Concordia Journal Home > Archives > November 22, 2007 issue >

Honorary doctorates conferred 

The recipients of honorary doctorates shared their wisdom at fall convocation on Nov. 11. Art historian Charles C. Hill, above, said that when he started his studies in the mid-1960s, Canadian art wasn’t on the curriculum.

“We only studied European art, and the approach was largely chronological, formalist and iconographic. The intent was to train the eye and memory. The unstated message was that art was a thing of the far past and could only be found elsewhere.”

Fortunately, that soon changed. Concordia established the first graduate program in Canadian art in 1972. As for Hill, he became the Curator of Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada.

Activist and author Heather Menzies talked about how the First World War was made unavoidable by the telephone and telegraph. “Their instant communication lent urgency and an authority to those people who think fast and strategically, namely the army chiefs of staff.”

The traditional voices of diplomacy, “steeped in a culture of listening,” were sidelined by the new technology, and that may provide a lesson for our times.