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University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services (UTARMS) A. Edward Safarian fonds Series
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Professional activities

Series consists of records documenting Prof. Safarian’s relationships and involvement in activities and organizations outside of his formal (paid) roles within academia and other sectors. A large component of this series relates to his interactions with scholars from the former Soviet Union (especially Armenia) and the Armenian-Canadian business community, and his service as board member of the Mosaic Institute and co-editor of the multi-volume series Hong Kong Bank of Canada Papers on Asia. It also includes some material documenting his involvement with the Canadian-American Committee; the Pacific Economic Cooperation Committee (PECC); the Ontario Centre for International Business (OCIB); the Tadenac Fishing Club; the Naval Officers’ Association of Canada (NOAC) scholarship selection committee; and an economics reading group Strategy 10. Also included are records revealing shorter-term professional activity such as consulting and reviewing of others’ manuscripts. Material in this series is especially noteworthy for the insights it provides on the interconnectedness of social networks (ethnic, recreational, etc.) and professional ones. Tadenac Club files may be of interest to researchers examining issues surrounding recreational ‘conservationists’ and Indigenous communities in rural Ontario. Records in this series include correspondence, travel journals, articles and notes, manuscript drafts and comments, meeting minutes, reports and photographs.

Correspondence

This series encompasses four decades of Dr. Edward Safarian's professional correspondence. It covers his relationships with numerous professional associations and a range of professional activities including correspondence with publishers, academic colleagues and government agencies. The broad time frame of the series begins with Safarian's leaving graduate studies at the University of California for the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in Ottawa, his tenure as a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, and his later teaching and administrative activities at the University of Toronto. In addition, it illustrates his wide network of connections with universities across North America and around the world.

The bulk of the series is arranged chronologically by year. Following the chronological arrangement, there is a file of "personal" correspondence. This is followed by a grouping of professional correspondence arranged by Safarian according to specific subjects. Most relate to his ongoing interest in foreign investment in Canada and to the controversy surrounding the publication of The Struggle for Canadian Universities, edited by Robin Matthews and James Steele.

Some of this correspondence is in the nature of postcards and telegrams, and accompanying certain letters are notes, addresses, reports, and programmes.

Employment (miscellaneous)

The records in this series document Dr. Safarian's employment outside the University of Saskatchewan where he taught from 1956 to 1966 and the University of Toronto where he as been since then.

From 1950 to 1955, Dr. Safarian was employed in the International Trade Division of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in Ottawa. In the summer of 1956 he joined the research staff of the Royal [Gordon] Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects. He also served as a consultant to federal and provincial governments; documented here is his work during the summer of 1980 with the Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce in Ottawa on a comparative study of foreign investment studies.

Dr. Safarian's academic activities extended well beyond the Universities of Saskatchewan and Toronto. Between 1963 and 1980, he taught courses during ten sessions at the Banff School of Advanced Management. During sabbatical and research leave in 1976-1977 and 1981-1982 he was Visiting Research Professor in the Faculty of Law and Economics at the University of Nice.

Employment files (Universities of Saskatchewan and Toronto)

Dr. Safarian accepted a position as associate professor in the Department of Economics and Political Science at the University of Saskatchewan in 1956. In January, 1962 he was promoted to the position of full professor and head of the Department. In addition to administrative matters, there are files on the introduction of medicare (1962) and the James Coyne affair (1960).

In 1966 he left for the Department of Political Economy at the University of Toronto, where he served as the last head (1976-1982) before its reorganization. Thereafter, he remained on the staff of the Department of Economics until his retirement in 1989. From 1971 to 1976 he was Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. Following his retirement and appointment as Professor Emeritus, he became a professor of business economics in the Faculty of Management.

The records in this series cover the years of his academic career. They are comprised of correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports, programs, relating to administrative matters, to teaching duties, and to research activities.

Employment

This series consists of records documenting Professor Safarian's employment by the Government of Canada and the Universities of Saskatchewan and Toronto.

