United States Ambassador David Jacobson visited Carleton Jan. 5, despite the fact that the timing of the event conflicted with the IIHF World Junior’s hockey final.
Jacobson said he would keep his comments brief in light of thegame, which saw Canada and the U.S. facing off for the top spot – and coincided perfectly with the event for which he was visiting the school.
Jacobson's visit, fresh off a trip to Afghanistan, was to celebrate the opening of Carleton's new Centre for American Studies.
Unlike the hockey game, the centre will not merely look at the United States in terms of its relationship to Canada, but instead study the country in and of itself. The centre aims to provide a better understanding of the culture, politics, history and identity of the United States.
Carleton president Roseann Runte welcomed Jacobson to the university and called the institute “a great hope for the future.”
Professor Andrew Johnston, the associate director of the centre and former director of the American studies program at the University of Western Ontario, said that though most Canadians feel they already know a lot about the United States, it is “more than bubblegum and Hollywood.”
“We want to engage the United States with a seriousness and reflexivity that we hope will transcend the normal stereotypes that sometimes inhibit a better understanding of America’s historic placing in the world,” Johnston said.
“When you learn about another country, you learn much more about your country as well,” Jacobson said.
“I believe that the work that will be done at this centre will help you not only to understand more about my country, the United States, but probably will help you to understand more about your country, Canada,” Jacobson said.
The centre will also act as home to two publications, one edited by Walton, The Canadian Review of American Studies, and the other edited by PhD students Brian Foster and Maureen Mahoney under Johnston’s supervision, The NeoAmericanist.
We may not have won the hockey game, but Carleton can certainly boast its own victory in welcoming the new program, the only one of its kind in Ottawa.