Series consists of records documenting Prof. Simeon’s work on particular projects, including those listed below, as well as some miscellaneous research files on various topics, including some work as an academic advisor to the Club of Madrid on questions of regional integration in Spain and Scotland.
Canada-U.S. Project (1988-1993): Prof. Simeon was chair of the Canada-U.S. Project (originally “Canada and the United States in a Changing Global Context”), the first major research project launched by the newly formed School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University. The group organized conferences and carried out several research projects that examined cooperation between Canada and the U.S., and researched convergences and divergences between Canadian and U.S. policy. Topics included free trade, criminal justice, health, defense, environmental protection, gender, industrial relations, social policy, and other issues. Records tend to relate to the administration of research projects, more so than research records and academic output. Records include correspondence, grant records, project proposals, fundraising records, media coverage, meeting minutes, conference programs and reports.
Ethnicity and Democratic Governance [EDG] (2005-2011): This project was organized as a 30 scholar team under the umbrella of the SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Initiatives Program. The project was based at Queen’s University with close collaboration with the University of Toronto and Université du Québec a Montréal, and intended “to advance our understanding of the empirical sources of ethnic politics, the normative ideals of justice, equality and democracy that should guide state responses to diversity, and the policies and institutions that can be used in the governance of diversity” (from SSHRC proposal). Records relate primarily to the administration of the project, including SSHRC proposals, project meeting agendas and reports, newsletters, correspondence, notes and text for speeches/talks.
Forum of Federations (2000s): The Forum of Federations is a non-profit, international organization based in Ottawa. Prof. Simeon was involved with their Global Dialogue on Federalism initiative which included a series of country and international roundtables to build a comparative dialogue on federalism. Records include a project description, talks, notes, papers, and reports on various countries, including Canada, Australia, India, Mexico, and the U.S. Through the Forum of Federations, Prof. Simeon worked with Dr. David Cameron to develop a 3-day agenda for the first curriculum development session with Iraqi academics on a federalism course for Iraqi universities (2006). This series includes the service contract for that work and another contract for his work as academic advisor to the Iraq Federalism project (2008). This section also includes records documenting Prof. Simeon’s work organizing a course on democratic federalism for university faculty in Sudan (2009), These records include correspondence, notes, contracts, schedules, the course syllabus, and the course evaluation. This section also includes a project proposal for a rethinking federalism project (2010). Lastly, this section includes records relating to a federalism and decentralization course taught by Prof. Simeon and Jan Erk (from University of Leiden) at Addis Ababa University, including lecture notes, slides, papers, and the course syllabus.
Government projects: Prof. Simeon worked on numerous projects for both the federal and Ontario governments, and records in this series provide some documentation of his work as research coordinator for the Macdonald Report on Canada’s future (1983-1985); as scholar, commentator, and occasional adviser to Premiers Davis, Peterson and Rae through the on-going constitutional wars; and as author of Federalism in Canada: A Visitor’s Guide, for the Privy Council Office (2001-2002). Records in this section include correspondence, memos, contracts, reports, minutes, notes and a copy of Federalism in Canada: A Visitor’s Guide.
Patterns of Association (1995-2000s): Prof. Simeon worked with his colleague, David R. Cameron, on a research project on bilingualism in voluntary associations. This led to the production of Negotiating Language: Patterns of Association in Canadian Voluntary Organizations, which was published as Language Matters: How Canadian Voluntary Associations Manage French and English, edited with Cameron (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009). Records include manuscript, drafts, research interviews, correspondence and project guidelines. Key research subjects documented here are The Heart and Stroke Foundation and The Huntington Society of Canada.
Renewal of Canada (1992): This section contains records relating to the Renewal of Canada conferences, 5 gatherings held across Canada and “mandated to discuss changes in the way Canada is governed, in particular the implications of a set of proposals for constitutional and non-constitutional change that would ‘revise the rules that shape the country’s political life’. The 28 proposals were developed by the Government of Canada and published as Shaping Canada’s Future Together” (from the conference report). Records include correspondence, notes, agendas, conference reports and summaries,
Digital files include email correspondence, research material, drafts, reports and other records relating to the 2012 Ontario budget, African politics, Canadian politics, comparative politics, referenda, international projects (including in Ethiopia, Iraq, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Spain, Sudan, and Zimbabwe). Some records also relate to Prof. Simeon’s work with CIFAR, Club de Madrid, the International Crisis Group, and Forum of Federations.