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It will focus on culture and social innovation, from the comparative perspective between Quebec and the Basque Country.  It will encourage research and academic exchanges between McGill University and the Basque Country, and will be located at the CRIEM (Center for Interdisciplinary Research Studies of Montreal), including research on culture, multilingualism and multiculturalism, among others.

Montreal, Quebec.  The Institute along with the Agirre Lehendakaria Center (ALC) and McGill University have signed an agreement of collaboration establishing the basis of the creation, in the coming months, of a Chair of Basque Studies in this prestigious university situated in Montreal.  The signing took place as part of a trip that the Basque Government’s Minister of Culture, Bingen Zupiria, and the Director of the Etxepare Institute, Irene Larraza, took to Montreal in hopes of strengthening cultural ties between the two territories.

The future Chair will be part of the CRIEM, whose areas of research include culture, multilingualism and multiculturalism, among others, focusing on culture and social innovation.  It will also support research and academic exchanges between the university and the Basque Country, in hopes of strengthening research on Basque culture at McGill.

Through this agreement, in the words of the Minister of Culture “An opportunity is opened for Euskadi to get to know the diversity of Canada and Quebec better, but above all, an opportunity to show them our history, our traditions, and our heritage through all of our cultural expressions. “

The new Chair will work from the comparative perspective between Quebec and the Basque Country, and sill support dialogue between both cultures.  Studies will be directed mainly to post-doc students, even if it will be open to graduate students, as well as the entire university community.

Attending the signing of the agreement on Friday morning were the Minister of Culture and Linguistic Policy, Bingen Zupiria, the Director of the Etxepare Institute, Irene Larraza, the Director of the ALC, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, and the McGill University’s Associate Provost (International), Philip Oxhorn.  The event was part of the conference, “Culture and Social Innovation Beyond Boundaries: from Basque Country to Quebec”, where experts from various North American universities talked about culture, language, and social innovation and where the Minister of culture and the Director of the ALC both presented papers.

The Etxepare Basque Institute has established eight Chairs to date in hopes of strengthening Basque studies in the academic arena. The new Chair at McGill University will join the others already established at universities in Liverpool, Chicago, Bordeaux-Montaigne, Massachusetts Amherst, New York, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Nevada Reno and Boise State.  McGill University, the oldest in Canada is highly ranked internationally and has students from more than 150 countries.