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“The geographic location and distinctive character of the University of Ottawa are indeed representative of the Canadian reality, and this is what persuaded me to accept the position of director of the Institute of Canadian Studies,” says Anctil.
“There are several challenges in store for us. We want to examine the importance of interdisciplinarity to the various authorities, both internally and externally. We want to demonstrate that it is impossible to study Canadian history from only one point of view, be it political, economical or sociological. We must take into account all subjects which concern Canadian history, either closely or more remotely,” adds Anctil.
Anctil would like interdisciplinarity to be an integral part of the program and a common-core syllabus of 11 courses offered to all undergraduate students.
Before accepting this position, Anctil was an associate professor in the History Department of the Université du Québec à Montréal, director of the Centre d'expertise-conseil en relations interculturelles in Quebec's ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l'Immigration and a member of the Institut québécois d'études sur la culture juive. He has authored several historical studies on the Montreal Jewish community and multi-ethnic context, including Yiddish-French translations of works written by Jewish immigrants in the first half of the 20th century.
Anctil holds a doctorate in social anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York (1980), and was a post-doctoral fellow at McGill University's Department of Jewish Studies from 1988 to 1991. In 2000, he also received a master's degree in international management from the Université du Québec's École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP).
Pierre Anctil was the 2003 recipient of the Izzy and Betty Kirshenbaum Foundation Prize for Yiddish Translation, awarded by the Canadian Jewish Book Awards Committee. He was also the 1998 recipient of the Ezekiel Hart Award, given every three years by the Canadian Jewish Congress to a person not from the Jewish community who has contributed in an outstanding way to inter-cultural relations, with particular emphasis on the Quebec Jewish community.
