ACSN News

ICCS World Seminar

The ICCS is pleased to announced that it will hold a World Seminar on Canada October 5 – 9, 2009, in Ottawa. The Seminar will bring together students who are pursuing their PhD studies or who have recently successfully completed their PhD on a Canadian subject. The Seminar will focus on traditional Canadian Studies issues, in particular, issues currently of major importance to Canada, and will provide a forum for participants to communicate their insights on Canada to a wider audience. It will also allow participants to enhance their understanding of Canada and Canadian society. Four master classes on key issues in Canadian society, relating to the political, social, economic and cultural spheres will be given by Canadian specialists. Students selected for participation will receive a travel grant that will cover their travel expenses. Cost for accommodation and meals will be covered by the seminar organization. Deadline (for submitting application dossier): May 1, 2009. Details will be posted on the ICCS website soon. Contact: Guy Leclair, International Council for Canadian Studies, 250 City Centre Avenue, Suite 303, Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1R 6K7, tel.: (613) 789-7834, ex. 228; fax: (613) 789-7830; e-mail: guy.leclair@iccs-ciec.ca.

Pierre Savard Awards

The Pierre Savard Awards are designed to recognize and promote each year outstanding scholarly monographs on a Canadian topic. The awards form part of a strategy that is aimed at promoting, especially throughout the Canadian academic community, works that have been written by members of the Canadian Studies international network. The awards are intended to designate exceptional books, which, being based on a Canadian topic, contribute to a better understanding of Canada. There are two categories: 1) Book written in French or English; 2) Book written in a language other than French or English For more information please visit http://www.iccs-ciec.ca/pages/6_prizes/b_savard_awards.html

Central Europe and the English speaking world- Call for papers

This conference organized by the Department of English, Partium Christian University, Oradea, Romania, will be held from May 15th to 17th, 2009. It will investigate the interrelationships and interactions between the countries and cultures of Central Europe and the English-Speaking World in any walk of life including the arts and sciences, languages and literatures, history and economics, politics and sociology. Proposals for communications must be submitted by email to ceuenglish@yahoo.com, by March 31st, 2009. For more information please visit http://www.widereurope.ie/news_events/35/call_for_papers:_central_europe_and_the_englishspeaking_world.html or send an e-mail to Dr. Peter Szaffko at pszaffko@tigris.klte.hu.

RECON Workshop WP2
The Constitutionalisation of the EU, the Europeanisation of National Constitutions, and Constitutionalism Compared

Oslo
20-21 March 2009

Organized by ARENA – Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo in cooperation with the Nordic Association for Canadian Studies (NACS) and the European Network for Canadian Studies (ENCS)

Venue: Holmenkollen Park Hotel, Oslo (www.holmenkollenparkhotel.no)

This workshop is organised under work package 2 of the RECON project, which deals with (a) the constitutionalisation of the EU, (b) the Europeanisation of national constitutions, and (c) comparisons of constitutionalism in the EU and in other selected entities. The purpose of this workshop is to compare the EU with Canada (a multinational and multicultural state), in an area that is of particular relevance to democracy and also to the present European situation: the representative and participatory character of constitution-making and their link to constitutional failure.

The dynamics of Canada’s approach to constitution-making has important parallels with that of the EU. Both have seen a transition from a closed executive-style and intergovernmental approach to constitution-making to a more open and participatory style (in Canada first with the patriation of the constitution in 1981-2, and in the EU with the Laeken process 2003-4). The outcome fails to obtain agreement among the key stakeholders (Quebec in Canada, France and the Netherlands in the EU). The next effort sees a retreat back to closed, executive-style constitution making (in Canada: Meech Lake, in the EU: the Lisbon Treaty). In both instances this is also rejected (in Canada by Manitoba and Newfoundland, in the EU by Ireland). In Canada the process was re-opened and resulted in the Charlottetown Accord 1991-2 which also failed. The character and result of the further EU process is still uncertain. How to understand and interpret these processes and their results? Were they failures? The workshop will take up and discuss three sets of aspects of the Canadian case, with direct bearing on the EU. These are: (a) constitutional refashioning of community as a gender empowering device; (b) the effects of democratically inclusive participation in constitutional change processes on outcomes; and (c) what constitutes constitutional failure? Here the focus is on the relation between failed reform efforts and how these can be understood in normative terms. All of these are clearly relevant to the contemporary European situation. The purpose of the workshop is thus twofold: (a) to scrutinize these for possible lessons and (b) to reflect on the lessons for democracy and democratic theory.

Report Conference Re-Exploring Canadian Space

Organized by Centre for Canadian Studies
Groningen and ACSN, November 26-28, 2008

A big surprise at the opening of the conference before HE James Wall, Canadian Ambassador and prof.dr.Frans Zwarts, Rector Magnificus of the RuG in Groningen spoke their words of welcome. The mayor of Groningen was there to give a KO (Koninklijke Onderscheiding, Ridder van Oranje Nassau) to Jaap Lintvelt for all his work to the university and devotion to the Canadian Studies Centre which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. Joseph Jockel, (St. Lawrence University, New York) guest professor in Groningen for 3 months, spoke on Afghanistan, how “war”has once again become an instrument of foreign policy: the Netherlands and Canada in Afghanistan.

