A decade-long voyage for UPEI’s Canada Research Chair in Island Studies, Dr. Godfrey Baldacchino
As June comes to a close, Dr. Godfrey Baldacchino completes his 10-year appointment as the Canada Research Chair in Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island. Dr. Baldacchino becomes the first scholar at UPEI to complete the maximum two terms as a Canada Research Chair. His legacy in this position is one that will last for years to come.
Dr. Baldacchino's 10 years at UPEI has advanced a broad research agenda that established island studies as a credible and exciting area of research. He mentored nearly 80 graduate students in the master's of Island Studies program. He worked with dozens of students and scholars, culminating in more than a dozen edited books and special journal issues.
'I conceived and launched Island Studies Journal as a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, now abstracted and indexed in Web of Science,' said Dr. Baldacchino. 'With a research portfolio that includes singing, economic development, migration, struggles for political independence, tourism, heritage management, and entrepreneurship, my work as CRC has certainly not been boring.'
Dr. Baldacchino is a highly sought-after keynote and guest lecturer by universities and institutions across the globe. He has served as a distinguished visiting professor in places such as Australia, Barbados, Denmark, Finland, France, Greenland, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States.
'I started my appointment as Canada Research Chair in July 2003,' recalled Dr. Baldacchino. 'My first international engagement was shortly after, in Iceland. As a matter of pure coincidence, my last international engagement as CRC was just this month, again in Iceland, when I had the pleasure of securing the bid for bringing the next North Atlantic Forum to Summerside, PEI, in 2015.'
Dr. Baldacchino says the highlights of his time as Canada Research Chair include inaugurating the first master's of arts in Island Studies intake at UPEI in 2003, and being elected vice-president of the International Small Islands Studies Association in 2009.
UPEI's vice-president of research, Dr. Robert Gilmour, said Dr. Baldacchino's tenure as Canada Research Chair represents the spirit of integrity and curiosity of the growing research community at UPEI.
'Through his position as the Canada Research Chair in Island Studies and his tremendous record of scholarly work and outreach, Godfrey has established Island Studies as an internationally recognized field of study and brought global renown and visibility to PEI,' said Dr. Gilmour. 'Given his expertise in a range of social science disciplines, his work is allowing PEI to critically examine its initiatives, development, and social condition in a global context.'
Dr. Baldacchino remains at UPEI as a faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
Since 2000, the Canada Research Chair program has appointed and funded research chairs at institutions across the country in an effort to make Canada one of the world's top countries in the area of research and development.
