Susan Hickman
Over the past decade, thousands of scholars from all corners of the globe have walked through the red door of the Institute of Canadian Studies, at the heart of the University of Ottawa’s downtown campus. Many of these scholars have left comments in the Institute’s international guest book.
“The Institute . . . allows Canada to meet itself and to share itself with other nations,” writes Mary McGillivray, a vice-president at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. Tomasz Soroke of Jagiellonion University in Krakow, Poland, says “I am taking back to Poland an ideal image of Canada, Ottawa and the University.” Mark Francis, professor of political science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand found the institute “An ideal place to research citizenship of indigenous rights.”
The Institute’s acting director David Staines believes these comments are helping to weave the fabric of an Institute that has the capacity to become “the place” for the study of all things Canadian.
The Institute of Canadian Studies opened in 1998 under Chad Gaffield, a specialist in Canadian social history. During his tenure as director, Gaffield compiled a directory of Canadianists at the University, established a bilingual undergraduate program and a unique collaborative PhD program.
Ten years later, the Institute’s postdoctoral and graduate students are researching such diverse topics as young francophones, the Witiko wars among the Cree and the translation of feminist performance poetry. The Institute also established the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies program and continues to host numerous annual conferences and lectures.
Staines returned to the University three years ago after a two-year absence on leave following the end of his deanship at the Faculty of Arts. “It’s the one thing I did when I was dean that has carried on that I really believe in. I wanted to see for myself how it had grown and how it could grow.”
Staines immediate goal is to revitalize the undergraduate program and increase the current number of 10 to 15 students tenfold. “Canadian studies is a good way of promulgating our presence,” says Staines. “Our Institute is one of the few in Canada whose major purpose is the study of Canada. And over the next 10 years, we need to develop a formidable profile within Canada and the world.”
For more information on the Institute of Canadian Studies, visit www.canada.uottawa.ca.