Keynote speaker Andrea Mandel Campbell, journalist specializing in international business and global competitiveness, rallied at the complacency of the Canadian business world which could do better in brand their products. She primarily focused on Molson brewery in Toronto and compared it to the Mexican beer Corona, known all over the world whereas hardly anyone outside Canada knows Molson. Her book WHY MEXICANS DON’T DRINK MOLSON is well-known in Canada.

Next day’s keynote speaker Mark Kingwell gave a brilliant presentation on the idea of the north supported by Glenn Gould’s music and visuals on art and architecture. By far the majority of Canadians live in urban centres north of the 49th parallel but the impact of the north in a philosophical and policy context is still very much present.

There were presentations in a wide variety of subjects. A delegation of University of British Columbia, Okanagan, focused on the moral geographies of Kelowna, B.C. with regard to the law and human rights of its aboriginal population. Newfoundland was seen through a literary and a social geographic lens. Nunavut and Quebec were compared with regard to territorial and ethnic identities in Canada. Sessions on English-Canadian and French-Canadian literature evoked lively debate on the different concepts of space.

On Wednesday evening a documentary was shown about the struggle for preservation of the Great Bear Rainforest in northern B.C.: “A Forest for the Future”.

Seminar at the University of Groningen:
Re-Exploring Canadian Space / Redecouvrir l’espace canadien

Groningen, the Netherlands, November 26-28, 2008

Final program: Download Program Seminar at the University of Groningen

Key-note speaker Mark Kingwell is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, specializing in political theory and aesthetics, and a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine in New York. He is the author of twelve books of political and cultural theory, among them the national bestsellers Better Living (1998), The World We Want (2000), and Concrete Reveries (2008) which examines consciousness as a function of place. His recent books on architecture and art are Nearest Thing to Heaven (2006) and Opening Gambits (2008). His writing has appeared in diverse publications, including the Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Forum, Philosophy and Social Criticism, the Harvard Design Magazine, the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, American Scholar, Harper's, the New York Times, the Toronto Star, Adbusters,Queen's Quarterly, and the Globe and Mail. Kingwell has lectured to academic and popular audiences in Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Australia. He is the recipient of the Spitz Prize for political theory, National Magazine Awards for both essays and columns, and an honorary doctorate from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design for contributions to theory and criticism.

The Idea of North Revisited
Glenn Gould's December 1967 radio documentary "The Idea of North", the first part of the so-called Solitude Trilogy, was an attempt to defend the thesis that, when people go north, they "become philosophers". Gould contended, via the then-innovative form he called "contrapuntal radio", that the solitude and isolation of the Canadian north produce forms of reflection that are impossible in the cities housing most of the country's population. On this view, thought is a function of latitude.
In these remarks I will revisit this provocative claim, but now against a background of a Canada more thoroughly urban and un-North than ever. My larger aim is to examine more rigorously the proposed general connection between place and consciousness. Is it impossible to think at some latitudes? Must we go north to become philosophers?

Key-note speaker Andrea Mandel-Campbell is a contributing editor at CTV's Business News Network and the author of the two-time award-nominated, Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson, which takes a penetrating and unapologetic look at why Canadian companies fail to go global and why they must. A veteran business journalist, Mandel-Campbell spent close to a decade as a foreign correspondent in Latin America, where she was the Mexico bureau chief for London?s Financial Times as well as working for Business Week magazine in Argentina. In Canada, she worked as a feature writer for the National Post, specializing in global competitiveness issues. In 2006 Mandel-Campbell won a media fellowship from the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada to travel to China and write about Canada-China business ties for Maclean's magazine. She is also an executive director of the Canada Council for the Americas.

Canada: Why Canadians drink Mexican Beer
Canada occupies a unique, if not conflicted, space in the global economy: an unsung success story that is not nearly as successful as it might be, a rich country that could be so much richer. Canada's wealth of natural resources, small population and proximity to the US has allowed it to coast as a component nation and no logo supplier of generic product. But its good fortune is also the greatest threat to Canada becoming a hollowed out warehouse to the world. Canada is better positioned than most to confront the challenges of a changing global economy, but will its middle-of-the-road mentality, fractious federalism and reactive nature allow it to make the necessary, bold decisions?

VCS-Course Urban Canada

This is only to remind you once again of the new VCs-Course "Urban Canada" that is to start at the beginning of November!

Please find the latest Virtual Canadian Studies (VCS) Flyer containing information on a long distance e-learning course on Canadian Geography that is to take place in the forthcoming winter term here.

Moreover, the following two courses are planned for the summer term 2009:
"Introduction to English-Canadian Literature"
"Les varietes du francais canadien"

Details about the programme and more information about registration and requirements can also be found on the GKS-Homepage under: http://www.kanada-studien.de/relaunch/typo3/start/index.php?id=70.

For further information please feel free to contact either Annekatrin Metz (metzanne@uni-trier.de) or Ulrike Gerhard (Ulrike.gerhard@mail.uni- wuerzburg.de).

News archive

2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2002-2003