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.

Vice-President:

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.

Secretary/Treasurer: 

Satwinder Kaur Bains is the Director of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley and an Associate Professor in the School of Culture, Media and Society, College of Arts. Dr Bains’ research interests include the study the impact of language, culture and identity on South Asian Canadian migration, settlement, and integration, anti-racist curriculum implementation; identity politics; migration and the South Asian Canadian Diaspora and politics as well as Punjabi Canadian cultural historiography. Dr Bains is the Chair of the Knowledge Network, Director of the Abbotsford Community Foundation and has served as a Commissioner on the Agricultural Land Commission, as a Director of the Fraser Basin Council, as a Bencher on the Law Society of British Columbia and as a member of the Farm Industry Review Board for British Columbia.

Member at large:

Jean Michel Montsion is Associate Professor in the Canadian Studies Program at Glendon College, York University. He is also the Director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies. He has published several articles and book chapters in urban, social and political geography, focusing on several aspects of the contemporary transformation of Canadian gateway cities, including migration patterns, international education and transportation for commercial purposes. He recently co-edited a special issue of the journal Comparative and International Education titled “International Students from Asia in Canada’s Postsecondary Institutions: Disconnections and Connections.”

Member at large: 

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, forthcoming May 2024.  

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