IDRC to Write Its Intellectual History: International Development Research Centre

IDRC is pleased to announce that Professors Ron Harpelle and Bruce Muirhead of the Department of History at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, have been commissioned to write the intellectual history of IDRC.

Ron Harpelle is a specialist in Latin American and Caribbean history and an award-winning documentary film maker. He earned his PhD from the University of Toronto and his MA and BA from the University of Manitoba. As an IDRC recipient in 2002, Prof. Harpelle produced a documentary film on bananas called Banana Split, together with his wife Kelly Saxberg.

Bruce Muirhead specializes in the history of Canadian foreign economic policy. He is the author of the award-winning biography of Louis Rasminsky, the former Governor of the Bank of Canada and the second Chair of IDRC’s Board of Governors. Prof. Muirhead holds a PhD from York University, an MA from the University of Toronto and a BA (Honours) from Queen’s University.

After an initial exploration, IDRC decided on a worldwide request for expressions of interest as the best way to begin to identify potential authors for the IDRC Intellectual History Project. The request for expressions of interest was launched in August 2005. More than 35 individuals and groups from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America submitted proposals. Of these, six were asked to submit more detailed proposals and, from these six, Professors Harpelle and Muirhead were the successful candidates.

IDRC’s Intellectual History Project is designed to produce, by the end of 2008, a rigourous yet accessible book-length history of IDRC’s contribution to development thinking and practice. This is not meant to be a vanity publication; rather, it will be a piece of critical history that can stand up to peer review at a quality publishing house. Other outputs of the Intellectual History Project (e.g. a film and a Web site) are also planned.