Institute on Québec Studies
The Institute on Québec Studies at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh was established in February 2004.
SUNY Plattsburgh has a longstanding demonstrated commitment to educating local, regional, national and international communities on Québec studies. We remain the first and only university, public or private, in the United States to feature a dedicated institute or center committed to a comprehensive program of teaching, research and professional activities on Québec.
Mission Statement:
“In recognition of the increasing prominence of Québec in New York, New England and the wider North American community, the Institute on Québec Studies at SUNY College at Plattsburgh serves as the gateway institution for the promotion of Québec Studies in the United States. The institute is committed to the visible development, expansion and dissemination of Québec Studies among academic, business and government constituents.”
Special Opportunities for SUNY Plattsburgh Students
- Declare a Québec studies minor
- Study abroad in Québec and Canada as a Killam Fellow for a $5,000 per semester scholarship
Internal campus application deadline: December 15 - Enroll in Introduction to Québec course
- Participate in the annual festival Célébrons Québec featuring Québec film, lectures on Québec themes and a luncheon featuring traditional and contemporary Québec cuisine.
Programs
Visiting Scholars & Speakers
- Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Québec Studies
The Institute on Québec Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh is very pleased to welcome Dr. Jean-Philippe Marcoux as our Distinguished Fulbright Research Chair for the spring 2023 semester.
Dr. Marcoux is a Professor of American Literature at Université Laval in Québec City. His research focuses on the cross-fertilizations between Black music, literature, especially poetry, and social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He is the author of Jazz Griots: Music as History in the 1960s African American Poem (Lexington Books, 2012) and the editor of Some Other Blues: New Perspectives on Amiri Baraka (Ohio UP, 2021), and Back Pages: New and Selected Poems by A.L. Nielsen (BlazeVox, 2021). He has produced books chapters on David Henderson, Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka. He is currently working on a literary history of the Umbra poets as well as on a two-volume collection of critical and creative work on and by Umbra members entitled The Umbra Galaxy (co-edited with David Grundy and Tonya Foster, under contract at Wesleyan UP).
The focus of Dr. Marcoux’s research project, while in residence at SUNY Plattsburgh, is titled “The Society of Umbra: A Digital Archive.” His investigation is the first phase of the production of a digital archive on cultural production of the Society of Umbra, a group of artists and poets originating from New York’s Lower East Side scene, which will consist in archival research, data collection, evaluation of data collected and preliminary planning of the hyperlinks and hypertextual contents. The Umbers digital archive is modeled as a collaboratory that will place scholars, researchers and graduate students in a virtual research environment based on exchange of data and information and collaborative writing.
The Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Québec Studies at the Institute on Québec Studies, SUNY Plattsburgh is made possible thanks to support from the Québec Ministry of International Relations and La Francophonie.
Chairholders support the advancement of Québec Studies in the United States and expand knowledge about Québec among the academic community and opinion leaders in the United States. They engage in collaborative research, deliver public lectures, give seminar presentations, participate in conferences and otherwise contribute to ongoing research activities in the United States. The chairholder is housed at the Institute on Québec Studies, SUNY Plattsburgh.
Researchers selected to serve as Distinguished Fulbright Chairs in Québec Studies will have interest in the following fields:
- Bilateral relations between Québec and the United States;
- Economic diplomacy and bilateral trade (interdependence, supply chains, etc.) between Québec and the United States;
- The fight against climate change, the energy transition and sustainable transportation;
- Energy and natural resource issues;
- Security and border-related issues;
- Québec culture and identity;
- Immigration and attracting talent;
- Québec’s international relations and its regions.
Past Distinguished Fulbright Chairs in Québec Studies and their research projects are:
2021-2022: Dr. Jean-François Godbout, Professor of Political Science at the Université de Montréal: “Institutional Legacies of the French Colonial Regime in North America”
2019–2020: Dr. Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, Canada Research Chair in Policies and Health Inequalities, Director of the McGill Observatory on Health and Social Services Reform, and Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Department of Epidemiology, McGill University: “Connecting Health and Social Care for Older Adults: Comparative Evidence from Canada and the U.S.” The 2020 Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Québec Studies lecture by Dr. Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, “Physical Distancing is a Privilege,” is available on YouTube.
