state of Canadian Studies at the year 2000: Some observations, The

Journal of Canadian Studies, Spring 2000 by T H B Symons

Much has changed, and some things have not, in the quarter century since the publication of To Know Ourselves, the report of the Commission on Canadian Studies. The chair of the Commission offers some observations about the current status of Canadian Studies and shares some concerns about the future of such studies and about the future of Canada.

De nombreuses chores ont change et d'autres sont restees les memes au cours du quart de siecle qui s'est koW depuis laparution de Se connaitre : Rapport de la Commission sur les etudes canadiennes. Le president de la commission fait part de ses observations sur l'etat actuel des etudes canadiennes et partage certaines de ses preoccupations en ce qui concerne l'avenir de teller etudes, et l'avenir du Canada. I have been asked to comment on the current state of Canadian Studies. To what extent has the Canadian Studies mission been accomplished? Has the character of this mission been altered by changing circumstances such as political trends towards the formation of continental and regional blocs and economic trends towards freer trade and globalization? Have shifting intellectual trends rendered Canadian Studies passe? How interested, in fact, are Canadians - or others - in teaching or learning about Canada? What is the quality and range of research and knowledge about Canada, in whatever field and whether past, present or future?

Ruminating on these and many other questions, I accepted the assignment with considerable hesitation. First, because of an awareness that I have already written or spoken on this subject a number of times, although at intervals and not for some years. None the less, it is too easy to repeat oneself, unconsciously as well as consciously. Second, the subject invites, perhaps requires, a comprehensive survey of what is and what is not being done in the field, but there is simply not the time or the resources for such a survey to be undertaken. Moreover, it is less than a decade since David Cameron gathered the material for his meticulous study, Taking Stock: Canadian Studies in the Nineties.

On reflection, however, and under the Editor's courteous prod, I venture some observations. There is, of course, some temptation to respond in a Pollyanna mode. There are dozens of Canadian Studies programmes of one sort or another across the country, and even more outside the country. But what is their quality and what is their future? A Pollyanna response would be no service to anyone, least of all to those engaged in Canadian Studies.

The current state of Canadian Studies in Canadian universities is far from satisfactory and far from secure. Certainly, there has been a number of significant developments, with more perhaps on the way. But there has also been some surprising and often considerable setbacks and losses. The landscape is changing, with quite substantial shifts, often within the space of a year or two. Rather than the continuous upward trend that some hopeful proponents descry, the scenario, more realistically, is one of shifting and uncertain ground. At best, Canadian Studies as an organized field of study is in a holding mode, and if it is in only a holding mode in this period of fast and great change, then it is in decline.

Despite its apparent strength at a few universities, Canadian Studies is still a tentative area of study that continues to fend off marginal status at many of the universities where it exists, and it is still not a recognized subject on the curriculum of most of the universities of Canada. At a number of universities, Canadian Studies have now been formally dropped from the teaching programme or simply allowed to die out. In the current academic year, the University of Guelph, after debate and vote in its Senate, decided to close down its Canadian Studies programme. The programme had existed at Guelph for more than 20 years and it continued to garner a small but respectable number of students each year. Amongst the arguments made in support of this decision was the view that Canadian Studies is now passe. Having served a purpose in the 1970s and 1980s, it was said to be no longer needed because the university curriculum had now been infused with appropriate Canadian content. Alternatively, it was also argued, with unconscious but delicious irony, that, if attention to Canadian content and context is still needed, it can be better found in a new framework of North American studies. The debate did not address such issues as the need to study the Canadian experience as a legitimate part of the universal quest for knowledge, or the need for Canadians to know themselves in order to better manage their affairs and to make a better contribution to world affairs and to the international pool of knowledge. Nor did it address the issues involved in the preservation and advancement of Canadian culture and Canadian identity. The tidy administrative mind, having starved a programme of funds, then adjudged it wanting and cleared it away in order to free up for other uses the limited funds involved.