Research in Focus: bridging scholarship and community to advance Canadian studies

Research in Focus is a YFile series that explores the vibrant research landscape of York University’s Organized Research Units (ORUs).

These centres of research excellence serve as dynamic hubs where interdisciplinary experts collaborate with partners to tackle some of the globe’s most pressing challenges. Each edition invites readers to explore the transformative work undertaken at York University through a Q-and-A with ORU directors.

This edition explores the mission and impacts of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies and features director Jean Michel Montsion, professor in the department of global and social studies at Glendon College.

Q: What is the mission of your ORU and its core areas of research?

A: The Robarts Centre supports a critical, collaborative and interdisciplinary study of Canada in many ways that are not traditionally associated with Canadian studies. York University has one of the largest concentrations of specialists on Canada. We see our role as supporting this scholarship in all its forms, whether speaking to areas traditionally associated with the study of Canada, such as Canada’s relationship to Indigenous Peoples, multiculturalism, and official bilingualism, or other projects on equity, diversity and inclusion, and community-based research.

Specifically, we support more than 30 different externally funded research projects, and we maintain eight interdisciplinary research clusters that bring together faculty and research associates from across the University.

Q: How does your ORU foster collaboration and partnerships to enhance research impact?

A: The centre works with its Faculty associates to determine which partnerships and collaborations might be the most productive for their scholarship, students and the York research community as a whole. In recent years, we have worked on partnerships with the International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS) and the Multicultural Historical Society of Ontario to support moving archives to York.

Several externally-funded research projects we support have their own community partnerships, including in recent years: the Art Canada Institute, the Canadian Language Museum and the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation. These collaborations enable knowledge co-creation and research opportunities that directly serve the needs of local communities.

Moreover, the Robarts Centre maintains coordinated efforts with academic partners at York and beyond, including many of York’s ORUs.

Q: What real-world challenges is your ORU working to address and how does it align with York’s institutional priorities? 

A: The Robarts Centre encourages the study of perspectives, places and issues that are key to the advancement of Canada, Canadians and the field of Canadian studies. For instance, its focus on environmental research, environmental justice and sustainable energy research networks are all key parts to addressing the challenges related to the climate crisis. Currently, the centre supports innovative intersections between Canadian studies and various fields like Black Canadian studies, commemoration, Indigenous studies, language, mental health, Northern studies, race and ethnicity, urban governance and youth studies.

These intersections are determined by the critical mass of scholarly interest at York, linked to shifts in the Canadian intellectual landscape and emerging from various real-life considerations, such as public health measures, cost of living and affordable housing, and Canadian identity claims. The relevance of the centre’s research is found in the spaces it creates for critical thinking and cutting-edge ideas which reframe today’s challenges and imagine new possibilities.

Q: What innovative approaches or methodologies distinguish your ORU’s research? 

A: Our 160-plus Faculty associates and 100-plus research associates have varied approaches and preferred methodologies, from more traditional hypothetico-deductive approaches to community-based and archival research. Many study Canada through the perspectives of groups that have been historically marginalized through structural and systemic forms of oppression and we bring these voices to the mainstream study of Canada, each with their distinct relationships to Canadian institutions and amid constant change.

Our associates and fellows are also committed to a critical study of Canada as it relates to the places on which our country is built, such as settler colonialism and Canada’s relationships with Indigenous Peoples and traditional territories. Finally, we put the study of Canada in perspective through its political, economic, social and cultural insertion in broader international dynamics, often through comparative and transnational frameworks. We examine Canada’s representations abroad, and transnational processes like the activities of Canadian corporations to situate Canada’s place in the world.

Q: What accomplishments or upcoming projects can you highlight and how do you see your ORU shaping the future? 

A: For my directorship, which ends in June 2026, I put the emphasis on connecting York’s scholarship to international networks. Through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)-funded partnership development grant, we were able to host the 2025 Critical Canadian Studies Summer School this past June. It brought together 15 York and international doctoral students for a week-long series of training activities and lectures. We also organized an online Summer Institute on the theme of decolonization, equity, diversity and inclusion.

Both of these activities, held in partnership with the International Council for Canadian Studies, help to train the next generation of international Canadianists, connect York students and Faculty to international networks and demonstrate how international and inter-institutional partnerships can be mobilized by a research centre like Robarts to support Canada’s cultural and scientific diplomacy.

Learn more about Research & Innovation at York University.

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