The first file contains notes, reports and memoranda relating to Safarian's work at the Dominion Bureau of Statistics between 1950 and 1955, initially with the Foreign Exchange Control Board (1950-1952) and then with the International Trade Bureau. The second file contains a number of documents prepared by Louis Rasminsky between 1943 and 1950 when he was head of the Foreign Exchange Control Board.

These are followed by two files relating to the University of Saskatchewan where Safarian was associate professor in economics (1956-1961) and head of the department (1962-1963). They contain lecture notes and related course material, and correspondence and notes relating to the theses of ten graduate students in the masters program at the University (1959-1963).

At the University of Toronto, Professor Safarian served as Dean of the School of Graduate Studies from 1971 to 1976. His correspondence, notes, memoranda and minutes cover a number of policy issues discussed with President John Evans, including the decision not to appoint John Seeley to the Department of Sociology. There is also a file (1967-1990) relating largely to the final oral examinations of doctoral students at the University of Toronto, and three files of references (1961-1987), arranged alphabetically, for colleagues and former students.

In 1967, Professor Safarian was hired to appraise the proposal by Carleton University to introduce a doctoral studies program in economics. In 1982 the federal Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce invited him to become a member of its Consultative Committee of Experts on National Industrial and Regional Policy which sat throughout the year and early 1983. During the same period, he accepted an invitation from the Ontario Economic Council to become one of two members of its Research Advisory Committee, a body which assisted the Council's Industrial Policy Committee in evaluating research proposals and provided recommendations on methodology as the studies proceeded.

Addresses

This series consists of three files of addresses delivered in 1982, 1984 (repeated in 1985), and 1989 respectively to the British North America Committee in London, the C. D. Howe Institute and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto, and the Department of Political Economy at the University of Geneva. The topics were direct investment in developing countries, Canadian policy towards multinationals, and multinational firms and European integration.

Included in the files is correspondence, notes for, and drafts of the papers presented. The arrangement is chronological.

Correspondence

Personal correspondence and some other private exchanges with individuals, covering a variety of issues and activities; numerous letters of reference are included. There is also a file on the seventh Table Ronde d’Économistes France-Canada, held in Paris, France, in 1991 and one on the honorary degree awarded to Arthur E. Child by the University of Toronto in 1984, at which Professor Safarian gave the citation. The files contain, in addition to correspondence, memoranda, notes, and drafts of reports and addresses. The arrangement is chronological and by name of event or individual.

Employment

Series consists of records of Prof. Safarian’s employment inside and outside of academia. It includes records related to his search for academic appointments upon completing his doctorate, his resignation from the University of Saskatchewan, and his activity at the University of Toronto in various capacities at the Faculty of Management, the Centre for International Studies (CIS), Institute for International Business (IIB), and Trinity College. Files related to Myron J. Gordon and Trinity College are noteworthy for the insights they provide into the conferral of awards and honors, as is the file on the CIS-CEES which documents the operation of the CIS and Prof. Safarian’s decision to leave the directorship. The series also includes records of his employment activity outside of academia, including for the Justice Department, UNCTAD, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) and others. Records include correspondence, curriculum vitae, reports, legal documents, contracts, meeting minutes, and paper drafts.

Course notes

Edward Safarian entered University College at the University of Toronto in the autumn of 1942. In second year he transferred to the honours program in political science and graduated with a BA (hons.) degree in 1946. The professors who taught him included Donald Creighton, Alexander Brady, Harold Innis, C. B. MacPherson, Lorne Morgan, Lawrence Skeoch, Edward Hodgetts, William R. Dymond and R. MacGregor Dawson.

He "kept his scholarships in spite of serving on the executives of the `Lit' [University College Literary and Athletic Society], the Political Science and Historical Clubs".

Following graduation in 1946, Safarian headed for the University of California at Berkeley, from where he graduated with a PhD in economics in 1956. The interest in international economics that he had acquired as an undergraduate was emphasized in his studies at Berkeley, where his professors in economics, business, and international finance and trade included M. Knight, H. Ellis, W. Fellner, R. A. Gordon, and Drs. Condliffe and Buchanan. While there, he was a teaching fellow and then head teaching fellow in economics and statistics.

