society at McGill University, focusing on both Indigenous language revitalization and beading as pedagogy. In 2024, she made history as the first Anishinaabe woman to graduate as valedictorian from McGill University. She founded an Anishinaabemowin language study group, served as the first Indigenous Co-Editor of the McGill Canadian Studies Undergraduate Journal in 2022–2023 and as President of the Indigenous Students Association, where she spearheaded initiatives to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for Indigenous students. Her creative endeavors include several beading projects, such as the ongoing Invisible Indian series. Her beaded works have been exhibited in and around Montreal, highlighting the profound connections between art, identity, and resilience