The Island Lecture Series presents a talk by Andrew Halliday, “Borders, Boundaries and Jurisdictional Islanding: Placemaking in Atlantic Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The lecture will be held on April 21, 2026, at 7 pm, in the Faculty Lounge, Main Building Room 201, University of Prince Edward Island. 

The interdisciplinary field of Island Studies continues to reflect upon island understandings. This lecture will explore placemaking that occurred on a regional level in Atlantic Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the creation of the Atlantic Bubble in the summer of 2020. New conceptual island constructs of “covid-islands” and “covid-archipelagos” are introduced as frames of inquiry and explained as policy constructs which occurred at both micro and macro levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Covid-islands” and “covid-archipelagos” are defined by their relativity to other places, their spatial and temporal aspects, their social construction and the permeability and interaction with their borders and defined boundaries.

Andrew Halliday is a cross-appointed graduate faculty member in the Island Studies and Cleantech Leadership and Transformation interdisciplinary graduate programs at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with an academic and public service background across various domains under the broad umbrella of political science. He has extensive government experience at the provincial level with the Government of P.E.I. and the Government of Alberta and nationally with the Government of Canada. He is a member of the International Small Islands Studies Association, the Small Islands Cultural Research Initiative, and the International Geographical Union’s Commission on Islands.

The lecture is free, and all are welcome. For more information, contact Bren Simmers at 902-566-0386 or ispstaff@upei.ca.