ACSUS Fund for the Arts

The Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, with thesupport of the International Academic Relations Division of ForeignAffairs Canada, has introduced a new program, The ACSUS Fund for theArts. The program will fund several projects annually with grants rangingfrom $500 to $1,000. It is designed to stimulate U.S. academic institutionsto organize more academic events, public lectures and appearances byauthors, film-showings with appearances by filmmakers, art exhibits,lectures by painters, photographers, sculptures, artisans, as well asperformances by singers, musicians and dancers emanating from all ofCanada, including anglophone, francophone, First Nations, etc. Thewinning projects for 2005 are:

� Metropolitan State University: visit by Canadian children’sauthor, Tim Wynee Jones.

� Nokomis Learning Center and Michigan State University:performance by the O’ De’M Kwe Singers at the Nokomis FallFestival.

� SUNY, New Paltz: film screening of “Letters from Karelia.”� Baruch College: support ‘Two Quebec Writers: Louise Dupré &

Madeleine Monette.’� Owens Community College: support a musical performance

‘The Arrogant Worms.’� Samford University/Birmingham-Southern College: support a

lecture ‘“American-ness” of Canadian and Quebec Art.”’� Edinboro University of Pennsylvania: support a presentation by

four Canadian writers.

New Association for Canadian Studies in Columbia

ACECAN (Asociación Colombiana de Estudios Canadienses /

Colombian Association for Canadian Studies) was launched officiallyon March 17, 2005 at Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá. Theinauguration ceremony was opened by the Canadian Ambassador inColombia Jean Marc Duval and by Jean Labrie representing theInternational Academic Relations Division of Foreign Affairs Canada.

The Association integrates four active Canadian Studies Centerslocated in Colombia’s most prestigious Universities: Universidad delRosario in Bogotá; Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla; UniversidadNacional Autonoma in Bucaramanga; and Universidad EAFIT inMedellin.

Canadian Studies has grown rapidly in South America over the past threeyears, thanks, in part, to the support of Foreign Affairs Canada and theLatin American Network, under the leadership of Zilá Bernd (Brazil),President of the ICCS. In addition to the associations for CanadianStudies in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, centres forCanadian Studies can also be found in Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

First CECANUCA Seminar

The First Seminar inCanadian Studies atthe University of Ciegode Ávila in Cuba washeld February 25,2005. Twenty-threemembers of the Can-adian Studies Centreat the University ofCiego de Avila(CECANUCA) joined

dignitaries from the College and five representatives from other CubanCanadian Studies centres for a multidisciplinary seminar featuring elevenpapers covering nine fields of study: literature, language, arts, history,political science, economics, education, geography, and tourism inCanada. Marcia Suárez García, CECANUCA President, announced theanticipated March 16th launch of the centre’s web page, timed tocelebrate the 60th Anniversary of Canadian-Cuban relations.

Travelling Canadian Studies Collection

The 21st annual International Conference of the Indian Association forCanadian Studies on the theme Society, Environment and Technology :Canada and India was held February 24-26 at P.G. College, OsmaniaUniversity, Hyderabad. One eagerly anticipated feature of the annualconference is Travelling Canadian Studies Collections (TCSC). Aninitiative of the International Academic Relations Division of ForeignAffairs Canada, the TCSC is compiled in five sets each year by theAssociation for the Export of Canadian Books (AECB) and circulated atCanadian Studies conferences worldwide by the ICCS, working incollaboration with Canadian posts abroad. In Hyderabad the TCSCattracted a constant flow of visitors who received informative brochuresand maps on Canada as well as the free catalogue, Books on Canada

International Council for Canadian Studies May 2005

TheInternational

Canadianist

2005, which features the nearly 350 titles in the collection. Although booksare not for sale during the conference, the catalogue offers contactinformation for Canadian suppliers and is used extensively by theEmbassy, Indian libraries, and individual academics.

