CSN Best Article Published in the Journal of Canadian Studies Prize

Best Article Published in the Journal of Canadian Studies, Volume 57, Issues 1-3

Darren Reid, “‘Compound Dispossession’ in Southern Ontario: Converging Trajectories of Colonial Dispossession and Inter-Indigenous Conflict, 1886-1900” JCS/REC 57.1 (winter 2023)

This article provides a nuanced analysis of the relations between Indigenous nations in Southern Ontario in the late nineteenth century. Proposing the useful heuristics of “compound dispossession” and “nested sovereignty”, the author examines two conflicts: between the Six Nations of the Grand River and the Mississauga of the Credit and between the Chippewa of the Thames and the Munsee of the Thames. He shows how settler pressures on land forced Indigenous groups to assert their sovereignty in apparently contradictory ways. Acknowledging his position as a non-Indigenous historian researching the Aborigines’ Protection Society in its broad, British imperial context, Reid provides an innovative and critical contribution to the historiography of colonialism and Indigenous expressions of sovereignty.

Honourable mention:

Lynda Harling Stalker and Patricia Cormack, “Staying the Blazes Home: Group Charisma, Government Messaging and COVID-19” JCS/REC, 57.1 (winter 2023)

Harling Stalker and Cormack develop a compelling argument about the ways that the Nova Scotia government framed COVID-19 restrictions and appealed to seemingly folksy provincial identities tied up with expressions of whiteness. This is a theoretically nuanced demonstration of the ways that power operates through unifying statements. Engaging and articulate, this article has broad interdisciplinary appeal, and it is a topical and timely reflection on the regional experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This regional approach, fundamental to Canadian Studies writ large, will be a welcome addition to classroom teaching.

The CSN warmly thanks the committee members for this prize.