October 18-21, 2017

Las Vegas, Nevada

North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative (nacdi) participation at the 24th Biennial Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) Celebrating Canada’s Sesquicentennial Journey.

nacdi was prominent at the ACSUS 24th Biennial Conference in Las Vegas, October 2017. nacdi’s participation was focused around a two-session panel, Canadian Culture in the ‘American Century’ organized by Bronwyn Jaques and Jeffrey Brison. Exploring Canadian development in a range of cultural spheres, six nacdi panelists discussed the impact of American cultural hegemony in the post-World War II era. Culture was explored through the mediums of kid’s shows, television streaming, toys, local music scenes and more conventional sites of cultural diplomacy including cultural centres and art exhibitions.

In addition to the two panels, nacdi led a contingent of eleven Queen’s University graduate students who presented their research on topics ranging from Glenn Gould’s nationalism to American foreign investment and Canadian taxation policy. nacdi members and affiliated graduate students engaged in discussions with American scholars in question periods and in the hallways and reception areas following panels. The academic and anecdotal exchanges that occurred at ACSUS spurred new questions and ideas about the relationships between the Canadian and American nation-states, the relationships between people outside of national frameworks, and the possibilities for new types of connections through cultural diplomacy.