The Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis (CTCA) is a research hub based within the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture (ICSLAC) at Carleton University. Founded in 2005, at a time when cultural studies disciplines were almost exclusively defined by the nation as the organizing unit of analysis, CTCA seeks to create the necessary interdisciplinary connections and networks that will increase the impact of transnational research in the Humanities. Since the end of the twentieth century, globalization has been the driving force behind mediations of culture. As cultural borders have opened up, the need for new intellectual models has made global studies one of the most urgent issues of our generation. Though studies of the global have been traditionally rooted in the social sciences, CTCA’s initiatives are focused on thinking through the cultural consequences of globalization and how they have reshaped our world.
CTCA contributes to the cultural and intellectual life of Carleton University and the city of Ottawa through the organization of public speaker series, seminars, and workshops featuring Canadian as well as international scholars, curators and artists. CTCA frequently collaborates with its Carleton partners, the Migration and Diaspora Studies Initiative (MDS), The Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture (ICSLAC) and the School for Studies in Art and Culture (SSAC), as well as with various institutions in Ottawa, including the National Gallery of Canada, and international partners, including the Institute for Cultural Inquiry in Berlin (ici Berlin).
CTCA spearheads opportunities for graduate students from across disciplines to engage each other through transnational and collaborative research. In 2014 CTCA established a graduate steering committee, which has grown into an active community of graduate students who have become involved with the Centre’s activities at the levels of programming, event management, and research exchange. Some of the opportunities available for graduate students at CTCA include the annual Cultural Transfers workshop series, developed in conjunction with ICSLAC, which puts faculty and graduate students into dialogue around common areas of scholarship, as well as student-led reading and research groups and interdisciplinary conferences.