NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ The government of Canada will provide support to Vanderbilt University for programs and studies that promote a better knowledge and understanding of Canada and its relationship with the United States.
An initial grant from the Canadian Studies Grant Program approved this month will be used as seed money to begin work on the Canadian portion of the mission of the Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt.
"This marks a large symbolic step forward in terms of funding and collaborative possibilities with the government of Canada," said Robert Barsky, professor of French and comparative literature and an expert on immigration and Canada. "Our hope is to prove ourselves as leaders in Canadian studies."
Plans call for conferences, guest lectures and the publication of the new journal AmeriQuests, which will have significant Canadian and Quebec content. A conference on migrant workers in Canada and the United States is in the planning stages.
In 2003-2004, the Canadian Studies Grant Program supported the work of faculty, researchers and graduate students at 71 universities and colleges in 33 states. More than a hundred projects were funded on a wide range of topics in many disciplines.
The grant, worth about $5,000, will be housed at the Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt, which was established in the summer of 2003 to study North, Central and South America across political, geographic and disciplinary boundaries. It connects scholars who might not otherwise collaborate and builds on already existing transinstitutional programs to study issues involving the Americas. Comparative literature, African-American studies, American and Southern studies, immigration and women’s studies are among the programs that will be affiliated with the center.
The Center for the Americas is also designed to raise Vanderbilt’s profile abroad and attract more international students and faculty to its Nashville campus.
"The Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt’s mission is to investigate the interactions between ALL the countries and territories in the Western Hemisphere, and this prominently includes Canada," said Vera Kutzinski, director of the center. "Because Canada tends to be seen as a mere extension of the United States rather than a distinctive social, cultural and political formation, the complex layers of the relationships between our countries have barely been explored. The same is true of the relations between Canada and a host of Latin American and Caribbean nations.
"The Center for the Americas at Vanderbilt is putting its efforts squarely behind the development of Canadian studies to make sure that Canada means more to people than forest products, hockey and cheap prescription drugs."
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu