New UQAC-McGill partnership: Panorama sur le Québec
A new Quebec portal, www.panorama-quebec.com, was unveiled in the Saguenay region today by Heather Munroe-Blum, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University, and Michel Belley, rector of Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC).
Panorama sur le Québec was created to provide original content on Quebec and its people. The site is geared to anyone curious about Quebec for educational and professional reasons or tourism purposes. The site was launched to help people from around the world obtain relevant information about Quebec, learn French, discover French-language literature or carry out comparative studies.
The unique site is a complete guide to Quebec's culture and history. All content is new and was provided by renowned academics. Panorama sur le Québec was created by UQAC's École de langue française et de culture québécoise, in collaboration with McGill's Quebec Studies Program and French Language Program, as well as the International Association of Quebec Studies. Its creation was made possible through a grant from the Quebec Government's Information Highway Fund.
"By having our institution co-launch Panorama sur le Québec, we are benefiting from a unique opportunity to inform others about UQAC and the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, while affirming our commitment to work with our sister universities to disseminate information about the French language and Quebec culture," says Pierre Lincourt, director of UQAC's École de langue française et de culture québécoise.
The website was originally conceived in 1997 by Hervé de Fontenay (McGill University) and Damien Ferland (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi), who created its predecessor, the award-winning website Le français en Affaires. From 2001 to 2003, a large team of multidisciplinary experts and authors produced most of the content for Panorama sur le Québec. The platform designed to run the site was developed by Artifact Logiciels Inc.
"Panorama sur le Québec is a resource that's not only free to consult — it is vastly accessible to the international community to learn more about Quebec's past and present," says Hervé de Fontenay, director of McGill French Language Programs. "The site's creation will help make up for a lack of Quebec content in most francophone books, while helping to boost the study of French."
"Collaborating on the launch of Panorama sur le Québec was a natural choice for McGill, since the University is an important provider of varied, high-quality education in Quebec and French studies," says Heather Munroe-Blum. "This new website is an excellent example of a partnership between McGill, the Government of Quebec and the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi."
After launching Panorama sur le Québec, Principal Munroe-Blum plans to meet with McGill alumni from the Saguenay region as well as parents of current students. The Principal will also meet with researchers from UQAC who are working with McGill University scientists on a variety of research projects: volcanic formation studies to fertility studies to gene identification. This evening, a McGill delegation that includes Janyne Hodder, vice-principal (inter-institutional affairs), will attend the first collaborative concert given by the McGill Baroque Orchestra and the Ensemble baroque du Conservatoire de musique de Saguenay.