This series consists, at the undergraduate level, largely of course notes taken at lectures and seminars, notes on readings for same, term papers, examination schedules and questions. Additional material at the graduate level includes notes for Safarian's doctoral thesis, correspondence, and lecture notes for courses in economics and statistics he taught while a teaching fellow.

Correspondence

This series consists of a single file of correspondence largely of a professional nature. Included are letters relating to the Canadian-American Committee, the Usque Group, requests to give seminars, and ideas and writings in economics. The arrangement is chronological.

Course notes

Edward Safarian studied economics at the University of Toronto, receiving his BA (hons) in 1946, and did postgraduate work at Berkeley in the late 1940s, obtaining his doctorate in 1956. This series includes a file of term papers (not all his own) for Professor Vincent Bladen's fourth year course in international economics at the University of Toronto in 1945-46, and a portion of his course notes, reading notes, and term papers [others may be found in B94-0019] for his courses at Berkeley between 1946 and 1948. The latter included Economics 202, 216, 290 and 298. Included are some notes for his PhD orals.

Conferences

Professor Safarian was much sought after for his expertise in international trade. When Joe Clark, Secretary of State for External Affairs, established a Canadian National Committee for Pacific Economic Co-operation in 1985, he invited Professor Safarian to be a member. Its purpose was to reflect "Canadian interests in the continuing Conference on Pacific Co-operation", and involved "contributions to the work of PEC Task Forces; attendance at workshops and subsequent Conferences, and arrangements for the Fifth Pacific Co-operation Conference, scheduled to be held in Vancouver on November 16 to 19, 1986."

Safarian had long been recognized as an expert in this field. In 1979 he had been invited to participate in the 10th Pacific Trade and Development Conference in Canberra but, at the last minute, was unable to attend. At the 11th Conference in Seoul the following year, he commented on two of the papers presented. For the next twelve years he participated in a bewildering array of conferences and meetings, largely organized by the Pacific Economic Co-operation (PEC) ["Committee" was usually added later, making it PECC] Task Force Co-ordinators, and for which, in addition to the usual correspondence, programmes, and briefing documents, he kept careful preparatory notes, drafts of papers given, and summary reports where he participated as a discussant.

In 1982, the Japanese Task Force on Direct Foreign Investment for the Pacific Basin Co-operation invited him to be an advisor to provide Canadian input to its Task Force for a seminar to be held in Jakarta in November, 1983. This dovetailed with another invitation to participate in the work of the newly formed Canadian Pacific Co-operation Committee, the purpose of which was to ensure tri-partite response to reports of the PECC Task Forces that were to meet in Bangkok in May, 1983 (Safarian was already a member of Canadian panels associated with that conference). A series of meeting were held in Ottawa to co-ordinate Canadian participation in these events and in the PECC Task Force workshops on Direct Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer and on Trade in Manufactured Goods that met in Tokyo and Seoul respectively in June.

In October, 1984, the PECC held two workshops in Hawaii -- on technology transfers, where Safarian presented a major paper, and on capital flows. Safarian kept copies of other papers presented, along with extensive notes on foreign direct investment in the Pacific Basin.

Working with the Canadian National Committee for Pacific Economic Co-operation, Safarian attended the PECC Conference on Direct Foreign Investment in Bangkok in April, 1986. Subsequent meetings included the 5th PECC Conference in Vancouver in November (at which he presented another paper), the International Seminar on New Technologies held in Rio de Janeiro in January, 1987, and the PECC Trade and Investment Workshop on the Uruguay Round at the end of August. In conjunction with these meetings, Safarian prepared a paper for the CNCPEC on the "improvement of data on foreign direct investment in the Pacific area".

The files for 1988 and 1989 cover the 6th PECC Conference held in Osaka in May, 1988 and Safarian's preparation for and participation in the 3rd Symposium on Pacific Energy Co-operation held in Tokyo in January, 1989. The last files in this series document the 3rd Global Contribution Seminar, held in Tokyo in May, 1992. At these, Professor Safarian either presented formal papers or led discussion groups.

