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This volume examines the history and current state of Canadian studies in a number of countries and regions across the world, including Canada's major trading partners. From the mid-1980s until 2012, Canadian studies was seen as an important tool of soft power, increasing awareness of Canadian culture, institutions and history. The abrupt termination in 2012 of the Canadian government's financial support for these activities triggered a debate that is still ongoing about the benefits that may have flowed from this support and whether the decision should be reversed. The contributors to this book focus on the process whereby Canadian studies became institutionalized in their respective countries and on the balance between what might be described as Canadian studies for its own sake versus Canadian studies as a deliberate instrument of cultural diplomacy.
List of contents
1. Uncertain Embrace: The Rise and Fall of Canadian Studies Abroad as a Tool of Foreign Policy.- 2. Getting on the American Radar Screen: The Growth, Achievements and Limitations of Canadian Studies in the United States.- 3. Down But Not Out: British Academics Resolutely Determined to Explore Canada.- 4. Canadian Studies in France.- 5. Canadian Studies in China: Dividends from a Near-forgotten Age of Hope and Opening.- 6. Canadian Studies in Japan.- 7. Canadian Studies in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and Contemporary Russia.- 8. From Individual Scholarship to Academic Institution: Canadian Studies in the German-Speaking Countries and Cultural Diplomacy.- 9. Canadian Studies in the Nordic Countries.- 10. Lessons Learned.
About the author
Stephen Brooks is Professor of Political Science at University of Windsor, Canada, and Occasional Lecturer at Sciences Po Lille, France.
Summary
This volume examines the history and current state of Canadian studies in a number of countries and regions across the world, including Canada's major trading partners. From the mid-1980s until 2012, Canadian studies was seen as an important tool of soft power, increasing awareness of Canadian culture, institutions and history. The abrupt termination in 2012 of the Canadian government's financial support for these activities triggered a debate that is still ongoing about the benefits that may have flowed from this support and whether the decision should be reversed. The contributors to this book focus on the process whereby Canadian studies became institutionalized in their respective countries and on the balance between what might be described as Canadian studies for its own sake versus Canadian studies as a deliberate instrument of cultural diplomacy.
