The four month work-study leave funded by the fellowship was to
undertake university courses related to Third World issues
particularly involving refugees and immigration.
l chose the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario at which
to do the fellowship for several reasons.
The first was that there are many suitable courses at UWO which
relate to the Third World. Secondly, UWO Graduate School of
Journalism Professor Andy MacFarlane provided the necessary academic
approval by giving me the splendid title of "visiting scholar". And,
thirdly, UWO is 3,000 miles from my home province and offered a
chance to learn about Ontario at the same time as studying.
Due to work commitments at the Vancouver Sun, the fellowship was
undertaken from March 1 to June 30 which meant diving mid-stream
into the March Courses which had started in January.
However, this proved to be no serious problem because all the
professors provided reading lists and it was not too difficult to
catch up with the major background of the courses.
The courses l audited starting March 1 were: Politics of Africa,
Politics of the Middle East, International Politics, Politics of the
Environment, and Intelligence, Subversion and Terrorism. All five of
these courses were in the political science department. The course
on terrorism was undertaken because it was useful background on the
Sikh situation in Canada.
Unfortunately two geography department courses, one on developing
countries and the other on Latin America, conflicted in timing with
the other courses and could not be fitted in. However, Professor
William Osei and Professor Harry Taylor, who taught these courses,
both gave me lengthy interviews and provided reading lists.
As a necessary change of pace from all the politics and Third World,
l also did two courses in a Western Literature and Civilization
interdisciplinary program which included Marxist and Existential
literature, and a music and art survey 1500 to 1900.
Then, of course, there were all the public lectures which a
university offers and l went to about 20. These included lectures
such as In Search of a Middle East Solution by Prof. James Graff
recently returned from Gaza, a Forum on Refugee Determination, and a
two-day lecture series on development with talks on non-government
organizations, famine and medical aid.
I would particularly like to mention the assistance of Professor
Robert Henderson who works jointly in political science and
journalism. He has spent many years in third world countries and
gave me a sort of "directed reading" program at the suggestion of
Prof. MacFarlane.
This assistance,. which included daily discussions, was made
possible by the kindness of the Graduate School of Journalism.
Although l was not, of course, taking any journalism courses, the
school took me in as "one of the family" and gave me office space
left vacant by a professor on sabbatical. Apart front the fact that
this gave me a warm place to read between classes in the
winter, It was great to have a "home" on campus. Without this, l
might have felt a little lost at UWO because the Michener Fellowship
is a one-man-band. Thanks to journalism, l was never at a loss for
an office, a telephone, and lively company.
In an attempt to say thank you, l addressed one of the journalism
classes, giving an informal lecture on reporting for daily
newspapers. l invited the students to drop in to see me for a chat
at any time and they took me up on the offer. So it was great to be
able to help up-and-coming reporters at the same time as studying.
In the summer semester, l did an intensive daily course offered by
the sociology department called Population Studies. It was a
comprehensive look at population changes throughout the world and
was most helpful in the areas of refugees and immigration.
In the second semester I also took part in a three-day conference on
Canadian-American relations sponsored by UWO's Centre for American
Studies. This was not directly related to my field of study but it
was extremely interesting and l attended at the invitation of the
Centre director.
While in London l also visited the Cross Cultural Learner centre
which offers an amazingly large program of refugee aid and education
about the Third World. It's the largest centre of its kind in Canada
and refugee resettlement in this country would be much easier for
everyone if there were more such places.
And in case you get the impression, that the fellowship was all work
and no play, l can assure you this was not the case. l enormously
enjoyed south-western Ontario including canoeing on the River
Thames, King Lear at Stratford, hikes at the University of Toronto
farm on the Niagara escarpment, and exploration of the Mennonite
villages around Elmira.
It was a wonderful experience and l am most grateful to the Michener
Foundation.
Moira Farrow
Vancouver Sun
1987