Diplomatically Speaking: NACDI Presents at ISA 2023 in Montreal
Cultural analysis and criticism help us theorize how to resist oppression and productively relate across differences. This March, NACDI fellows and founders shared their research on this subject at the 2023 International Studies Association Annual Convention in Montreal. As a panelist for “Critical Cultural Diplomacy: Ways of Constructing the Field I,” I participated in a […]
Remembering and Engaging: Diaspora Museums as Cultural Diplomats
The second research summit of the SSHRC-supported research project “The Cultural Relations Approach to Diplomacy: Practice, Policy and Players,” held in fall 2021, addressed how the landscape of actors or players involved in cultural diplomacy has changed. It explored the premise that nation-states are no longer the only key players in cultural, or any other […]
The Limits of Cultural Citizenship in Sports: The Toronto Raptors and Disneyfied Resistance
Photo by Omar Prestwich on Unsplash By Amy Parks “[T]his isn’t about countries, this isn’t about the borders, to me it’s about continuing to shine the light on that we need to do better in police brutality area, we need to do better in the systemic racism area…. That’s not just Canada, America, that’s […]
Public Diplomacy from the Mediaspora // La Diplomacia Pública desde la Mediáspora
Nam June Paik – Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, 1995, fifty-one channel video installation (including one closed-circuit television feed), custom electronics, neon lighting, steel and wood; color, sound, approx. 15 x 40 x 4 ft., at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, photo: CC BY 2.0 by Cea. By Eduardo Luciano Tadeo Hernández The current communicative ecosystem and […]
American Art Diplomacy in Poland: New Research by Diana Stelowska
May 20, 2020 The end of the Cold War marked a turning point in American cultural diplomacy. For many “victory” in East-West struggle marked the ascendancy of an American Way and reduced the need for assertive public diplomacy advertising the superiority of Western culture. After the events of 9/11/2001 however, it became crucial for […]
A Cultural Institution in Focus: The British Council
The British Council in Delhi February 12, 2019 The British Council, one of the key actors in British cultural diplomacy, was founded in 1934 in response to growing communist and fascist influences in the pre-war period. In 1938, a few years after its foundation, its first overseas office was opened, and thus a long diplomatic […]
Black History is Canadian History – Expanding Ideas of Canadian Culture
February 25, 2019 On February 13, I attended an event entitled, Still Standing: 400 Years of Black Excellence in Canada. This event was hosted by Carleton University’s Black History Month Committee and organized by a number of students and faculty across the university. Through various step, poetry, and music performances, an engaging panel discussion, […]
International Education as Soft Power
International education is recognized by states and other international actors as a significant tool of soft power –a mechanism of attraction and persuasion. Education as a global phenomenon attracts people, and generates interest in the languages and cultures of other places. It can project a positive image, increase influence and sympathy abroad. The attractiveness of […]
Canadian Cultural Diplomacy
October 16, 2018 Culture is a powerful tool of attraction and sympathy – it projects a favourable image to foreign publics and increases a country’s prominence in the international arena. Since the 1950s, Canada has been incorporating culture into its foreign affairs, which has become increasingly central to its soft power influence. An overview of […]
Cultural Festivals and the Gateway to Understanding
December 18, 2018 As cultural diplomacy enters public and political discourse more frequently, governments can be seen implementing visual arts, music, education, language, and even cooking programs that celebrate their country’s soft power and increase amity with other nations. Similarly, numerous initiatives and funding opportunities over the years have demonstrated the ways in which the […]