May and September 2010 Grant Award Recipients of the U.S. Mission in Canada American Studies-Community Partnership
Grant Competitions

Ontario HIV Treatment Network: North American Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit, Toronto, Ontario (May Award)

Project Overview: The Ontario HIV Treatment Network’s award funded the participation of U.S. experts in the North American Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit held June 2-4, 2010 in Toronto. More than 250 community members, academic researchers and policy makers from Canada and the United States shared new research, brainstormed new ideas, and formed new partnerships as they focused on the connection between housing and health concerns for people with HIV/AIDS.

Rolling Darkness Review, Ottawa, Ontario (May Award)

Project Overview: The award to the “Rolling Darkness Review” (RDR), a multi-media experience incorporating live music and ghost story readings, will provide a remarkable Canadian-American exchange, exposing Canadian audiences to some of America’s finer horror writing talents, providing a forum for questions and answers and academic exchanges, and granting spectators an opportunity to discover new American authors, ideas and books. Following the Writers Festival, the program will also venture to northern Ontario for additional performances.

Cross Border Pollination Series (Simon Fraser University), Vancouver (May Award)

Project Overview: The “Cross-Border Pollination” project is a community and cross-cultural exchange program between Canadian and American writers and readers. Not only will the authors collaborate with one another in a dynamic evening of shared readings, they will also offer up a literary feast to audiences in bookstores and libraries in Vancouver to people whose only common interest is love of the written word.

Calgary International Film Festival, Calgary, Alberta (September Award)

Project Overview: The Calgary International Film Festival‘s objective is sharing with Canadians the new cinematic talent emerging from the U.S. as well as creating greater mutual understanding between the two nations. This year’s festival will screen fifteen feature films created by American independent artists in attendance for the screening, participating in a question and answer period afterwards. The American filmmakers will also have an opportunity to connect with others in the Canadian film industry.

Alberta Institute of American Studies at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta (September Award)

Project Overview: The Alberta Institute for American Studies Speakers’ Series brings knowledgeable individuals from the United States to give public lectures at the University of Alberta. The Institute will expand its Speakers’ Series and introduce a new Video-Seminar Series at the University. The new video-seminar series will link University of Alberta departments with institutions in the United States. These seminars will address significant topics in American Studies.

Centre for Trade Policy and Law at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario (September Award)

Project Overview: The Centre has planned a one-day workshop that will bring together key policymakers from relevant government departments in Canada, policy experts and government official from the United States and Canada, representatives of international donor agencies working in the Caribbean, private sector and civil society representatives, and others who can bring practical experience to the discussion of Canadian-United States economic development cooperation in the Caribbean and make policy recommendations. The workshop will highlight a case study completed by graduate students and their faculty advisors entitled “U.S. – Canada Cooperation on Mainstreaming SME Finance in the Caribbean,” also a component of the project.

McGill Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec (September Award)

Project Overview: The McGill Institute for the Study of Canada will host a two-and-a-half day conference on the Canada-U.S. relationship. The conference will bring together historians, former and current politicians, policy-makers, journalists, interested stakeholders and academics to address a broad range of issues affecting the two countries, such as, history, policy-making, the current state of the Canada-U.S. relationship, security and trade issues, and the fundamental differences in how the media portrays issues (health care, climate change, security, etc) in Canada and the U.S.

Carrousel International Film Festival for Children and Youth, Rimouski, Quebec (September Award)

Project Overview: The organizers of the 28th Carrousel International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Rimouski, Quebec have aimed at their project at expanding the American studies participation in community projects and activities that provide participants with new/expanded educational and cultural opportunities in Canada. The award will assist in bringing American film directors to the Festival who will share their expertise and their film in public screening and lecture as well as in classroom settings.

American Society for Ethnohistory at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario (September Award)

Project Overview: The American Society for Ethnohistory is holding its 2010 Annual Meeting in Ottawa in October. Hundreds of scholars from across the Americas will focus on indigenous societies and their relations with expanding colonial and modern state structure of Canada, America and Latin America. The conference will address the relationship between Native societies and expanding state structure in the Americas. The meeting will be a forum to encourage discussions and reflection on alternative models of indigenous nation building, displacement and violence in the interior, and the vast process of native inclusion and exclusion in the construction of modern states.

Vancouver International Dance Festival, Vancouver, British Columbia (September Award)

Project Overview: The Vancouver International Dance Company’s project is a partnership between Canadian and American dance organizations as well as one that highlights the dance performance of the Khambatta Dance Company from Seattle, Washington. The project engages American Studies cultural practitioners in genuine collaborations with community organizers and the constituents they serve.

Winnipeg Cinematheque Theatre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (September Award)

Project Overview: Winnipeg Cinematheque Theatre is sponsoring a four-day documentary forum “Gimme Some Truth” that is a combination seminar, screening program, and craft workshop series that will provide the local film-making community and audiences the opportunity to learn about the documentary film practice and creative, technical, distribution, and ethical issues related to the practice and production of these works. The forum includes master classes and technical workshops in a program aimed at a post secondary audience.