The UWO Canadianist Research Group (CRG) - an initiative of graduate students in the Department of English - began meeting in May 2006 with the understanding that its activities would be shaped by the research interests of its members. The membership has since grown dramatically to include faculty and graduate students from both the English and French departments at UWO.

CRG gathers regularly to engage in one of three types of activities:

1) Critical discussions of Canadian prose fiction, poetry and theory from any of the field's historical periods, often considering issues of race, gender and nationhood; why certain historical texts have become canonical while others have not; and how contemporary works - published within the past five or ten years - are influencing the direction of research in the Canadian field.

2) The delivery of formal papers in order to disseminate research and obtain constructive feedback.

3) Member-led sessions for which the focus is a text central to that individual's future research. These sessions provide a less formal, workshopping environment, where tentative stances may be taken and ideas generated collectively.

While these are the group's primary activities, we have also been involved in a variety of other undertakings. The CRG organized a panel on pedagogy at Congress 2007, entitled "Canadian Canon(s) Old and New: Teaching a National Literature in a Global Age," which received laudatory coverage from the National Post. We have also hosted readings and discussions with visiting authors and poets, including a reading by Roy Miki, a celebration of First Nations writers featuring presentations from three of Canada's finest dramatists, Monique Mojica, Daniel David Moses and Drew Hayden Taylor in March 2007, and discussions with Daphne Marlatt, Wayson Choy and Penn Kemp in the fall of 2009. We hope you'll join us for more discussion and intellectual exchange during the 2012-2013 academic year!