CASID / ACÉDI

 Dear CASID Members:

 CJDS

An interim editorial team at the University of Ottawa, including Stephen, Nasser, and Prachi, together with Ruth Bradley-St-Cyr, who will provide production services, with the assistance of Larry Swatuk (University of Waterloo) has assumed responsibility for production of Volume 30, aiming for distribution of Nos. 1-2 in March and Nos. 3-4 in May (2010).

At this point let me thank the outgoing CJDS editorial team members notably Henry Rempel and Myron Frankman, as well as the CJDS editorial board members. I should also acknowledge the work of Anastasia Kouri in her assessment of CJDS operations.

I am very pleased to announce that on May 1, John Harris, from Simon Fraser University and past editor of the prestigious UK publication Journal of Development Studies, will take over as Editor-in-Chief (English language). He will work with Nasser Ary Tanimoune (French language editor) and Prachi Srivastava (Book Review Editor). I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who applied for these CJDS editorial team positions, and encourage you to continue to be involved in the journal, whether as peer reviewers, book reviewers or article authors.

Over the coming weeks, Ruth will set set CJDS up on the Open Journal System (OJS) or another platform for online MS processing and dissemination. We will use this experience to inform our discussion with CASID members at the May Annual General Meeting of future commercial and other publishing options for CJDS. What the CASID Executive and CJDS Editorial Team will be seeking is the best arrangement for ensuring the most efficient production management regime, the widest possible dissemination, accessibility of the journal to scholars and institutions in developing countries as well as Canada, use of the journal as the primary publication outlet for development scholars all over the world—and positioning the journal as one of the most prestigious journals in the field.

Whatever arrangement is finally chosen CASID will continue to assume full responsibility for both the editing function and for advancing the interest of CASID members in restoring the journal to full health and making it one of the very best in the field.

The Annual Conference

Another issue – and key service to members – on which I am pleased to report is the annual conference, which in 2009 was held at Carleton University with the organizational skills and exceptional efforts of Charmain Levy, who followed several years of CASID conference organizing by the inimitable Wilder Robles and his team from Winnipeg, with exemplary results. The conference by all accounts was an outstanding success, bringing together a record number of both graduate student and faculty members to present their research and participate in discussions of this research. We are fortunate indeed in being able to count on Charmain once again in 2010, to organize the next annual conference in Montreal. The deadline for proposals for participation was December 20 so I hope that everyone was able to get in their proposals. In any case, on behalf of CASID, I hope that as many of you as possible will be joining us in Montreal. The conference promises to be a momentous event with a number of special as well as regular speakers and events. Please track the CASID website for updated information on the Conference—and the program once it is available.

Our annual conferences over the past two years were invigorated by the presence of many IDS undergraduates from across Canada who had organized their own parallel InSight conference. InSight’s history is summarized in an article in their electronic journal, Undercurrents (Vol. II, 2008)—Reflections for InSight: Five Years of the Canadian National Students' Conference in International Development Studies, by Gemma Boag, Christina Scriven and Stephanie Diepeveen. It can be found here.

Website, Regional Events and Policy Forums

Another important CASID-organised activity is a series of ‘Regional Events’, coordinated by James Gaede, who has also been working with Peter Tamas to update the website and make it more user-friendly and interactive—useful also as a Bulletin Board and an electronic discussion forum and workspace. Check it out! It’s quite something. One of the key features is the page with links to undergraduate and development programs in development studies. Please let James Gaede know if we should add a link to a new course at your university, or if you have any other ideas for making the website more useful to CASID members.

In 2009 over 400 people took part in five regional events held across the country at universities in Prince George, Kamloops, Peterborough, Ottawa and Halifax. Five proposals for Regional Events have been accepted for 2010 and will take place at theUniversity of Guelph (May 1, International Solidarity, International Development); University of Quebec (January 14, Etat de situation et perspectives d'avenir pour le développement de la solidarité internationale au Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean); University of Manitoba / University of Saskatchewan (March 22, Unequal Development, Women, Poverty and Inequality); the University of Ottawa (Global Economic Crisis); and Trent University (Community Movements, Labour Justice). For information on these events again please track the website or check with James Gaede.

