Dennis Drummond joined the French Department at the University of New England in 1974. Soon after taking up his lectureship at UNE, Dennis instituted teaching units in French-Canadian literature — the first in Australia. His enthusiasm soon spread to his colleagues at UNE who began teaching and researching French-Canadian authors.

Dennis’s scholarly articles and book chapters on French-Canadian topics have been widely consulted and have made an impact on French-Canadian studies. He has given papers at international conferences throughout the world.

Dennis has arranged lecture tours by academics from Canada and has worked closely with the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand to enhance the profile of French-Canadian literature. He also established a student and staff exchange arrangement between Laval University and UNE. Over many years, there has been a ready enrolment at UNE of students in French-Canadian units and a number of these students have gone on to do Honours and postgraduate studies. It is also to be credited to Dennis that a number of French-Canadian texts are now taught in other Australian universities and that such texts now appear on school syllabuses. Dennis has also been a recipient of the Canadian Government Faculty Enrichment Program.

Though retired since 2002, Dennis continues to research in this area. He has this year contributed to a book to be published in Canada celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the death of the novelist Gabrielle Roy.

Dennis has very successfully promoted an academic area in Canadian studies. His accomplishments and commitments make him a most deserving member of the ICCS Certificate of Merit.