North American Studies

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

NORTH AMERICAN STUDIES INITIATIVE

Inquiries regarding grants for research and teaching should contact:

John H. Thompson, Director
Dept. of History
jthompso@duke.edu or 684-2343

GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING RESEARCH AND GRANTS
The North American Studies Initiative supports a coordinated program of interdisciplinary teaching, scholarship and public service on a broad agenda of North American political, social and cultural issues. The center emphasizes six central areas of enquiry which offer significant comparative perspectives from which to study Mexico, Canada, and their interactions with the United States:

Migration
Regional integration affects population movements both within and among the countries of North America. Will closer economic ties induce new migration patterns, and force closer relations among NAFTA nations in devising immigration policies? Will the profound inequalities between Mexico and its more developed neighbors continue to encourage massive northward migration, both legal and illegal? Less obvious is Canadian concern about the re-emergence of the "brain drain" of many of its best-educated citizens to the United States.

Institutional Change
Regional integration poses a multiplicity of questions about institutional adjustments. Will, or should, North American regionalization eventually parallel the European Union, and induce regional institutions to manage areas as diverse as environmental and cultural policies? Will politics and identity take on a more 'regional' appearance? How will Canada and Mexico deal with unprecendented challenges to their party systems and to their very integrity as nation states? How will the 24-million-member North American labor movement respond to an economic environment marked not simply by regional integration but by globalization of production?

Sub-National Implications of Regional Integration
Will the process of North Americanization have dramatically different effects on different sub-national regions of each nation-state? What about sub-national regions that transcend national boundaries, such as the Detroit-Windsor area of Michigan and Ontario, or the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican Wests?

The Environment
Regional integration affects the environment and national programs in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Can regional economic integration open opportunities for trilateral approaches to environmental problems? The study of "environmental regions"--geographic regions that cross national borders -- opens possibilities of comparative research on the history of human impact, from use to regulation. The forests of the Pacific Northwest of Canada and the United States, and the deserts of the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico provide examples.

Communication and Cultural Production
Regional integration alters the creation, transmission, and exchange of cultural products, and facilitates the spread of ideas as much as, or more than, the spread of goods. Nowhere are the three countries of the NAFTA more dissimilar than in their approaches to cultural industries. In the United States, cultural industries are almost exclusively the domain of the private sector and cultural products and "intellectual property" are commodities like any other. In Canada and Mexico, however, there is significant public participation in cultural production, and in both countries cultural nationalist elites strongly support these policies in direct contradiction to the free-market model of cultural production in the United States. The large and increasing Spanish-speaking population of the United States looms as a lucrative market for Mexican cultural exports. The French-language cultural industries of Canada-Quebec face an uncertain future in a North American regional context.

Regional and National Identities
Regional integration challenges the distinct -- and incompatible -- concepts of identity which have evolved historically in Mexico, Canada and the United States. Regional integration poses the possibility, to some an opportunity and to others a threat, of significant cultural convergence. In some cases, ethnic, social, racial, religious, and even national identities are already being transformed. For example, will the resurgence of Native American cultural and political identities underway in the United States be shaped by the experiences of Native societies in Mexico or Canada more so than now? Will Latinos/Latinas in Canada and the U.S. be affected by closer relations with Mexico? A multi-cultural approach from a continental perspective not only questions national metaphors such as the United States "melting pot," the Canadian "mosaic," and Mexico's "raza cosmica": it prompts a significant reconceptualization of the complex question of the construction of "identities" on national, regional, local, ethnic, and individual levels.

Grants are provided to Duke faculty for research and teaching on North American topics. Preference is given to work in the six research themes. The Initiative also provides support to graduate students who work on comparative North American topics.


	RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES NORTH AMERICAN STUDIES INITIATIVE Inquiries regarding grants for research and teaching should contact: John H. Thompson, Director Dept. of History jthompso@duke.edu or 684-2343 GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING RESEARCH AND GRANTS The North American Studies Initiative supports a coordinated program of interdisciplinary teaching, scholarship and public service on a broad agenda of North American political, social and cultural issues. The center emphasizes six central areas of enquiry which offer significant comparative perspectives from which to study Mexico, Canada, and their interactions with the United States: Migration Regional integration affects population movements both within and among the countries of North America. Will closer economic ties induce new migration patterns, and force closer relations among NAFTA nations in devising immigration policies? Will the profound inequalities between Mexico and its more developed neighbors continue to encourage massive northward migration, both legal and illegal? Less obvious is Canadian concern about the re-emergence of the "brain drain" of many of its best-educated citizens to the United States. Institutional Change Regional integration poses a multiplicity of questions about institutional adjustments. Will, or should, North American regionalization eventually parallel the European Union, and induce regional institutions to manage areas as diverse as environmental and cultural policies? Will politics and identity take on a more 'regional' appearance? How will Canada and Mexico deal with unprecendented challenges to their party systems and to their very integrity as nation states? How will the 24-million-member North American labor movement respond to an economic environment marked not simply by regional integration but by globalization of production? Sub-National Implications of Regional Integration Will the process of North Americanization have dramatically different effects on different sub-national regions of each nation-state? What about sub-national regions that transcend national boundaries, such as the Detroit-Windsor area of Michigan and Ontario, or the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican Wests? The Environment Regional integration affects the environment and national programs in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Can regional economic integration open opportunities for trilateral approaches to environmental problems? The study of "environmental regions"--geographic regions that cross national borders -- opens possibilities of comparative research on the history of human impact, from use to regulation. The forests of the Pacific Northwest of Canada and the United States, and the deserts of the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico provide examples. Communication and Cultural Production Regional integration alters the creation, transmission, and exchange of cultural products, and facilitates the spread of ideas as much as, or more than, the spread of goods. Nowhere are the three countries of the NAFTA more dissimilar than in their approaches to cultural industries. In the United States, cultural industries are almost exclusively the domain of the private sector and cultural products and "intellectual property" are commodities like any other. In Canada and Mexico, however, there is significant public participation in cultural production, and in both countries cultural nationalist elites strongly support these policies in direct contradiction to the free-market model of cultural production in the United States. The large and increasing Spanish-speaking population of the United States looms as a lucrative market for Mexican cultural exports. The French-language cultural industries of Canada-Quebec face an uncertain future in a North American regional context. Regional and National Identities Regional integration challenges the distinct -- and incompatible -- concepts of identity which have evolved historically in Mexico, Canada and the United States. Regional integration poses the possibility, to some an opportunity and to others a threat, of significant cultural convergence. In some cases, ethnic, social, racial, religious, and even national identities are already being transformed. For example, will the resurgence of Native American cultural and political identities underway in the United States be shaped by the experiences of Native societies in Mexico or Canada more so than now? Will Latinos/Latinas in Canada and the U.S. be affected by closer relations with Mexico? A multi-cultural approach from a continental perspective not only questions national metaphors such as the United States "melting pot," the Canadian "mosaic," and Mexico's "raza cosmica": it prompts a significant reconceptualization of the complex question of the construction of "identities" on national, regional, local, ethnic, and individual levels. Grants are provided to Duke faculty for research and teaching on North American topics. Preference is given to work in the six research themes. The Initiative also provides support to graduate students who work on comparative North American topics.
John Hope Franklin Center \| Box 90422 \| 2204 Erwin Road \| Durham, NC 27708-0422 \| Tel.: (919)684-4260 \| Fax: (919) 681-7882