2018–2019: Dr. Ted Rutland, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment at Concordia University: “Disappearing Difference: Montreal's War on Street Gangs and the Urban Carceral State”
2017–2018: Dr. Alexandre Turgeon, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History, University of Ottawa: “‘Did You See His Latest Tweet?’ How Twitter is Changing Politics in Québec and in the United States, 2014–2018”
2016–2017: Dr. Marie Connolly, Professor in the Department of Economics at the Université du Québec à Montréal: “Intergenerational Income Mobility in Canada and the United States”
2015–2016: Dr. Erin Hurley, Professor in the Department of English at McGill University: “The Identities of English-Language Theatre in Québec’s Eastern Townships and the Montérégie and its ties to the United States”
2014–2015: Dr. Jarrett Rudy, Department of History and Classical Studies, McGill University: “The Standardization of Time on the Québec-New York Border: Modernity, the Law, and Local Convention, 1883–1974”
2013–2014: Dr.Frédérick Gagnon, Director of the Center for United States Studies at the Raoul Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies, and Professor of Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal: “Upstairs Neighbors: Québec–U.S. Relations and the Impacts of ‘La Belle Province’ on U.S. Elections”
2012–2013: Dr. Stéphane Paquin, Canada Research Chair in International and Comparative Economy, École nationale d'administration publique: “The International Relations of Québec and its Engagement with the United States”
Canadian Scholars interested to apply? For more information, visit Fulbright Canada’s page on the Research Chairs Program. This award is open to all researchers associated with a Québec university, government agency or institute. Next competition deadline: November 2021.
- Distinguished Québec Address
The Distinguished Québec Address recognizes and features individuals who have made a discernibly positive contribution to Québec public life. The address is the keynote institute-sponsored campus event of the year. Showcased in Krinovitz Hall, the address explores timely and significant issues of concern to Québec, Canada, the United States and the international community.
Previous Distinguished Speakers
- Dr. Daniel Béland, Director, McGill institute for the Study of Canada and Director, Quebec Studies Program, McGill University (2022) — Watch Dr. Béland presentation
- Dr. Stéphane Paquin, École nationale d’administration publique (2021) — Watch Dr. Paquin presentation
- Mr. Geoffrey Kelley, Minister for Native Affairs, Government of Québec (2017)
- Ms. Christine St-Pierre, Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie (2015)
- Mr. André Picard, Health Columnist for The Globe and Mail (2014)
- Mr. Michael Goldbloom, Principal, Bishop’s University (2013)
- Mr. John Parisella, Delegate General of the Québec Government Office in New York (2010)
- Mr. Pierre Arcand, Minister of International Relations and Minister responsible for La Francophonie, Government of Québec (2009)
- Ms. Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, Minister of International Relations and Minister responsible for La Francophonie, Government of Québec (2007)
- Mr. Larry Smith, President and CEO of the Montreal Alouettes professional football team (2005)
- Mr. Philippe Couillard, Minister of Health and Social Services, Government of Québec (2004)
- Scholar-in-Residence
The IQS Scholar-in-Residence program is for emerging and prominent scholars who have a demonstrated, professional focus — as an instructor, researcher or practitioner — on Québec. Select scholars, chosen through a nomination and competitive application process, undertake residence at the Institute for a period of one week to one academic semester. Scholars are provided with an office, access to a computer, library facilities, and an honorarium. The scholar-in-residence program is open to citizens of the United States and Canada.
During their time spent as a scholar-in-residence at the institute, scholars can undertake a variety of research projects, public lectures and classroom teaching opportunities. Scholars are encouraged to utilize the rich variety of Québec content holdings, available at SUNY Plattsburgh’s Feinberg Library. A public reception as well as an official dinner, hosted by the president of the college, are featured elements of the scholar-in-residence program.
- Québec Speakers Series
This initiative provides a campus and community forum that showcases professors, intellectuals, business leaders and government officials who offer a rich assortment of public lectures on Québec and Québec–U.S. issues. To facilitate extended discussions with speakers, question and answer periods and informal receptions are an integral part of the Québec Speakers Series.
