2024 International Canadian Studies Summit

I am pleased for this opportunity to reconnect with scholars I have had the pleasure to interact with over the years.That includes Dr. Montsion, whom I met many years ago at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.The fact that our path to this conference on international Canadian Studies ran through our time together at a think tank on Canada's relations with Asia says something about the nature of Canadian Studies.It is that the value of Canadian Studies and an appreciation for the value of Canadianists such as all of you are more often recognized outside of Canada than within our borders.But it also says something about the problem facing Canadian Studies in general, which is that if it is more valued outside of Canada than within Canada, how do we muster domestic support for the expansion of Canadian Studies programs worldwide?This is a question that I imagine many of you will be discussing in the sessions to follow.It is also a question that was posed by the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Development at hearings held in the spring of 2023 on the broader topic of cultural diplomacy.Nik Nanos and Dr. Bland, from whom you will hear shortly, testified at those hearings, as did other Canadian Studies program directors from around the world.Senators heard loud and clear the plea from your colleagues that there was a need to reinvigorate Canadian Studies along the lines of the Understanding Canada program which was terminated in 2012.Indeed, our 2019 Senate Standing Committee report entitled Cultural Diplomacy at the Front Stage of Canada's Foreign Policy specifically called for "Global Affairs Canada [to] support the creation of a modernized Canadian Studies program that would contribute to knowledge about