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September 19, 2025

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

POLITICAL SCIENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS

POLI 2025 LANSDOWNE VISITOR

POLI UGRAD MEET & GREET
Wednesday, September 24, 4-6 pm, VERTIGO LOUNGE, SUB
Mark your calendars for the annual POLI Undergrad Meet and Greet. This event is a great opportunity to share information about the department as well as build a strong connection with our incoming students.

POLI-CAPI SEMINAR: SIYUAN YIN, School of Communication, SFU
“Contesting Inequalities: Mediated Labor Activism and Rural Migrant Workers in China”
Friday, September 26, 2:30-4 pm, .
Over the past decades, China’s rapid economic growth has created the world’s second-largest economy, yet social inequality has deepened, particularly for rural migrant workers. Harsh labor conditions have fueled rising worker protests, but in China’s authoritarian context, strikes often face suppression and receive scant mainstream coverage. As a result, alternative mediated practices have become crucial and complex elements of worker resistance. In Contesting Inequalities, Siyuan Yin examines the historical and structural forces shaping the experiences of migrant workers, especially women, and the interplay between media and collective action. Drawing on long-term, multi-sited, and digital ethnography, and informed by feminist methodologies, Yin analyzes mediated labor activism through theater, advocacy music, and digital community media. She shows how these practices foster new subjectivities, counter-discourses, and informal networks and demonstrates that the rise in Chinese working-class resistance underscores the deep connections between class struggles and feminist activism.

CONGRATULATIONS TO GEORGE ABBOTT, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR
Congratulations to George on the publication of his recent book, titled Unceded: Understanding British Columbia's Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now. As the title suggests, Unceded looks at the remarkable persistence of colonial policies and prejudices across BC’s history, including some voices in the current provincial legislature.

JURSIDICTION BACK: RESTORING INDIGNENOUS GOVERNANCE THROUGH AN ETHIC OF CARE
September 25 & 26 9 am – 5 pm both days
Co-organized by Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, Sarah Hunt /Tłaliłila’ogwa and Sarah Morales, this symposium will consider how we speak to, think about and do the work of law and governance when we center ethics of care. The symposium will be held in the Ceremonial Hall at the First Peoples House, Ó£»¨Ó°ÊÓ. Registration is free and lunch will be provided. Jurisdiction Back is part of the SSHRC-funded project Infrastructure Beyond Extractivism: Material Approaches to Restoring Indigenous Jurisdiction. For more information, visit

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UVic ANNOUNCMENTS

NEW INDIGENOUS LAW WING: DAY OF CELEBRATION
Wednesday, October 8
The Ó£»¨Ó°ÊÓ invites you to celebrate our new Coast Salish-inspired law wing in the Murray and Anne Fraser building on October 8. This day reflects the collaboration, dedication, and inspiration of the Coast Salish community including hereditary and elected leadership, Elders, and members from Xʷsepsəm (Esquimalt Nation), Songhees Nation, W̱SÁNEĆ, and Elders working with UVic’s Office of Indigenous and Academic Community Engagement.

Thirteen stories heard by local First Nations during consultation were translated into design elements that shape the space and center Indigenous voice. The 2,440-square metre addition to the Murray and Anne Fraser Building offers a much-needed culturally appropriate space for learning and teaching Indigenous Laws. Purpose-built to welcome, gather, learn, and share Indigenous legal knowledge, the new wing creates flow between old and new spaces, indoors and out.

SOUTHAM LECTURE: STEPHEN MAHER
Wednesday, October 8, 7-8:30 pm, BWC A104
For this year’s annual Southam Lecture, award-winning political journalist Stephen Maher will examine the role reporters play in an increasingly fractured society, arguing that, in order to keep faith with a shrinking audience, mainstream journalists need to question their own biases. At a time when unity in the face of American threats is crucial, Canadians are divided. While Americans may be on the brink of civil war, Canadians are increasingly sorting ourselves into mutually hostile camps. The fragmentation of our media ecosystem is both cause and symptom. Journalists are being similarly sorted into opposing camps, reporting starkly different stories to divided audiences even as the industry shrinks.

Award-winning political journalist Stephen Maher will examine the role reporters play in an increasingly fractured society, arguing that in order to keep faith with a shrinking audience, mainstream journalists need to question their own biases. Stephen Maher has been writing about Canadian politics since 1989 for the Chronicle Herald, Postmedia News, Maclean’s, Walrus, Time, Times of London, Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. He has often set the agenda on Parliament Hill, covering political corruption, electoral wrongdoing, misinformation and human rights abuses. He is also the author of The Prince, The Rise and Fall of Justin Trudeau. The annual Harvey Stevenson Southam Lectureship — named after UVic alumnus Harvey Southam — is made possible by a gift from one of the country’s leading publishing families.

CAFÉ HISTORIQUE: 2025-26 SERIES
“What If?: Counterfactual History for Beginners” Jill Walshaw, History
Wednesday, October 15, 7-9 pm, Doors at 5:30 pm
To reserve your seat, please register here: Our theme this season is a fun one: “What If? Counterfactual History for Beginners.” Historians work with evidence, trying to understand what happened and why it happened the way it did. But sometimes we allow our imagination to explore other possibilities, and to think through how the outcome of key historical events might have changed. Starting in October, six UVic scholars will explore this topic, choosing a moment where – if things had gone differently – then the world would not be as we know it today.

Jill Walshaw will start off with a talk that takes the series title – “What If? Counterfactual History for Beginners”. She will tell you what makes counterfactuals both enticing and dangerous for historians, and will give you a taste of what’s to come with three of my favourite counterfactuals: What if Europe had been wiped out by the Black Death in 1348? What if Pizarro had not discovered potatoes in Peru? And what if Napoleon had won the battle of Waterloo?

Links for the remaining 5 talks will follow shortly before the talk. But just to whet your appetite, here is our exciting line up! Apart from that first October talk, we run on the first Wednesday of each month (skipping January):

• Wednesday November 5, Martin Bunton: What if… the Ottoman Empire had not entered the First World War?
• Wednesday December 3, Simon Devereaux: What if ... Oswald had missed? JFK & Vietnam
• Wednesday February 4, John Lutz: What if… Disease had not Decimated the Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest?
• Wednesday March 4, TBA… stay tuned!
• Wednesday April 1, Jason Colby: What if… the South had Won the US Civil War?

If you have an item for the newsletter, or would like to be on the mailing list, please contact barlowr@uvic.ca.