Celebrating our Awardees | Clara Aubonnet, French Association for Canadian Studies, 2024 recipient of a Graduate Student Scholarship
From mid-September 2024 to mid-December 2024, Clara Aubonnet travelled to southern British Columbia to conduct research for her thesis on cross-border wildfires. A doctoral student in geography and geopolitics at Université Paris 8, Clara was able to visit various towns and cities along the international border, conduct observations and interviews, and visit academic centres such as Thompson Rivers University and the University of British Columbia Okanagan. During her time in Canada, Clara was hosted by Bala Nikku (Thompson Rivers University).
“This stay in Canada allowed me to make significant progress in my research, but also to question my place as a foreign researcher on a land that was colonized and not ceded by Indigenous Peoples,” she said. “I was able to meet people who transformed my approach to research, and I hope I was able to give back as much as I received. These weeks spent in Canada also allowed me to better understand the human and ecological complexity of transboundary wildfires as I was driving its many roads.”
We ask each student for one sentence that encompasses their impression of Canada. Clara offered: “Canada is vast, it seemed to me to be fragmented into many small parcels, constrained by its complex landscapes, administrative boundaries, and past and present conflicts.”
Her research on ‘Cross-border wildfires in the Pacific Northwest : A geopolitical study of British Columbia (Canada) and Washington State (USA)’ means that her receipt of the ICCS Graduate Student Scholarship for her thesis research in Canada is the first half of her plan. “Now that I have had the chance and opportunity, thanks to the ICCS, to do a research stay in Canada, I plan to do the same thing in the United States, more specifically at the University of Washington in Seattle, as part of the Fulbright program.”
Clara encourages future Canadian Studies scholars to make the effort to move around and meet people. “It’s more real, it gives you the opportunity to better understand the area, its geography, its history, and it often leads to great professional and personal stories.”
The next deadline for the Graduate Student Scholarship is 24 November 2025. You can learn more about this opportunity at this link.
C. Aubonnet photograph of Osoyoos, British Columbia