New Publication by Dr. David Webster

A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, co-edited by Dr. David Webster of the Department of History, has recently been published by University of Calgary Press. The book sheds light on Canada’s 70-year history of foreign aid to all regions of the Global South. Bringing together governmental and non-governmental perspectives, this book allows readers to discover the historic forces that have shaped Canada’s aid policy. Contributors to this volume provide valuable insight to the little-known history of Canada’s overseas development aid initiatives. More information about his publication is available on University of Calgary Press.

Dr. Webster is keenly aware of the unequal access to information by citizens and scholars from around the world, and has aimed to ensure publications and projects be made available in open access. For this reason, his latest publication as well as his earlier volume, Flowers in the Wall: Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste, Indonesia and Melanesia are freely available in open access on the University of Calgary Press website. This same concern underlies another project, entitled “Timor International Solidarity Archive”, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. This new website shares digitized documents from the global solidarity movement which operated from 1975 to 1999 in diverse countries, including Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Portugal and Timor-Leste itself. The project aims to share new documentary evidence from multiple archives and make this evidence available to researchers and the general public.