Recent Speakers
- Dr. David Haglund, Professor of Political Studies, Queen’s University
- Mr. Robert Laliberté, Director General, International Association of Québec Studies
- Dr. Jocelyn Létourneau, Professor of History & Canada Research Chair in Contemporary Political History and Economy in Québec, Université Laval
Workshops & Colloquium For Scholars
- The Québec–U.S. Relationship: Authors’ Workshop & Book Volume
The Institute on Québec Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh, Groupe d’études et de recherche sur l’international et le Québec (GERIQ), École nationale d'administration publique (ÉNAP), and Observatoire sur les États-Unis, Chaire Raoul-Dandurand, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), in partnership with the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS), are co-organizing a two-day authors’ workshop on the Québec–United States relationship to be convened May 19–21, 2022. The goal is to produce two scholarly book volumes, one in French and one in English, to be published by leading university presses.
Québec’s engagement with the United States is the most significant and consequential point of interaction among all of its international activities. This workshop seeks to explore the many ways in which Québec engages with the United States, including political exchange, border issues, trade, business and investment, transportation, immigration, cultural links and identity, the role of energy and natural resources, and environmental considerations. As a sub-national actor pursuing a wide range of paradiplomatic bilateral and multilateral initiatives directly involving the U.S., this workshop seeks to explore and explain what, when, why and how Québec has chosen to directly engage the United States.
- Québec's Eastern Townships & the World: Workshop & Book Volume
The Center for the Study of Canada and Institute on Québec Studies at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh, the Eastern Townships Resource Centre at Bishop’s University, and the Canadian Studies Program at Bridgewater State University, are collaborating on the project, “Québec’s Eastern Townships and the World: A Region and Its Global Identities.”
An authors’ workshop was held November 18–20, 2021 and featured paper presentations from more than twenty scholars examining how the Eastern Townships are linked to larger, prevailing global forces and identities, with fresh arguments and insights. Select papers will be edited for a forthcoming book publication with McGill-Queen’s University Press.
- Québec Past & Present: Annual Colloquium on Québec Studies
The 11th Annual Colloquium on Québec Studies organized by the SUNY Plattsburgh Institute on Québec Studies and Bishop’s University Eastern Townships Resource Centre will be convened March 30-April 1, 2023.
We invite researchers, academics and students from all disciplines in humanities and social sciences to contribute to this international and multidisciplinary conference. We are most interested in contributions from history, sociology, political science, public policy, linguistics, education, health, art and architecture. Paper proposals will be accepted from undergraduate/graduate students and faculty from all universities. We especially encourage faculty to identify and encourage talented students to submit a proposal for consideration.
The aim of this colloquium is to provide a forum, where the participants can share their research knowledge and ideas on Québec’s past, its recent trends, and map out the directions for its future. The colloquium will result in the publication of select edited scholarly essays in the Journal of Eastern Townships Studies (JETS).
For further information, please reference the Call for Papers for the 11th Annual Colloquium on Quebec Studies.
Publications
- Québec Questions: Québec Studies in the 21st Century
What is Québec’s relationship with the rest of Canada? Is there a distinct Québécois culture? What is Québec’s place on the international stage?
These are questions editors Stephan Gervais, Christopher Kirkey, and Jarrett Rudy continue to ask in the second edition of Québec Questions: Québec Studies for the Twenty-first Century published by Oxford University Press (2016). Bringing together expert contributors, the text examines the province through historical, social, cultural, political, and economic perspectives.
For more information and to order your copy:
Québec Questions: Québec Studies for the Twenty-first Century
- Québec Society Special Issue: American Review of Canadian Studies
The Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) and SUNY Plattsburgh’s Institute on Québec Studies, in partnership with Fulbright Canada, the Centre interuniversitaire des relations internationales du Canada et du Québec, and groupe d’études sur les Relations internationales du Québec (École nationale d’administration publique), the Québec Studies program at McGill University, Chaire Raoul-Dandurand, and l'Observatoire sur les États-Unis (Université du Québec à Montréal), convened a two-day colloquium in Montréal on March 14–16, 2019, “Québec Society in 2019: Current State and Future Prospects.” The colloquium featured single discipline, multidisciplinary and comparative scholarly inquiries dedicated to defining, examining and evaluating contemporary Québec society. Select papers were published in a special issue of the American Review of Canadian Studies, the peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS).
More information on the American Review of Canadian Studies Fall 2020 Special Issue “Québec Society: Current State and Future Prospects.”
