H. Marcus
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 10:17:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gretchen Walsh <gwalsh@acs.bu.edu>
REVIEW
A Useful Reference Work Is Also a Database for the Study of African
Studies.
Gretchen Walsh
Bibliography of Canadian Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations on
Africa, 1905-1993/Bibliographie des memoires de maitrise et theses de
doctorat canadiens sur l'Afrique, 1905-1993 by Jose C. Curto and Raymond
R. Gervais. (Montreal: Canadian Associat ion of African
Studies/Association canadienne des etudes africaines, 1994), 311 pgs. CDN
$18.00.
A bibliography of theses and dissertations is useful on several
levels. Of prime importance is its value as an indication of research
already done on a region or topic. Graduate students preparing
dissertation and thesis proposals desperately need to make their survey
of the literature as complete as possible. Despite the access rendered by
DAI and Canadian Dissertations, specific guides such as Curto and Gervais,
when reliably comprehensive, as theirs is, make the literature search much
less arduous.
When the theses and dissertations are relatively easy to access
through inter-library loan or purchase, dissertation guides are also
useful in research at any level. Beyond utility for further research,
dissertation guides offer quantitative insight into patterns and trends in
the field. Curto and Gervais use the data gathered in the course of
compiling their bibliography to offer some interesting analyses of African
studies in Canada.
Evaluating their bibliography first on its merits as a bibliography,
it is excellent. 3112 entries have been compiled, and the introduction
clearly outlines the thorough work that went into that compilation. The
list is arranged alphabetically by author's name within sections for
individual countries, regions and the continent as a whole. There are
indices by author, granting institution, and subject. The authors do not
comment on the terminology used in the subject index, but it follows
a logical, common sense approach using key words in title. Broader
terms seem to have been applied judiciously in addition to narrow terms
for many items. A dissertation on cash cropping in Cote d'Ivoire, for
instance, has subject entries under both "cash crops" and "agriculture."
Another work on construction of a margarine factory in Senegal has subject
entries under both "margarine" and "industry." Spot samples such as these
give the librarian and researcher a great deal of confidence in the work
as a research tool.
A list of abbreviations for degrees clarifies what could be
mysterious and confusing. For instance, whereas M.F.A. at my institution is
Master of Fine Arts, in this list it stands for Master of Folklore and
Arts. The citations are straightforward: author, title, degree,
institution, year. It is not clear whether Ethiopian, Zairian and other
names, usually entered without transposing, have actually been transposed or
not. This may cause some difficulty, but the problem is so common that
persons working on these areas know to try both forms of the name. Number
of pages would have been a useful, additional bit of information, but this
might not have been uniformly available without consulting each individual
dissertation.
If these criticisms seem to be curmudgeonly quibbles, they are;
they simply present the details that could make an excellently prepared
bibliography near perfect.
Most of the Introduction (written in English and French side by side
in columns) is given over to analysis of the data provided by the
compilation of the bibliography. The inclusion of dissertations by
Canadians at foreign institutions (a total of 61: 8 M.A. theses and 53
Doctoral dissertations) makes one question how this data was secured and
whether it is complete. The data for Canadian universities, however,
seems exhaustive. It is a measure of the mild tension between residents
on either side of the world's longest unguarded border that the authors
alluded to some degree of purposeful misrepresentation of Canadian African
studies scholarship in earlier bibliographies of dissertations (Sims and
Kagan's *American and Canadian Doctoral Dissertations on Africa, 1886-
1974*, and Lauer, Larkin and Kagan's *American and Canadian Doctoral
Dissertations on Africa, 1974-1987*, both published by ASA) and that this
review bridled somewhat at the implication. No matter--the analysis is
fascinating. The tables illustrate the number of theses and dissertations
done by year, by institution, by region or country, by discipline. Other
tables show CIDA funded African students annually by country of origin
and by gender.
Curto and Gervais use these figures to chart the history and
growth of African studies in Canada. Throughout the period, master's
theses far outnumbered PhD dissertations. This is attributed to the lack
of major African studies centers in Canada, with numerous Africanist
faculty, adequate Africana library holdings and sufficient research
funding. Interest in and spending on the study of Africa grew in the
1960s and 1970, with the Canadian Association of African Studies taking a
leadership role in guiding that growth. Funding dropped in the 1980s and
1990s following the country's overall economic situation.
Nearly two-thirds of all theses and dissertations were done at eight
institutions: McGill University, Universite de Laval, Universite de
Montreal, University of Toronto, Carleton University, Dalhousie
University, University of Alberta, Queens University and University of
British Columbia. The comparison between U.S. and Canadian production in
terms of geographic area and discipline is interesting. There is some
overlap, but Canada produces significantly more work on Francophone
Africa. Most theses and dissertations from each country cluster into five
disciplines, but the clusters are differently configured. Political
science tops the Canadian list; education the U.S. list.
Curto and Gervaise touch on some interpretations of this data in
terms of gender, financial support and other factors in the decision of
students to undertake the study of Africa. They suggest that a
longitudinal study following academic careers and publishing output would
yield an interesting and more definitive picture of African studies as a
field of study.
The book is highly recommended for all libraries supporting African
studies curricula. The price and format make it a useful purchase for
individuals.
Gretchen Walsh
African Studies Library
Boston University
I am sending a paper copy of the review.
Gretchen Walsh
African Studies Library
Boston University
gwalsh@acs.bu.edu