The Canadian Studies Program, which began in 2000 at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, subsequently developed into a Centre for Canadian Studies (CCS) in 2007. The Centre, housed in the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, is one of the nodal points related to research and study in Canadian Studies in India in general and in the Eastern Zone in particular. It has received national and international acclaim as it strives to disseminate an understanding of Canadian Studies and its reception within the Indian pedagogic system. Years of research and exploratory studies, academic interactions and collaborations with Canadianists in India and abroad, have been a tremendous learning experience for the scholars engaged with this Centre. Over the years, scholars and researchers have been exposed to diverse kinds of concepts and ideas, have stepped into areas hitherto untrodden and slowly evolved and emerged as a Centre with a definite focus and agenda. The Centre for Canadian Studies actively engages in interdisciplinary collaborations by way of workshops, seminars, conferences and publications at local, national and international levels. The Centre has identified two major areas as its focus: Canadian Indigenous Studies and the South-Asian Canadian Diaspora. Faculty members and research scholars associated with the Centre for Canadian Studies have a proactive approach to research methodology and skills in the field of Canadian Studies and the thrust areas of Indigenous Studies and Diaspora Studies. In its focus, the Centre has aimed to move away from a reductionist, stereotypical application of race and class categories towards a multidimensional and multidisciplinary understanding grounded in the material and symbolic everyday life of the Indigenous and South Asian communities.

Through the years, the Centre has had the privilege of initiating and also participating in conversations on issues related but not limited to Indigeneity, Diaspora, translation, ecocriticism, cultural memory and trauma, endangered languages, food cultures and critical sustainability, sovereignty and public policy, gender roles, Sustainable Development Goals, digital humanities Academic Social Responsibility in the context of Canadian Studies and Comparative Literature as a dynamic and interdisciplinary field of research. The Centre has also been active in its academic engagement in Indigenous and Diasporic Studies and Endangered Languages through a dynamic presence in social media (https://www.facebook.com/ccsjucl and https://twitter.com/ccsjucl)