Subscribers may access the special, guest-edited issue online:
- Nokkahigas: Champlain & the Meeting of Two Worlds
This educational book, Nokkahigas: Champlain and the Meeting of Two Worlds, has been developed to increase knowledge and appreciation of Samuel de Champlain and the two worlds he gravitated between: Europe and the Northeast Woodlands of North America. It provides readers with a rare perspective of the evolving economic, political and social circumstances that governed Champlain’s roles as explorer, ethnographer, fur trader and diplomat.
- First user-friendly condensed biography of the explorer Samuel de Champlain.
- Designed to serve the needs of the education community and general public in the U.S.A.
- A scholarly yet warm and engaging narrative of 72 pages, with historic illustrations.
Samuel de Champlain’s years of engagement between the French and the Amerindians are presented in a sequential fashion. On the right side of the pages, readers will find a thematic narrative; on the left-hand side: carefully chosen annotated full color illustrations. Notes and select readings complete the volume.
The Center for the Study of Canada and the Institute on Québec Studies, State University of New York College at Plattsburgh, were fortunate to secure the talents of author Joseph-André Senécal, Ph.D. Senécal was born in the city of Québec, has lived in the United States since 1956, and is Professor Emeritus of French language and literature and former Director of the Canadian Studies program at the University of Vermont.
- New France in the Champlain Valley Map
Also published by the Center for the Study of Canada and Institute on Québec Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh is the map “New France in the Champlain Valley, 1609–1759” researched and conceptualized by Joseph-André Senécal. The map is inscribed with place-names and other geographical designations used by French explorers, soldiers and settlers between 1609–1759, a time when France claimed and settled the area, now of New York State and Vermont.
An electronic copy of the New France in the Champlain Valley Map, 1609–1759, is available for download.
New France in the Champlain Valley Map, 1609–1759
For more information, review these brief videos featuring Dr. Senécal discuss the context of the map of New France in the Champlain Valley, 1609–1759, and the images it contains:
Watch: Overview of the New France in Champlain Valley Map with Dr. Joseph-Andre Senecal
K–12 Outreach
- Summer Institute for K–12 Professionals
Professional development opportunities in Québec Studies for K–12 teachers, curriculum specialists and administrators throughout the United States are regularly provided by the Institute on Québec Studies, SUNY Plattsburgh.
Week-long intensive summer institutes are held every summer and organized in collaboration with the Canadian-American Center, University of Maine.
The “Québec Dimensions: Historical, Geographic and Cultural Explorations” Summer Institute for K–12 Professionals takes places in Montréal and Québec City and provides professional development in English for American-based teachers, curriculum coordinators and administrators of social studies, geography, history and French. Both pre-service and in-service educators are welcome to participate. The 2023 program is scheduled to take place Sunday, June 25 to Friday, June 30.
Educators must apply to be accepted for participation in this program by April 1, 2023. Please apply online: Registration application for Québec Dimensions Summer 2023 Institute for K-12 Professionals
The Québec Dimensions Online Summer Institute for K-12 Professionals was held July 14 to August 4, 2021 with upwards of 40 teacher participants from across the country.
- North Country K–12 Schools Program
Dr. Christopher Kirkey, institute director, and Ms. Amy Sotherden, assistant director with focus on K–12 programs, are delighted to offer presentations and professional development workshops on a variety of Québec and Canadian topics for both teacher and student audiences. School districts in northern New York state are invited to contact us to secure an appointment for us to work with your school. An assortment of presentation and training topics are available for discussion.
The Institute on Québec Studies provides timely and informative classroom materials, for use by teachers and students alike. We look forward to working with north country schools, superintendents, principals, teachers and students on Québec focused K–12 curriculum instruction, delivery and materials. We welcome the opportunity to bring Québec topics to your classroom!
Partnership with North Country Teacher Resource Center
Courses with a Québec focus are regularly offered by the Institute on Québec Studies in collaboration with the North Country Teachers Resource Center for area teachers.
More Information
- Québec Studies Resources
Québec Studies Associations
The ACQS is the national scholarly association in the United States for individuals interested in the study of Québec. The ACQS hosts a biennial conference and publishes the journal Québec Studies.
The AIEQ is responsible for the promotion and development of Québec Studies in Canada and throughout the international community. The Association works to foster an international network of research on Québec through a variety of programming efforts.
Québec in the World
The Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie conducts the Government of Québec’s involvement with the international community, with a view to promoting and defending Québec’s interests and values. The MRIF is represented by the Québec Government Office in New York City and offices/bureaus in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Washington.