20/20 Vision Awards

In 2009, ACSUS used the occasion of its 20th biennial conference in San Digo to recognize twenty individuals who have made major contributions to the development of ACSUS and Canadian Studies in the United Statesover the last several decades.   These individuals have given of their time, energies and ideas to make the organization and its various undertakings a success over the past several years.

Bios

20/20 Vision Award Recipients 

• Ellen Babby, American Council on Education  
• Bob Babcock, University of Maine, Orono
• Louis Balthazar, Universite du Quebec a Montreal
• Tom Barnes, University of California Berkeley
• Myrna Delson-Karan, St. John’s University
• Bryan Downes, Western Washington University
• Gerry Foley, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Earl Fry, Brigham Young University
• Diddy Hitchins, University of Alaska Anchorage
• Jim Horseman, University of Lethbridge
• J.J. Jockel, St. Lawrence University
• Mark Kasoff, Bowling Green State University
• Brian Long, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Marty Lubin, Plattsburgh State University of New York
• Ray Pelletier, University of Maine, Orono
• Dick Seaborne, Ottawa, Ontario
• David Staines, University of Ottawa
• George Sulzner, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Ron Tallmann, Roosevelt University
• Bob Thacker, St. Lawrence University

Donald K. Alper Awarded 2007 Donner Medal

Dr. Donald K. Alper, Director of the Center for Canadian-American Studies at WesternWashingtonUniversity since 1993, is renowned in for his advancement of Canadian Studies in the United States. He continues to build bridges between the two nations through his personal, professional and academic achievements in outreach, research, publication and service.

Besides his directorship of the Canadian Studies program at WWU, Don Alper is a Professor of Political Science and Director of the Border Policy Research Institute. His ties to the university go back to 1972, when first hired by the Political Science Department as a lecturer while pursuing his doctorate at the Universityof British Columbia (earned in 1976). Along with his predecessor, Dr. Robert L. Monahan, and since 1978, Don Alper has regularly obtained Government of Canada Program Enhancement and Outreach Grant funding and significant US Department of Education Title VI Grant funding (in consortium with the Universityof Washington) for the Canadian Studies program. Moreover, Don Alper was a key factor in the US Department of Transportation’s decision to establish a Border Policy Research Institute on WWU’s campus as well as in the State of Washington’s decision to maintain annual funding. Under Don Alper’s direction and in their totality, the programs have had enormous national impact on educational directives, governmental policy, business practices and international relations. He is the recipient of three Merit Awards as well as a Retention/Recruitment Award at WesternWashingtonUniversity for excellence in teaching and the time he devotes to working directly with students. Most recently, he was instrumental in making WesternWashingtonUniversity the new home of the American Review of Canadian Studies (ARCS).

Don Alper is also an important advocate for Canadian Studies on a broader scale. Early on, he began to build a body of publications in Canadian Studies that, just since 2000, include books, refereed articles, articles in edited volumes, book and manuscript reviews, proceedings, and conference papers. He has led the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States as councilor, committee chair, and two-term vice president and two-term president. He has presided over the Western Canadian Studies Association, and served as a member of the Executive Council for the Pacific Northwest Canadian Studies Consortium since 1987.   He is an active member of several editorial boards, including ARCS, BC Studies: The British Columbia Quarterly, and Journal for Borderland Studies, and has often been invited aboard special commissions since first being appointed to the Special Expertise Advisory Group on Canadian National Policy to Mr. Robert L. Wenman, Member of Parliament, in 1976. Don Alper’s informed opinion is regularly sought by education, business and government organizations as well as local, state and national media from both sides of the border.

Members of the the Association of Canadian Studies in the United States and the International Council for Canadian Studies along with his many colleagues and friends at Western Washington University, University of Washington, the State of Washington, the U.S Government, and the Government of Canada appreciate his continued leadership in Canadian Studies.

THE MEDAL 

The Donner Medal in Canadian Studies is presented biennially by The Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) for distinguished achievement, scholarship and program innovation in the area of Canadian Studies in the United States.

The recipient is selected by a committee of members of the Association (appointed by the president of the organization), including some with a knowledge of the development of Canadian studies in the U.S., after nominations have been publicly solicited. Nominees can include a person in any field who has made a significant contribution to Canadian studies in the United States during a reasonable period of residence in the U.S., even if no longer a resident. Current officers of ACSUS are ineligible for consideration.The primary criterion for selection is contribution to Canadian studies in the United States. The recipient shall have been active in and made contributions in at least one of the following categories: teaching, scholarship, administration, public affairs.

The award itself is made possible through the interest and support of the William H. Donner Foundation of New York City. In 1975 the Donner Foundation made a grant to ACSUS to fund the designing and striking of several medals to be known as “The Donner Medal in Canadian Studies.”

The medal was designed by Dora de Pédery-Hunt, a distinguished Canadian sculptor and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Ms. Hunt, an internationally acclaimed artist and an expert in the field of sculptured metals, miniature sculpture and jewelry, was the Canadian representative of La Fédération Internationale de la Médaille and designed the world’s first $100 Olympic Gold Coin in 1976. Ms. Hunt was born in Hungary in 1913 where she studied sculpture and design at the Royal School of Applied Arts in Budapest. She received her diploma in 1943, emigrated to Canada in 1948 and resides in Toronto. Her work has been widely exhibited in Canada and abroad and is represented in more than seventy public collections.

The bronze medal is approximately three inches in diameter, thicker at the bottom, tapering toward the top, with tree, owl and inscriptions set out in bold relief. The name of the recipient and the date awarded are engraved on the reverse side for each presentation.

The first awards of The Donner Medal in Canadian Studies were made at ACSUS’ Third Biennial Meeting at Michigan State University in 1975. Since then, the Donner Medal has traditionally been awarded at subsequent biennial meetings of ACSUS.