International Conference of the Italien Association for Canadian Studies, June 29 – July 1, 2017, University of Calabria, Italy

The Italian Association for Canadian Studies invites proposals for the international conference “Canada in the making: 150 years of cultural and linguistic diversity”. The conference aims at investigating the topic of cultural and linguistic diversity in Canada both diachronically and synchronically and welcomes theoretical papers and up-to-date case studies from the methodological perspectives of Language Studies, Literary Criticism, Cultural Studies, History, Geography, Law and Economics etc. The languages of the conference are English, French and Italian. 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation, which was officially created on the first of July, 1867, with the enactment of the British North America Act. Since then, the colonies of Canada (subsequently divided into Ontario and Québec), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that were united under the Dominion of Canada have gained political independence and expanded territorially to form the immense country we know today. From the very beginning, one of the traits that distinguished Canada was the coexistence of several cultures and languages, which has shaped Canadian identity ever since. Over the last 150 years, the First Peoples and those of British and French descent, Canadians from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds have contributed to redefining a national identity rooted in the concepts of multiculturalism and multilingualism. Over the 20th century such diversity has been turned into one of the foregrounding elements of Canadianness also from a legislative point of view, especially with the promulgation of the Official Languages Act (1969) and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1988), and the creation of Nunavut (1999). After 150 years, pluralism is still at the core of what it means to be Canadian even though (but also because) in the last decades the Canadian multicultural policies have been questioned and re-discussed in view of the challenges posed by the new Millennium.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words and a short bio-bibliographical note should be sent to this email address by 23 April 2017. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 7 May 2017.

International Conference, October 20-21, 2017, Canadian Studies Centre, Masaryk University, Brno (Czech Republic)

At a time when Canada is celebrating its one hundred and fiftieth birthday, it is important to remember that, despite its historical roots in Europe, Canada is in fact a child of the New World – that it is an American country.

With its neighbours throughout the Americas, Canada has shared many concerns, among them the daunting task of coming to terms with the new American space, both physically and symbolically; the negotiation of its relationship to the Old World and the „Mother Country“; the need to invent its own historical narrative; the development of a new society and new social relations; the creation of a distinctive culture; the necessity of coming to terms with aboriginal peoples. At the same time, dealing with these and other similar challenges has been complicated by many factors that, in the American context, are perhaps unique to Canada – the sheer size and emptiness of the Canadian space; the lack of a revolutionary tradition; the extremity of the climate; the fundamental diversity of the country and the need to create unity while maintaining difference; the relationship to the dominant culture of the New World, that of the United States; the legal status of the aboriginal peoples as „allies of the Crown“. These and other influences have all contributed to making Canada a unique American country.

The conference aims to treat Canada’s „Americanness“ from as broad a perspective as possible, welcoming contributions from scholars in the fields of literary and cultural studies, historians, political scientists, geographers, sociologists, anthropologists and those in other relevant disciplines.

What does „America“ mean for Canada? What is its vision of „America“? What in it is distinct, what divergent from practice elsewhere in the Americas? What forms does the „Canadian Dream“ take?

Proposals (300 words) and a brief CV to be sent to the conference organizers, Don Sparling and Petr Kyloušek at this email address, by May 15, 2017. 
Conference fee – 50 EUR, students 30 EUR
CEACS members: 40 EUR, students 20 EUR