Winner:

Canada as a Settler Colony on the Question of Palestine, Jeremy Wildeman and M. Muhannad Ayyash, editors, University of Alberta Press

This year’s winner of the Canadian Studies Network prize for Best Edited Collection in Canadian Studies is a timely contribution of essays that challenges a decades-old Canadian self-image of a middle-power peacekeeper. Sparked by a colloquium on the topic in 2019, the book’s prescience and relevance in the current historical moment is revealing of the ongoing relevance of its contributions. Starting from the premise that “Canada is a settler colony at home, as well as abroad,” it offers a diverse range of contributions that approaches Canada-Palestine relations in Canadian foreign policy as well as its echoes within Canadian society through the lens of settler colonialism. Its thematic approach is well-threaded together by the editors in presenting the collection. Contributions on how Canadian foreign policy initiatives and project funding serve to obscure power imbalances are particularly strong, while analyses of media coverage and organized lobbying on behalf of Israel provide compelling research on how public discussion about Israel and Palestine often remains largely circumscribed and contained. Finally, chapters on Palestinian community life and activism in Canada provide much-needed light on the challenges and successes of Palestinians working to have their voices heard while simultaneously establishing community and identity in Canada. The compelling foreword by Anishinaabe scholar Veldon Coburn poignantly reminds readers that, while Canadians have been compelled by Indigenous nations to grapple with their own settler history at home, a similar reckoning is needed for Canadian foreign policy. This collection is an important contribution to that discussion.

Honourable mention:

Around the Kitchen Table: Métis Aunties' Scholarship, Laura Forsythe and Jennifer Markides, editors, University of Manitoba Press.

The committee for the Canadian Studies Network’s Best Edited Collection prize wishes to declare an honorable mention for Around the Kitchen Table: Métis Aunties' Scholarship, edited by Laura Forsythe and Jennifer Markides. This collection offers a rich contemplation of Métis women’s scholarship, shifting from disciplines and topics as wide-ranging as education, healthcare, spirituality, sexuality and governance amongst many others. The committee was particularly struck by how the collection interwove a variety of multimedia and reimagined the colonial constraints of academic publishing. We also noted the centrality of collaborative scholarship to this volume and how this worked to rethink academic models of authorship and authority as well as centred a practice of conversation. 

The CSN warmly thanks the committee members for this prize.