Canadians are no strangers to separatist debates, but they may not necessarily be as familiar with the stories behind emerging separatist movements across the Atlantic.
With the last few years bringing electoral successes for dormant or slow-moving separatist causes in Scotland and Catalonia (Spain), this year鈥檚 MacKay Lecture Series at Dal offers an opportunity to draw connections between these movements and Canada鈥檚 experience with Quebec separatism.
Each year, the MacKay Lectures bring four internationally renowned speakers to campus to deliver talks focused on topics in the liberal and performing arts. Titled 鈥淓uropean and Canadian Separatisms,鈥� this year鈥檚 series is organized by Jerry White, associate professor in the Department of English and the Canada Research Chair in European Studies.
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The first lecture takes place this Thursday (7:30 p.m., Scotiabank Auditorium, McCain Building) and features G茅rard Bouchard, best known for his role on Quebec鈥檚 Bouchard-Taylor Commission (proper name: 鈥淐onsultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences.鈥�)
鈥淗e was a major intellectual figure before the commission, and those two years in the public spotlight really added to that,鈥� says Dr. White. 鈥淭he report they [Bouchard and Taylor] wrote together basically predicted the current crisis that is unfolding about the Quebec Charter of Values.鈥�
Dr. Bouchard, the Canada Research Chair in the Comparative Study of Collective Imaginations at the Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Chicoutimi, will speak on 鈥淢yths, Nations and Collective Imaginations: A New Frontier for Cultural Research.鈥�
Connections across continents
The series then continues on March 5 with Scottish author, poet and translator Christopher Whyte, discussing 鈥淭he Language of Incomprehension: How Not to Be a Minority Language Writer.鈥� That talk will be followed on March 12 by Ferran Requejo Coll, a professor of political science from Barcelona, who will explore the separatist movement in Catalonia.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e three places that are in the news a lot these days,鈥� says Dr. White, discussing what ties the series together. 鈥淨uebec鈥檚 separatism movement seems to always be with us, like death and taxes. Scotland is gearing up for a referendum on independence in September of this year and Catalonia has a nationalist government at the moment and has been trying to organize a referendum for the last two years or so, even though the Spanish government has explicitly forbade them to do so.
鈥淭his is a chance for people to get more of a sense of what鈥檚 going on in these three places they鈥檝e probably heard about,鈥� he says, adding that attendees will be able to see some common themes emerge, including the role of minority languages and tensions within federalism.
The series concludes on March 20 with the MacKay History Lecture, recognizing the donation of Gladys MacKay that funded the series in appreciation of the history education her husband (the Reverend Malcolm Ross MacKay) received at Dalhousie. The lecture by Roger Mason (Department of History, University of St. Andrews), an expert in political thought and culture in early modern Scotland, will discuss 鈥淒is-united kingdoms? Debating Britain in Seventeenth-Century Scotland.鈥�
For more on the entire MacKay Lecture Series, .