| Killam
fellows learn about their neighbors
Photo by Jeff
Watts
Killam
fellow Heather Desserud
|
BY
SALLY ACHARYA If
Canada is America's twin, it's a twin in an alternate universe.
It's a twin raised separately, as if a cosmic political scientist
had designed a study to learn how different two similar countries
could become in 100-plus years. And
like siblings, Canada and America have a love-hate relationship.
Witness all the hits on the Canadian immigration Web site since
the Bush reelection and the oft-repeated saying by frustrated American
liberals, "I'm going to move to Canada." Witness the way
Canadians ignore their homegrown TV shows for the glitzier Hollywood
versions, while at the same criticizing Americans as overbearing
flag-wavers. Heather Desserud has witnessed all that, and she finds
it fascinating. Desserud is a Canadian who is studying at AU this
year as part of the newly launched exchange program called the Killam
Fellowships. Most
everyone in academia has heard of the Rhodes Scholarship, which
sends talented students to Britain, or the Fulbright Program, which
sends American scholars overseas and brings overseas scholars to
the United States. Last year Canada launched a similar program,
the Killam Fellowships Program, and AU is one of a small number
of universities selected to participate. ThatØs
what brought Desserud to AU from Wolfville, Nova Scotia. That and
Frodo Baggins. "People
say, 'Why aren't you studying foreign policy?'" Desserud laughs.
But she's at AU to pursue her interest in medieval literature, which
was sparked in part by the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R.
Tolkien, an Oxford University medievalist. To
that end, she's studying the literature of her favorite period with
medieval specialist Larissa Tracy, a visiting faculty member from
Trinity College in Dublin, and taking as much advantage as possible
of Washington's many museums. But
she's also studying Americans and America. It may not be for a grade,
but the exchange program is geared in part to spreading understanding
between neighbors who are close, but hardly eye-to-eye. Another
Canadian student will join her this spring, while an AU student
will head up north to study at a Canadian university. "I'd
say that the best way to learn about the United States is to go
to a country that does not seem quite as different as Uganda might
be, but in fact is quite distinct. Canada has a very different perspective,"
says Robert Pastor, vice president of international relations and
director of AU's Center for North American Studies, which was instrumental
in having AU named as a Killam Fellowships site. "Canada is
quite independent of us, and its internal working and its external
approach to the world are quite different." This
year's other American participants are Harvard, Smith, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Ithaca College, Bridgewater State College,
and the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Desserud
was chosen to compete for the fellowship from among the top students
at Arcadia University. While the program decides the placement,
she was pleased to get her top choice of AU, where she can enjoy
D.C.'s museums and cosmopolitan atmosphere. "It's great riding
the Metro and knowing there could be politicians right there who
are deciding the state of the world," she says. Washington
is quite a different place from her own university's location of
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, with its apple orchards and red-sand beaches.
It's different, too, from Desserud's hometown of London, Ontario--although,
she hastens to point out, London does have summer, since it's just
across Lake Erie from Cleveland and quite a bit south of, say, Maine.
Since
coming to AU, she's had a few strange questionsßsuch as whether
she had to buy summer clothes, or whether Canadians celebrate Christmas--but
"there are some students who know what's going on and ask very
informative questions." Many
people have told her they'd like to live in Canada because of it's
more liberal policies, "but some people seem a little concerned
about it. There are higher taxes, we have legalized marijuana for
medical use, and have allowed gay marriage in most provinces. It's
quite a bit more liberal than the U.S." She
was concerned at first, though, about her own openness to Americans.
"There
is a lot of anti-Americanism in Canada. I was a bit nervous in coming
down. I wondered if I'd be able to overcome what I've been taught
all my life," she says. When she told other Canadians that
she'd be studying in the U.S., "People said, 'America? Why
do you want to go down there? You better be careful about Bush,
or he's going to throw you in jail for being Canadian." "Canadians
often think Americans are rude and obnoxious and think they're better
than the rest of the world. They find the military endeavors very
jarring. But
I've found, actually, that everyone's been very friendly. I kind
of expected more coldness. I don't get the sense that they're looking
down on Canada. They're actually very admiring." But there's
one stereotype that Americans have about Canadians that she does
confirm. "I do say 'eh,'" she confesses. "'Cool weather
we're having, eh?' And people say, 'You're Canadian!'" |