Inuit Colloquium

Canada’s Inuit were the topic of a international colloquium Le Canada Inuit :Les enjeux de la recherche anthropologique en Amérique du Nord

organized March 2-4, 2005 by Serge Jaumain, Director of the Centred’études canadiennes of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB-CEC), incooperation with Groupe de recherche sur la construction interculturelledes mondes sociaux (C.I.M.S.) and the Belgian Society of Americanists.

The colloquium examined the socio-political reality for Inuit in Canada; anethnographic methodology for studying the Inuit in situ in the CanadianArctic and specific politics regarding anthropological research. Thecomplete program is available at www.ulb.ac.be/philo/cec.

The conference is one of an ambitous schedule of conferences andseminars organized by the ULB-CEC for 2005 including March 23-25, “Lacitoyenneté dans tous ses états; May 18-21 “Contester dans un paysprospère: L’extrême-gauche en Belgique et au Canada; and June 8-11“Banlieues au Canada et en Europe: une perspective comparée.”

With a Little Help from Friends — Canadian Studies inVolograd

Volograd State University in Russia has become a major centre for thestudy of Canadian history with the recent acquisition of 200 books andseveral hundred journals donated by professors in the Department ofHistory, University of Ottawa. The donation was inititated by ProfessorCorinne Gaudin during a 1999 visit to Ottawa by Dr. Ivan Kurilla,Associate Professor of History and International Relations at VolgogradState University. Transport was finally arranged in November 2004 whenDr. Kurilla returned to Ottawa on a Faculty Enrichment Grant. The shipmentof the long-awaited books was made possible with the help of the ICCS

(Linda M. Jones); the International Academic Relations Division, FAC(Rémi Tremblay) and the Embassy of Canada in Russia (Gregory

Lemermeyer). The donation builds on an earlier donation made by theICCS and the Canadian Embassy in 2002 and will further stimulate thestudy of Canada at the university. To date four graduate students arefinishing dissertations on Canada, while fifteen more are writing MA(diploma) theses on Canadian history and politics.

Dr. Kurilla presented the donation of books during the internationalconference “Canadian socio-cultural model in the Globalizing world” inVolgograd April 14-15, 2005, organized by the Russian Association forCanadian Studies (RACS), represented by Dr. Vassili Sokolov, and theCenter for American Studies “Americana” at Volgograd State University,represented by Dr. Alexander Kubyshkin, Chief of the Southern Branchof RACS. Researchers from Pennsylvania (U.S.A.), Moscow, St.Petersburg, Kazan, Saratov, Tambov, Stavropol, Volgograd and Volzhskypresented papers on Canadian history and contemporary cultural policy,education, economic development, federal and local politics.

The International Canadianist (ISSN 0847-5792) is published three times a year by the International Council for Canadian

Studies (ICCS) as a service to Canadian government, Canadian universities, business, foundations, the media and theinternational community of Canadianists. Editor: Linda Jones. Publisher: ICCS, 75 Albert St., S-908, Ottawa K1P 5E7.Telephone: (613) 789-7834. Email: reception@iccs-ciec.ca. Further information on Canadian Studies is available throughICCS's weekly electronic newsletter, Contact ICCS-CIEC. In order to receive it, please send an e-mail to gleclair@iccs-ciec.ca.

Brian Dickson (Deputy High Commissioner in black suit), BernardFrancis, Academic Relations & E-Communications Officer, shaking

hands with the High Commissioner, Mrs. Lucie Edwards at theinauguration of the TCSC exhibit.

DID YOU KNOW?

� Margaret Atwood has been awarded an HonoraryDoctorate by the Université Paris III-SorbonneNouvelle.

� Barbara Gowdy’s Romantic and Steven Galloway’s

Ascension have been translated into Italian by Claudia

Valeria Letizia and published, thanks to a CanadaCouncil international translation grant by Edizioni e/oof Rome.

� Diddy R.M. Hitchins, Vice-President of theAssociation for Canadian Studies in the United States,has been awarded an MBE by Her Majesty QueenElizabeth II in the 2005 New Year’s Honours List forher services as British Honorary Consul for Alaska.

� Ingo Kolbloom (University Dresden), past president ofthe AIEQ has been awarded an honorary doctorate byUniversité du Québec à Montréal.