Manuscripts and publications

This series contains covering correspondence and research material for and drafts and/or offprints of articles, chapters of books, and books written by Professor Safarian between 1957 and 1992 that are not included, or are only partially represented, in Accessions B89-0032 and B94-0019. The arrangement of the files is chronological and by title.

The first substantial new addition is the files relating to his 1980 study for the Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce, "National policies towards multinational enterprises: a comparison between the developed market countries."

Except for a single file on Governments and Multinationals (1983) [for drafts of this book see B94-0019, boxes 030 and 031] and several articles published between 1990 and 1992, the remainder of the series documents the research that Professor Safarian undertook for his book, Multinational Enterprise and Public Policy: A study of the industrial countries (1993). The files contain notes about and correspondence with the publisher and with interviewees. There are also notes for tables, data for dependent and independent variables, and summaries, and notes on secondary organization and research, chapter outlines, and on chapters 10 - 12. The research files for and drafts of this book are in B94-0019, boxes 032-040.

Teaching

Series contains Prof. Safarian’s teaching files, primarily from his years at the University of Toronto, but also including some material from his time at the University of Saskatchewan. They include courses taught in economics within the Department of Political Economy as well as later, in the Faculty of Management’s Executive MBA program. Records in this series include article annotations and notes, lecture notes, outlines and slides, course syllabi, evaluations and readings lists, final exam questions, correspondence, and handwritten notes.

Research

Series consists of material documenting Prof. Safarian’s research activity spanning more than six decades. Material reflects his research approach, the scope of his research interests over time, and the research assistance and partnerships that underlie his prolific research output. Included in this series are grant applications, proposals and reports to various funding bodies including SSHRC and the Donner Foundation, as well as an extensive collection of files containing correspondence, annotated articles, and both handwritten and typed article summaries and notes. Many of the article summaries used by Prof. Safarian in his research and publications were produced by student research assistants, including Walid Hejazi who would later become a colleague and co-author of a number of papers.

Addresses

This series is a compilation of addresses, speeches and talks given by Dr. Safarian at public and academic functions over a period of nearly four decades. They document Dr. Safarian's chief concerns of foreign investments, national management policies and multinational corporations.

The files contain drafts of addresses, addresses, notes, research materials and press clippings. Arrangement is chronological. Some of the addresses were originally created as subject files by Dr. Safarian.

Correspondence

Series consists primarily of assorted professional correspondence, as well as lists of contacts and addresses, letters of recommendation, and some personal correspondence. Included in this series is correspondence between Prof. Safarian and the Royal Society of Canada, reflecting his concern about the lack of representation of the fields of business and management within the Royal Society.

Manuscripts and publications

Series consists of records related to Prof. Safarian’s writing and publishing activity. The series begins with material documenting the publishing and copyright of his written work, followed by material related to shorter pieces such as book reviews and letters to the editor. The latter half of the series consists mostly of material used to produce more formal academic articles and monographs, including records on ideas for writing, unpublished writing, and published writing. A notable exception are the files related to The Eagle and the Bear, an unpublished memoir based on Prof. Safarian’s travels in Armenia and the former Soviet Union. Records in this series include correspondence, article annotations and notes, paper outlines and drafts, research data, travel journals and paraphernalia, contracts and press photos.

Conferences and addresses

Series is made up of material related to Prof. Safarian’s attendance and participation in conferences, workshops and roundtables, as well as his addresses, speeches and talks given both domestically and internationally. Records consist of correspondence, research and speaking notes, outlines and drafts of addresses and papers, conference summaries, and a contract.

Professional activities

Dr. Safarian belonged to a large number of academic and professional associations and was a member of or a consultant to a number of provincial and federal commissions and committees.

The files in this series contain correspondence, notes, reports, press releases, articles, briefs, and press clippings relating to his activities. The arrangement is chronological by the name of the organization.

