Diana Brydon, FRSC, convener from North America, is Canada Research Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies at the University of Manitoba and Director of the Research Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies. She has also held appointments at the University of British Columbia (1979-1989), the University of Guelph (1989-1999) and the University of Western Ontario (1999-2006).

A specialist in postcolonial literary and cultural studies, she has published books on Australian writer Christina Stead and Canadian author Timothy Findley and co-authored Decolonising Fictions (Dangaroo, 1993). She has edited Postcolonialism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies (Routledge, 2000) and co-edited Shakespeare in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2002) and Renegotiating Community: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, in Global Contexts (University of British Columbia Press, 2008).

Current research investigates critical and transnational literacies, in collaboration with colleagues in Brazil, and the interplay between global imaginaries and Canadian culture. She has served as Chair of the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences and as Director of the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

When asked why she joined the Building Global Democracy Programme and what her aspirations for the programme were, Diana replied:

"I bring to the project an interest in the ways that national and global imaginaries shape cross-cultural engagements and frame debates about self-government and individual and communal identities. I joined the board because the challenge of building global democracy interests me deeply and I know from my work in postcolonial literary and cultural studies that it will not be easily solved. There is a need for greater South-North dialogue on the issues this project raises. Working with a team of colleagues on the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded “Globalization and Autonomy” project alerted me to the importance of redrawing the conceptual maps through which community, culture, and democracy are understood. As a result, I find essential the focus of this project on interdisciplinary, inter-cultural, intergenerational, and multilingual dialogue and the way the project brings together academic theorists and practitioners within civil society and policy circles. I hope that our programme can begin that dialogue in an equitable way, producing some innovative analysis and concrete proposals that might set us on a route toward finding more democratic solutions to the problems the world faces." 

Contact Diana Brydon

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