My Dissertation - Flying Fish in the Great White North

I've decided that I'm going to do this dissertation process a little differently by posting my progress on my blog periodically.  For better or for worse, you'll get to see the ins and outs of how a history PhD is researched, written, re-written, edited, and finally completed.

My blog will pretty much be a forum for me to post and get my ideas out, organize my research, work on my writing, and for everyone to comment and give their feedback.

Right now my timeline is 20 months, so I'm looking at being done and out by January 2013 at the latest.  Ideally my plan is to finish by the fall of 2012.  No sense lollygaggin' around.

Let's start with the title and outline I have thus far:

Title:

Flying Fish in the Great White North: Black Barbadians in Canada, 1940-1967

Chapter Outline:

• Chapter 1 - Barbados

 ·     Barbadian history of slavery and colonialism

·        Barbadian political history

·        Barbadian political culture

·        Barbadian race relations

·        Barbadian foreign policy – racism and foreign policy

·        Barbadian economic, social, and political “push factors” for emigration to Canada

o   A Culture of Migration?

o   The political climate

o   Colonial factors

o   Race and racism

• Chapter 2 – 20^th century Canada

·       Race and discrimination in 20^th century Canadian society

·       Immigration and the history of Immigration policy

·       Multiculturalism policy

·       Canadian foreign policy – pre and post-WWII

·       Canadian institutionalized racism – racism in immigration, multiculturalism, and foreign policies

·       Canadian race relations

• Chapter 3 – Barbadian-Canadian foreign relations

·       Canadian-Barbadian relations – from their slave and colonial beginnings to WWII and decolonization

o   The British link

o   Imperial ideology

·       Liberal Democratic Theory and ideology – how it affected both Canadian and Barbadian societies

o   The ties that bound

• Chapter 4 - Barbadians in Canada: The autonomous Barbadian – The Bajan (oral histories here)

·       The autonomous Barbadian – The Bajan first in Barbados and then in Canada (oral histories here)

o   Black Barbadians as Clients, Victims, Achievers, Community, Survivors, Traumatic Rage, and Black Barbadians as the cause of their own problems in Barbados and Canada

·       Black Barbadian immigration to Canada 1940 – 1967 by the numbers and the actors (case studies)

·       The Barbadian Diaspora in Canada

·       The NCBAC

·       Barbadian political, social, and economic integration in Canada