Timothy Pasch, first FLAS Fellow in Inuktitut in the nation (2005-08), is now an Assistant Professor, Communication, University of North Dakota, and was just appointed to the board of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States.
The Canadian Studies Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, has profoundly influenced my scholarly and professional career in incredibly dynamic and positive ways.
The Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grant that I received through the Center while a graduate student, along with a Canadian Embassy Graduate Student Fellowship, were instrumental in enabling me to work with one of the premier instructors of Inuktitut and conduct dissertation fieldwork in Arctic Québec. I will be returning to the Canadian Arctic this summer, this time to teach New Media production techniques to students from the Arctic College in Arviat, Nunavut.
Last week I received notice from the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS), that I have been elected to the Council as representative for Communication and Arctic Affairs for 2013-2015. This is a highly significant honor at this stage in my career and I am exceedingly optimistic regarding this term of service. I credit this appointment to the combination of the training, academic and governmental research connections that I made during my time at the U.W., along with the strong support of Nadine Fabbi and others from the Center and the Jackson School.
Thanks to the enormous inspiration that I gained from Canadian Studies and the U.W., I am pleased to report that I am co-director of the Canadian Studies Center at the University of North Dakota, as well as faculty of record for our introductory Canadian Studies course. We are excited with many of the new initiatives that we have developed to enhance cultural and research linkages in the Red River Corridor.
Finally, I would like to announce my co-edited book currently in press with McGill-Queens University Press to be released this month, entitled Beyond the Border: Tensions across the Forty-Ninth Parallel in the Great Plains and Prairies. For all of these wonderful occurrences, I would like to thank the Canadian Studies – it is no exaggeration to say that they simply made everything possible for me.
Thank you so much, merci mille fois, et nakurmiik!
Timothy Pasch, Assistant Professor, Communication, University of North Dakota, was just appointed to the board of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States. Tim was the nation’s first FLAS Fellow in Inuktitut from 2005-2008. He studied with linguist, Mick Mallon, and then with the Avataq Cultural Centre, Nunavik.