In addition to Regional Events, James Gaede is also responsible for organizing several Development Forums and an on-line CASID publication designed to bring scholarly insights into a public policy focus. Three Forums were held in 2009, one at Simon Fraser University (on climate change in the Global South), one at Dalhousie University (sexual violence against young people in conflict situations, one at the Université de Montreal (on the food crisis, food sovereignty and public policy). One of the 2010 Development Forums will intersect with a Conference on Inter-institutional Cooperation / Postgraduate (PhD) programming in IDS, hosted by the School of International Development and Globalization Studies (SIDGS) at the University of Ottawa. The conference, co-sponsored by CASID and CCUPIDS, and scheduled for April 2-3, will bring together academics, researchers, university teachers and administrators who share the concern for advancing IDS postgraduate studies in Canada. Information on the Conference, and invitations to participate, will be posted on the CASID website sometime in January. 

Postgraduate programs leading to an MA in International development represent one of the fastest growth areas in the country but the dearth of academic programming leading to the PhD in IDS, and the production of IDS-trained staff for these programs, remains a concern of CASID (on this see the IDRC-sponsored and CASID-organised 2004 White paper on the State of IDS in Canada). The April conference will report on several initiatives in this area, including the discipline-based coordinated PhD in Development Studies at the University of Guelph and the project to establish an interdisciplinary IDS PhD program at Saint Mary’s University (jointly with the Autonomous University of Zacatecas) and the University of Ottawa. In addition the conference will be an opportunity to discuss the diverse modalities of possible inter-university cooperation—and the sharing of resources—in the design and offering of postgraduate IDS study programs in Canada. One of several keynote speakers at the conference will be Ben White from the ISS in The Hague. He will report not only on his own extensive experience in PhD programming in IDS, but also on the Bologna-process in the EU regarding inter-university cooperation (including the extensive use of the ‘carrot and stick’ in encouraging such cooperation). In addition to workshops on discipline-based and interdisciplinary programs, and problems and prospects for inter—university cooperation, Philippe Régnier, from the University of Ottawa, will report on the joint initiative of UofO and SMU to pilot a doctoral Summer school in IDS (to be offered in subsequent years in conjunction with the CASID Conference).

Other Events

For the information of members, the Canada-organised / Mexico-based Critical Development Studies (CDS) network (see critdev.org for information / to join) in 2009 (i) held its second annual CDS Summer School in Zacatecas, with the participation of 30+ graduate students from across Canada, Mexico, Latin America and Europe; (ii) organised its first annual CDS Conference—on the global food crisis; and (iii) produced the CDS Handbook: Tools for Change, available to CDS members online and to be published in 2010 by Fernwood Books and Pluto Press.

In 2010 it is planning for another international conference and graduate summer school, a research workshop (in Zacatecas Mexico, February 21-22) on pathways out of rural poverty, and another on development knowledge for ‘living well’, in preparation of the first Global Forum on CDS sponsored by the Plurinational government of Bolivia, and planned to take place in Cochabamba in 2011.

The CASID Listserv

Trish Paton continues to manage the Listserv for us from her base in Saskatchewan. The listserve allows members to not only connect with one another but with many others interested in international development studies. Please remember to post information about upcoming conferences, publications, job notices etc to the listserv. CASID is keen to receive suggestions from members as to how it can be improved. Please do not hesitate to contact Trish or the Secretariat with your ideas.

New feature(s)—Academia.edu

 Academia.edu, founded by Richard Price, a post-doc in the Philosophy Dept of Oxford University, helps 300,000 academics a month answer the question ‘who’s researching what?’ There are already 183 people on Academia.edu with International Development as a research interest. We have built a dedicated page on Academia.edu for the CASID mailing list (here). This page will show you fellow members already on Academia.edu. You can see their papers, research interests, and other information. Visit the link above, sign up with Academia.edu and see who else from CASID is on Academia.edu.  

A Professional Code of Conduct

It is proposed that CASID initiate the preparation of a Professional Code of Conduct for members (re teaching, research and other professional activities). We can engage in an electronic discussion on the website but meanwhile any suggestions for particular clauses to include and precise wording can be passed on to myself. More on this in due course.

Finally…

On behalf of all CASID members, I would like to thank everyone involved in CASID – the members of the Executive Council, our other CASID volunteers or ‘champions’, the Secretariat and the members of the CJDS interim team. Particular thanks are due to Ann Weston for her many years of work on the Executive, most recently as CASID Past-President; Ann will resign from the Executive when she joins the International Development Research Centre on January 11^th as Director of the Special Initiatives Division.

We are very grateful for the funding from IDRC that make all our activities possible. The IDRC is not simply a funder of CASID-organised activities but a strategic partner in the professional services that CASID is committed to provide its members.

To conclude this circular to members as it began, please renew your membership! And please ask your friends and colleagues to join. CASID is your association and we will strive to improve the benefits of membership.

Best wishes for the holidays and a happy start to a productive 2010.

Henry Veltmeyer