Ethnicizing Atlantic Canadian Universities: The Regional Impact of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Program, 1973-1997 (2002)

ABSTRACT/RESUME This article describes and analyzes the creation. Development and administration of the federal Canadian Ethnic Studies Program between 1973 and 1997 and its impact on Atlantic Canadian universities. The program, created by the new Multiculturalism Directorate in the early 1970s to encourage the study of Canada's diverse ethnic groups, operated with a small staff and budget, but its impact on ethnic studies was substantial. The article demonstrates the range and depth of this impact by analyzing the program's operation in Atlantic Canadian universities. The Canadian Ethnic Studies Program legacy is strongest at those universities where it assisted the establishment of ethnic studies chairs. Overall, the program helped to ethnicize Atlantic Canadian universities, which then more effectively reflected and promoted the ethnic diversity of the region. The study is based on a review of program documentation in Ottawa, curricular and program materials at selected regional universities, as well as oral interviews wi th government officials, politicians, university administrators, and academics. Cet article decrit et analyse la creation, le developpement et le fonctionnement du Programme federal d'etudes ethniques entre 1973 and 1997. de meme que son impact sur les universites du Canada Atlantique. Cree au debut des annees soixante-dix par la Direction du multiculturalisme en vue d'encourager l'etude des divers groups ethniques vivant au Canada, ce programme, en depit d'un budget et d'un personnel restreints, exerca une indeniable influence sur le developpement des etudes ethniques. L'article demontre l'entendue et la profondeur de cet impact en analysant le mode de functionement dans les universites dans des provinces de l'Atlantique. En effet, l'existence de chaires en etudes ethniques, non seulement temoignc de cette vigueur, mais encore il relfete et promeut la diversite ethnique des Maritimes. Finalement, cet article s'appuie sur une analyse des programmes federaux en la matiere et des programmes d'etudes a certaines universites, ainsi que sur une serie d'interviews de fonctionnaires gouvernemen taux, de politiciens. d'administrateurs et de professeurs d'universites. INTRODUCTION Curricular change and shifting research interests have been constants in the history of Canadian higher education. Through the twentieth century, traditional classical studies progressively acquired new bedfellows--the applied sciences, the social sciences, business administration, and then other professional fields. (1) The last thirty years witnessed a transformation in university teaching and research in the under-cultivated field of ethnic studies. In 1970, Book IV of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism reported that this situation caused a serious gap in the university curricula of the social sciences and humanities. (2) Howard Palmer affirmed that, Before 1970 ethnic history and ethnic studies in Canada remained a highly neglected field of academic inquiry. (3) However, by the 1990s the situation had dramatically changed. The Canadian academic community had accepted ethnic studies into the mainstream, and a variety of funding agencies recognized the area as a legitimate field for sc holarly research. In 1994, J.W. Berry and J.A. Laponce, in their introduction to Ethnicity and Culture in Canada: The Research Landscape, stated, We [the contributors] are in general agreement in our overall assessment: ethnic and multicultural studies are remarkably well-developed in Canada. (4) This paper examines a crucial question: What part did the federal Canadian Ethnic Studies Program (1973-1997) play in the expansion and enlivening of ethnic studies? Using a case study of Atlantic Canadian universities, I argue that its role was critical. In the past, the Canada Council (established in 1958) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (established in 1977) rarely supported ethnic/immigration research. …