Conferences, colloquia and symposia

This series outlines Dr. Safarian's attendance over a twenty year span at and participation in conferences, symposia and colloquia related to economic issues. Notable amongst these are the Canada-Mexico Colloquium sponsored by El Colegio de Mexico at Oaxtepac, Mexico (1967), and the Seventh World Congress of the International Economic Association held in Madrid in 1983. The series illustrates Dr. Safarian's range of economic interests as well as his contact with contemporary economists and agencies.

It consists primarily of correspondence, agendas, announcements, conference papers and reports, including some delivered by Dr. Safarian himself.  Arrangement is by title of conference.  Most are subject files that he created.

Manuscripts and publications

Dr. Safarian's doctoral thesis on the Canadian economy in the Great Depression was his first major publication. It was published in 1958, two years after its completion. Articles and books began to appear earlier, in 1952, and he has maintained an impressive publication record since then. His writings have concentrated on the relationship of the Canadian economy to those of other countries, primarily through analyses of theories of foreign investment and ownership, and multinational enterprise. He has written or co-authored eleven books, contributed chapters to a dozen books, and has had over fifty papers published in academic and other journals.

Most of the files in this series contain drafts of his writings, with covering correspondence and reviews.  A selection of research material for his latest book, Multinational Enterprise and Public Policy (1993), has been preserved.

Professional activities

This series documents Professor Safarian’s involvement with two organizations, the Canadian-American Committee (1972-1992) and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (1991-1997).

The files for the Canadian-American Committee begin with membership and executive committee lists (1972-1992) and with correspondence with Edward English, director of research for the Canadian Trade Committee (1962-1965) and with the Canadian-American Committee itself, from the time Professor Safarian was first invited to attend a meeting in 1965 until he formally became a member of its executive committee in 1972. The emphasis in the subsequent correspondence is on committee work, including its product specialization task force and a subcommittee on world product mandate. There are also files containing minutes of confidential meetings for the years 1957, 1980 and 1991-1993. The files on the Canadian-American Committee end with Professor Safarian’s personal notes on the Committee meetings and a file of his expenses.

Professor Safarian resigned from the Canadian-American Committee in September 1993 because of the increased demands of his workload at the University of Toronto in the Centre for Industrial Studies, the Faculty of Management and, especially, the Canadian
Series 3: Professional activities (continued)

Institute for Advanced Research. The bulk of the files on the CIAR date from 1988, though the correspondence regarding appointments dates from 1982. They document Professor Safarian’s involvement with the CIAR’s Economic Growth and Policy Program, dating from its inception in 1988. There are detailed files on most aspects of the Program’s activities, including appointments to it, the work of its advisory committee, Professor Safarian’s relationship with two CIAR presidents, Fraser Mustard (1991-1996) and Stefan Dupré (1996-1997), and with the Program’s directors, Richard Lipsey (1991-1996) and Elhanan Helpman. Professor Safarian maintained general files on Lipsey and Helpman containing correspondence, memoranda, and notes, along with files specifically on Lipsey’s views on focus and development.

These files are followed by others containing correspondence, notes, memoranda, background reports and draft agendas for meetings of the Economic Growth and Policy Program, but not the minutes themselves. The minutes follow in folders labelled by Professor Safarian as “personal minutes/notes”. These files, in turn, are followed by others labelled “interactions among members of executive meetings”; they contain correspondence, memoranda and other commentary on matters being discussed. In all cases, the arrangement is chronological within each grouping.

The next files in this series begin with one on support for the Program by the Canadian Pacific Railway, followed by files on the Program’s Working Papers and Reprint Series, covering the years 1993-2001. The next files document the five year review of the Program (1996), and visits by Lipsey and Safarian to Montreal (1992), the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) (1994), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris in the autumn of 1994, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCATD) in Geneva in December-Jaanuary1994/1995.

The series ends with files of presentations by Professor Safarian and/or Elhanan Helpman to the board of the Research Council of the CIAR in 1995 and 1996; presentations by Professor Safarian to the Economic Growth and Policy Program between 1991 and 1994, and four addresses by him on behalf of the Program to outside venues between 1992 and 1995. The files contain correspondence, memoranda, notes and drafts of papers. The arrangement is chronological within each category.