1 Rethinking Canadian Studies through Emergent Publics Susan Pell Pre-publication draft chapter for “Rethinking Canadian Democracy through Emergent Publics.” In Crossing Borders: Essays in Honour of Ian Angus, Beyond Phenomenology and Critique, edited by Samir Gandesha and Peyman Vahabzadeh. Winnipeg (CA): ARP Books, 2020. I. Introduction This paper considers Ian Angus’s contribution to the field of Canadian Studies, particularly the English Canadian intellectual tradition, and how his concept of “emergent publics” contributes to a rethinking of Canadian political culture. For Angus, emergent publics arise within social movements, and point to people seeking inclusion of new issues and identities within the political processes that have the potential to create and renew democratic institutions. The concept of emergent publics not only changes the relationship between social movements and institutions, it also emphasizes democracy as an ongoing practice that requires participation and engagement with a plurality of others with different traditions and varying responses to questions of the “good life”. I suggest that understanding Angus’s concept of emergent publics can shed light on his approach to Canadian Studies. By placing emergent publics and social movements at the centre of political life, Angus inverts the more conventional approach in Canadian Studies that focuses on state institutions. More specifically, Angus approaches the English Canadian intellectual tradition through a thinking from the periphery. It is a political and philosophical intervention that seeks to open a discursive space that privileges a plurality of traditions. Politically, his turn to social movements decentres the state within political culture and aligns the agenda of Canadian Studies with those on the margins. Philosophically, Angus utilizes Canada, which he sees as uniquely placed because of its history of dependency and the ongoing necessity to negotiate identity and difference within its political culture, to reconceive the relationship between the particular and universal through a critique of empire. His post- imperial rethinking of English Canada 1 is not just academic, however. I argue that across his work in Canadian Studies, Angus approaches philosophy as a task, adding his voice to public discourses and politics projects. To understand how Angus reorients Canadian Studies, I first describe emergent publics, outlining it as a concept, methodology, and task. Next I contrast Angus’s social movement approach to a study of English Canada with a more institutional approach, highlighting that the shift of perspective decentres the state within the study of Canadian political culture. Then I discuss how Angus uses this method of decentring to invert the relationship between particularity and universality, where he brings together his philosophical and political projects around the idea of self-rule. I end by considering Angus’s legacy in Canadian Studies.