CULTURAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF CANADIAN NATIONALISM

Nipissing University
North Bay, Ontario
August 12-14, 2004

How did Canadians come to imagine themselves as part of a national community? How did a national consciousness grow out of both consensus and conflict? How was the nation transformed into an everyday experience, evoked in school readers, poems, and popular literature? What national rituals and symbols did Canadians invent? Who was forced to the margins of an emergent national culture, and to which effects? How were national identities constructed against an internal or external ‘other’? What, and whose, nation was celebrated in popular festivals, street theatre and the press?

In exploring these – and other – questions, we invite colleagues to take the study of Canadian nationalism from the spheres of politics and economics to the realm of culture. Around the world, cultural approaches to the study of nationalism have produced a rich and exciting literature on the complexities of nation-building, the meanings of citizenship and patriotism, and the ideological efforts to create national unity out of diversity. To further this discussion in a Canadian context is the goal of this cross-disciplinary workshop. We welcome submissions from disciplines that include History, Canadian Studies, Anthropology, Art, Music, Folklore, English, and Communications.

The number of participants will be limited to encourage conversations across disciplinary boundaries and individual research interests. All sessions will be plenaries. Electronic versions of papers will be circulated in advance of the meeting. Pending funding, we hope to publish the best papers in an anthology. Funding is also being sought to assist participants in their travel expenses.

Please send a 250-350 word abstract indicating the focus of your research and its contributions to the cultural study of Canadian nationalism, along with a brief curriculum vitae to the address below.

The deadline for submissions of proposals is December 15, 2003.