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Guest lecture
Dr. John Ralston Saul (Canada):
The End of Globalization and the Resurgence of the
Nation-State; The New Citizen and the New State
Tuesday 7 October 2003, 5pm
Small Assembly Hall, University main building
(Fabianinkatu 33).
Essayist and novelist, John Ralston Saul was born in Ottawa in 1947 to
an officer in the Canadian army and his English war bride. He was educated
in the public school systems of Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario before receiving
an Honours B.A. at McGill University and a Ph.D. on the modernization
of France at King's College, University of London. Dr. Saul is fluently
bilingual.
Dr. Saul's growing impact on political and economic thought in many countries
was firmly established with his 1995 Massey Lectures. The resulting book,
The Unconscious Civilization, won the 1996 Governor General's
Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the Gordon Montador Award for the Best
Canadian Non-Fiction Book on social issues (1996). It was the concluding
book of a major philosophical trilogy, the first two volumes being Voltaire’s
Bastards - The Dictatorship of Reason in the West and The Doubter’s
Companion - A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense. In 2001 he drew
his conclusions about this trilogy with a new volume: On Equilibrium.
His five novels are The Birds of Prey (1977) and De si bons
Américains (1994), both published first in French, and The
Field Trilogy, which deals with the crisis of modern power and its
clash with the individual. The last volume of this trilogy, The Paradise
Eater, won the prestigious Italian Premio Letterario Internazionale. His
books are translated into more than a dozen languages.
Dr. Saul launched a national debate with his reinterpretation of the nature
of Canada in Reflections of a Siamese Twin, (1997) for which
he again won the Gordon Montador Award (1998).
After creating and managing a European investment firm (1973-1976), Dr.
Saul worked as Special Assistant and Policy Advisor to the founding Chairman
of Petro-Canada from 1976 to 1979. Active in the cause of freedom of speech,
he served as secretary, vice-president and president of the Canadian Centre
of International PEN between 1987 and 1992. He is now its Patron.
He is Founder and Honorary Chair of Le Français pour l’Avenir
/ French for the Future and Chair of the Advisory Board of the LaFontaine-Baldwin
Symposium. Dr. Saul also serves on several other Boards, including that
of the Harold Innis Research Foundation and le Comité d'Honneur,
Rencontre Québécoise Internationale des Écrivains.
A Companion in the Order of Canada (1999), Dr. Saul is also Chevalier
in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France (1996). He holds honorary
doctorates from the Universities of McGill, Victoria, Western Ontario,
Simon Fraser and McMaster. He received the first Canadian Teacher’s
Federation Public Education Advocacy Award (2000). He received The Tony
Aspler Excellence Award for his contributions to the Ontario Wine Industry
which was presented at Cuvée 2002.
Dr. Saul is currently accomppanying his spouse, H.E. the Right Hounourable
Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada, on the State Visit to Finland.
The lecture is organized by the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
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