Predecessor center CIFRAQS
What was the CIFRAQS?
The CIFRAQS - as the predecessor of the Centrum Frankreich | Frankophonie - was an initiative of the Chair of French Studies and Francophonie(Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ingo Kolboom), founded in 1994; its foundation took place during a ceremony at the TUD Dresden University of Technology on July 11, 1994 in the presence of the Rector of the TU Dresden, the Dean of the Faculty of Linguistics and Literature, the State Secretary of the Saxon State Ministry of Science and the Arts and the General Delegate of the Government of Québec in Germany.
As part of the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies and the Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies, it contributed to the profiling of the Institute and Faculty in the field of Francophone North American, Canadian and Québec Studies in research and teaching. In addition, it cooperated with other institutions within and outside TU Dresden, providing services and export services for research and teaching as well as practice-oriented applications in politics, media, culture and business, depending on its own capacities. The CIFRAQS did not have its own budget; it was funded primarily from the current budget of the Chair of French Studies and Francophonie at the Institute of Romance Studies and from annual grants from the Ministère des Relations internationales of the Québec government as well as from occasional donations in kind and donations. The CIFRAQS was part of the national and international network of Canadian and Québec Studies; its direct partners were the Society for Canadian Studies (GKS) and the Association internationale des études québécoises.
It saw itself as an interface and initiator in the new federal states, especially in Saxony, and attempted to participate in the expansion of Québec studies in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2000, the CIFRAQS has had its own series published by Prof. Kolboom at Synchron Wissenschaftsverlag der Autoren / Synchron Publishers, Heidelberg. The last volume he edited was published in 2016: Christian Weyers: Die Vermessung der "Nouvelle-France". Historical land and sea maps of Canada from the 17th and 18th centuries in the Electoral Library of Dresden. A cartographic project directed and edited by Ingo Kolboom.
The aims of the CIFRAQS were:
To research the different aspects of francophone North America, with a focus on Québec as well as other francophone minorities in Canada (especially Acadians) and in the USA (Franco-Américains and Cajuns in Louisiana):
- Communicating Canadian and North American research in these areas within the respective disciplines, but also to the interested specialist public;
- Strengthening French-Canadian Studies and the New Romania North America within German Romance Studies and in other academic disciplines;
- Exemplary contribution to scientific and cultural exchange between Europe and francophone North America/Canada via the Saxony/Québec regional bridge;
- Archiving of press and journal articles as well as documents on Quebec and Canada as part of the Dresden "Archiv Frankophone Welt" (AFW).
Fields of work and functions
- History, politics, society: Development of francophone North America/Canada with special emphasis on the province of Québec; Québec-Canada relations; national identity of Québec; foreign relations of Québec; Canada and Québec in the international community of francophone countries; history and culture of the Acadians (Acadiens).
- Culture: Francophone literatures, cultures and media of North America/Canada with special consideration of Québec; intercultural communication of Québec with France and other countries; the contribution of other language communities to the cultural identity of Québec; development of Acadian culture and Francophone culture in Louisiana.
- Language: language development, language contacts, language migration and language policy in the Francophonie of North America/Canada (especially Québec); language development of other Romance communities in Canada and Québec; development of Acadian French and French in Louisiana.
- Economy, technology, environment: In cooperation with the relevant Institutes of the TU Dresden, topics were planned that went beyond the School of Humanities and Social Sciences French Canadian Studies.
- Information and contact exchange: The CIFRAQS was a contact, documentation and information exchange, also for other Faculties and Institutes of TU Dresden as well as for interested parties in Dresden and Saxony. Publications, lectures, exhibitions and other events were also intended to appeal to a wider public. The CIFRAQS regularly placed Dresden (Romance studies) students on internships in Canada and Québec.
- Cultural bridge: The CIFRAQS saw itself as part of the bridge across the Atlantic for rapprochement and understanding between traditionally francophile Saxony and francophone Québec in the sense of a partnership in the scientific, economic and cultural fields. This also included the communication of German culture and identities to Canada, Québec and other francophone regions of North America. This cultural bridge included the common francophone partner country France, in the sense of a triangular relationship.