The Symons Report at 50: Canadian Studies at Zero Point? is a SSHRC-funded Connections project aimed at facilitating dialogue between and crafting a network of emerging scholars working in Critical Canadian Studies, broadly construed. The project begins on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Symons Report, crafted by T.H.B. Symons, which argued for a distinct, but interdisciplinary, field of Canadian Studies as part of a project of Canadian “self-knowledge.” The fiftieth anniversary coincides with a highly contradictory historical moment in which Canadian Studies departments are under threat of closure and shrinkage, a high watermark of critical scholarship on so-called Canada, and the rise of a renewed Canadian nationalism. We gathered at Huron University at Western in London Ontario for our opening meeting on May 12-13, 2025 to consider the confluence of these themes in relation to ongoing work by scholars and students across Canada. On November 7-8, 2025, we will meet at Wilson Centre for Canadian History at McMaster for our roundtable conference, Rethinking Canadian Studies!

The organizers of Canadian Studies at Zero Point are: Miranda Leibel, Will Kujala, Phil Henderson, Kristine Alexander, Tom Peace, and Janice Feng.