Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Commission of Government, Culture, and Place in Newfoundland, Canada, 1933-1949

这个项目考察了纽芬兰从1933年到1949年的模棱两可的立场，这是它作为一个地区和省份形成的关键时期。1933年，随着大萧条的灾难性影响和纽芬兰自己即将破产，纽芬兰的代议制政府被暂停，因为伦敦的自治领办公室得出结论，纽芬兰需要大规模的社会、经济和政治改革。作为回应，成立了一个由六人组成的政府委员会和总督，直到1949年纽芬兰与加拿大联合。这一时期的委员会规则，虽然经常被忽视，是加拿大关于联邦-省转移和资源获取的更广泛辩论的关键，也是关于纽芬兰“文化”和民族主义情绪的更广泛争议的关键。它也是纽芬兰目前在加拿大内外的政治、文化和经济状况的中心。该项目将调查委员会在改变纽芬兰社会和经济方面的作用。通过对委员会在纽芬兰和伦敦自治领办公室的档案的分析，它将调查委员会官员如何制定和理解纽芬兰的经济和社会重组政策，这些政策如何在纽芬兰得到应用和争取，以及它们如何与这一时期流传的更广泛的发展、种族和帝国理论联系在一起。分析将集中在档案中对委员会合法性和行动的质疑和抗议特别明显的地方，试图理解为什么纽芬兰对委员会改革努力的挑战在社会和地理上是不平衡的。为了在纽芬兰委员会政府的档案记录中确定这些竞争和冲突的时刻，该项目将记录并进一步调查委员会和反对他们的人改变纽芬兰日常物质生活的直接尝试。这项研究将为纽芬兰在加拿大内外的“地位”提供新的见解。通过历史地考察纽芬兰的经济现代化、文化认同、主权和“发展”问题，它将促进对该地区如何以及为什么被框定为传统和落后地方的理解。了解纽芬兰的这些历史框架即使在现在也很重要，因为尽管生活水平不断提高，经济更加繁荣，但纽芬兰在加拿大和北美的背景下仍然被视为独特的。更广泛地说，这项研究将展示如何使用特定的历史地理来证明和合法的经济成功，“现代性”和“发展”的某些路径。纽芬兰的框架在委员会政府期间产生，并在本项目中进行了审查，并持续到现在，具有明确的政治，经济和政策含义。因此，了解委员会规则时期有助于了解这个位于加拿大边缘的省份的当代情况，但对20世纪初更广泛的殖民和现代化实践至关重要。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

This project examines Newfoundland's ambiguous position from 1933 to 1949, a crucial time period in its formation as a region and province. In 1933, following the Great Depression's catastrophic effects and Newfoundland's own impending bankruptcy, representative government in Newfoundland was suspended, as the Dominions Office in London concluded that Newfoundland needed large-scale social, economic, and political reform. In response, a six-man Commission of Government and governor was installed and remained in power until Newfoundland's Confederation with Canada in 1949. This period of Commission rule, although often overlooked, is key to wider debates in Canada over federal-provincial transfers and resource access, as well as broader controversies over Newfoundland's 'culture' and nationalist sentiment. It is also central to Newfoundland's current political, cultural, and economic situation within and beyond Canada. This project will investigate the Commission's role in transforming Newfoundland socially and economically. Through an analysis of Commission archives in Newfoundland and the Dominions Office in London, it will investigate how economic and social restructuring policies in Newfoundland were framed and understood by Commission officials, how such policies were applied and fought over across Newfoundland, and how they were linked to wider theories of development, ethnicity, and empire circulating in this time period. The analysis will focus on places in the archive where contest and protest over the Commission's legitimacy and actions are especially clear, seeking to understand why such challenges to Commission reform efforts were socially and geographically uneven across Newfoundland. In identifying these moments of contest and conflict in the archival record of Newfoundland's Commission government, the project will document and further investigate direct attempts by the Commission and those opposed to them to transform daily material life in Newfoundland.This research will provide new insight into Newfoundland's 'place' within and beyond Canada. By historically examining questions of economic modernization, cultural identity, sovereignty, and 'development' in Newfoundland, it will advance understandings of how and why the region has been framed as a traditional and backward place. Understanding these historical framings of Newfoundland matters even now, as despite rising standards of living and a greater measure of economic prosperity, Newfoundland continues to be seen as distinct within both a Canadian and North-American context. More broadly, this research will show how particular historical geographies are used to justify and legitimate certain paths of economic success, 'modernity,' and 'development'. The framings of Newfoundland produced during the Commission government and examined in this project endure into the present, with clear political, economic, and policy implications. Thus understanding the period of Commission rule sheds light on contemporary circumstances in this province at the margins of Canada but central to wider colonial and modernizing practices of the early twentieth century. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.