2024 Gordon Hirabayashi Annual Lecture

The inaugural Gordon Hirabayashi Annual Lecture celebrates the legacy of former University of Alberta Sociology Professor Dr. Hirabayashi whose work centred on human rights and ethnic minorities in Canada. Join us to hear Dr. Pamela Sugiman explore the oral history and memory studies of Japanese Canadians. There will be a light reception following the lecture.

Deep and Profound Memories: Japanese Canadians, Race and the Second World War Internment

Dr. Pamela Sugiman is a Professor of Sociology and served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) from 2016 to 2024. Dr. Sugiman holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto. Throughout her academic career, Pam has been deeply committed to a scholarly understanding of institutional racism and colonization, anti-racism and decolonization. As a Sansei (third generation) Japanese Canadian researcher, she has also published extensively on racism and personal memory in Canada, with a focus on the ways in which Nisei (second-generation) Japanese Canadian women remember and narrate, in the present, their internment during the Second World War.

Dr. Sugiman has served as President of the Canadian Sociological Association and is currently a board member for the Atkinson Foundation and Pathways to Education Canada. She is also a member of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation Research Community Advisory Network and the National Coalition of Canadians Against Anti-Asian Racism. She is a recipient of the Errol Aspevig Award for Outstanding Academic Leadership (TMU), the Outstanding Contribution Award (Canadian Sociological Association) and the Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada Recognition Award in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

SPONSORS

• Edmonton Japanese Community Association
• National Association of Japanese Canadians
• Prince Takamado Japan Centre
• University of Alberta - Office of Vice-Provost (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion), College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Arts (Department of Sociology)
• Kule Institute for Advanced Study