Frost Report 2014

Director's Report

Joan Sangster

It has been a privilege to return to the Frost Centre for one year as Director, replacing Julia Harrison, who took a well-deserved sabbatical after leading the Centre for many years. Working with faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and researchers at the Frost Centre is a stimulating and rewarding experience. We are very lucky to have excellent staff support from our Administrative Assistant, Cathy Schoel, who makes everything run smoothly: she balances many balls in the air at once, always with efficiency, grace and warmth.

This year, we welcomed three new PhD students and seven Masters students who came from a broad range of universities, disciplines and backgrounds. It is precisely this diverse range of scholars that makes the Frost Centre an exciting interdisciplinary focus for teaching and research. We also graduated three PhDs and six MAs.

A significant part of my job centred on a tasks relating to the Frost Centre’s future: creating a consultation process to explore the formation of a School of Canadian Studies and engaging in the quality assurance (IQAP) process for our PhD. The MA program, reviewed under Julia’s guidance last year, is now complete, as the report from Trent’s IQAP committee has gone to Senate. Reviewers praised the quality of our program and faculty but suggested that we may be ready now to branch out and have two Masters programs, one in Canadian Studies, one in Indigenous Studies, with lots of cross-listing and collaboration between the two. This suggestion was endorsed by the Frost Board and discussions are under way for implementation; such a proliferation of programs is a promising and exiting development that would reflect the continuing importance of Indigenous Studies as its own area of specialty at Trent, as evidenced by their successful PhD program.

The review of our joint PhD program with Carleton took place this spring, and we look forward to that IQAP report as well. Our collaboration with Carleton continues to be a source of strength; together we offer the only PhD in Canadian Studies in the country, and we have built up a strong, attractive interdisciplinary program.

Encouraged by the senior administration, and with our eyes to the future, we also engaged in a comprehensive consultation process about a School of Canadian Studies. Meetings were held with various constituencies and a draft proposal circulated extensively for comment. The process culminated in an evening workshop, facilitated by Prof. Emeritus Deborah Berrill, at which small groups worked on a number of questions: should we have such a School, and if so, what would be our mission, rationale, organization and governance? Positive feedback was overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal. A new School of Canadian Studies would be a home to a range of academic activities, including research projects, conferences and workshops, visiting fellows, community outreach, and, perhaps most importantly, it will consolidate under one umbrella a number of degrees relating to the study of Canada: the undergraduate degree, the MA, the PhD, and potentially a new Masters in Arts Administration (more on this below).

A School of Canadian Studies would build on existing strengths and longstanding distinctive traditions at Trent. Those consulted felt the time is ripe for Trent to reaffirm itself as THE place for the study of Canada, as Trent capitalizes on its comparative advantage in Canadian Studies and its longstanding reputation as a freestanding program, not merely an appendage of other programs. In keeping with its heritage, the School would of course recognize the central importance of incorporating research and teaching relating to colonialism and Indigenous-settler relations within Canada, and in a comparative context.

A consolidated School promises renewed vigour for the study of Canada across Trent and bolsters both the Canadian Studies undergraduate and graduate units, both of which are, like all Trent departments, adapting to challenges presented by attrition of faculty and continual budget reductions. The undergraduate program is of particular concern since a recent report by the Humanities Dean indicated that within a few years, there would only be one faculty member left in Canadian Studies. Since there is no commitment to renew our teaching resources in this area, we feel this puts the undergraduate program in jeopardy.

Also with an eye to the future, the Frost Centre sponsored a working group to create a new Masters in Arts Administration which would be a professional, cost-recovery program. The working group included, and consulted with faculty from English, History, Cultural Studies, Politics, Business Administration and Canadian Studies; it also engaged in very positive community consultation and was given expert advice by Trent Alumnus, Su Ditta. The proposed one-year program, which involves course work, as well as a placement in an arts organization, was reviewed very positively by external reviewers last summer. We are now waiting for administrative decisions.

I will be starting a leave in July 2014, and the Directorship will be assumed by Prof. John Milloy, a long-standing faculty contributor to the Centre. A recipient of the Symons award for teaching, John also served as the Master of Peter Robinson College at Trent. Nationally and internationally known for his outstanding research on Indigenous history, John will bring to the Centre his twinned dedication to teaching and research excellence.