Canadians who want to get a PhD in Canadian studies have to go south of the border or across the pond. Their professors bring a foreign perspective to the subject and, at U.S. universities anyway, are Americans or Canadians trained in the U.S. and using textbooks written and published by Americans.

        "It is time for this to change," say the authors of a proposal for a joint PhD program in Canadian studies at Carleton and Trent universities. "Serious graduate research on Canada is properly conducted in Canada."

        Both university senates must approve the proposal. It was tabled at Trent's Oct. 14 Senate and will be presented for approval at the Nov. 11 meeting.

        Then the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies must give the final nod. If it does, students could enrol as early as September 1998.

        "I think that this is an exciting proposal," said dean of research and graduate studies Paul Healy when he introduced it to Senate. "It could be argued that there is a national need" for such a program, he said.

        The program would be the first interdisciplinary doctoral program in Canadian studies in Canada. The key words are interdisciplinary and doctoral. There are, in fact, 29 interdisciplinary undergradutae programs, 14 honors programs and three master's programs in Canadian studies. Canadian studies programs exist in 26 countries for a growing number of Canadianists. "This growth of Canadian studies without an interdisciplinary PhD program to train staff is highly anomalous," observe the authors of the proposal. Their main objective? "To produce academics and researchers with specialized expertise in Canadian studies."

        The flexible program would group studies into five fields: culture; environment and heritage; policy, economy and society; questions of identity; and women's studies. More than 75 professors in a wide range of departments at both universities will form the core faculty and can supervise PhD dissertations.

        Students would be required to take a core seminar on concepts, theory and methods of interdisciplinarity in Canadian studies. They will have to know English and either French, an aboriginal or heritage language taught at either university. They will be required to take comprehensive exams after two years and be examined in two fields.

        Since 1993 faculty committees from Carleton's School of Canadian Studies and Trent's Frost Centre for Canadian Heritage and Development Studies have been meeting to draft details of the joint program. Carleton has been offering an interdisciplinary MA in Canadian studies since 1957 -- longer than any other school. Close to national archives and libraries, Carleton also has a huge network of international links. Trent can complement these strengths with its tradition of regional research initiatives, particularly in native and environmental studies, argue the PhD program advocates.