Unwritten Histories

The Unwritten Rules of History

Category: Editorials (Page 3 of 3)

My latest Active History Post is Here!

March 30, 2017 / / 0 Comments

In case you missed it, here’s a sneak peak:

She’s Hot: Female Sessional Instructors, Gender Bias, and Student Evaluations

I would like to acknowledge and thank the many female instructors who got in touch with me over the past week, not only for their bravery in sharing their experiences with me, but for their strength in continuing in their dedication to the field of history and education. I am profoundly grateful and honoured. 

“I think your feminist stances are slightly overcorrecting reality. I’m sure minorities had a harsher experience than women, ESPECIALLY today, a point you seem to overlook. You’re a really nice person though.”

That comment comes from my student evaluations from one of the first courses I ever taught, back when I was still a graduate student. At the time that I read that, I burst out laughing. I mean really, how else can you react to that kind of statement? But many courses and student evaluations later, I am starting to think that this is reflective of a larger problem in the world of academia, and history in particular, with respect to female sessional instructors and course evaluations.

 

Check out the rest of it here! And I’ll see you on Sunday for our regular Canadian History Roundup!

Why Does Canada150 Give Canadian Historians a Headache?

March 14, 2017 / / 10 Comments

Why canada150 gives historians a headache

*Danielle Robinson get the credit for coming up with this title! She’s hilarious. 😉

So, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months, you know that this year Canada is celebrating it’s 150th birthday. While July 1st is technically the day that Canada was “born,” governments at all levels as well as a range of institutions have events planned for the entire year. I’ve mentioned a couple of these on various roundups, like the Canada150 series that many newspapers are running, featuring locals who made significant contributions to Canadian history.

All this sounds great, right?

So why is it that so many historians (and others) are endlessly grumbling about Canada150? Are we all killjoys? Do we hate Canada? Are we secretly lizard-people planning to take over the world? While I can’t comment on the last question 😉 I can tell you that no, most historians aren’t killjoys, nor do we hate Canada. But there are very important reasons why Canada150 is a very problematic campaign. So in today’s blog post, I’m going to talk about a few of the reasons why many Canadian historians start gnashing their teeth whenever someone brings up Canada150.

 

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Editorial: In Remembrance

December 6, 2016 / / 0 Comments

 

In Remembrance

All images in this post are courtesy of Laura Ishiguro, and used with deep gratitude!

Early last week, on November 29th, the Free Speech Club at UBC placed a giant Mars symbol at the very top of the UBC Engineering cairn. The Mars symbol was selected as it is often used to represent men and masculinity, and was intended to allow the Free Speech Club to display their support for the official funding of a men’s rights group by the school’s student union.

It remains unclear whether or not the Free Speech Club was aware of this, but the cairn was intended to be the location for the annual 14 Not Forgotten Memorial Ceremony, to be held on November 30th. The ceremony is in honour of the 14 women who died in the Montreal Massacre and in honour of December 6th, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women. The cairn is part of the engineering building’s Memorial Courtyard.

When three prominent student leaders, Veronica Knott, Jeanie Malone, and Carly Jones (all of whom are also current engineering students) spoke out against this, they were met with support, debate, and accusations of “overreacting.” The symbol has since been taken down and the cairn redecorated, as you can see in the photos above.

So on this December 6th, I want to take a moment to address the place that this day of remembrance and action holds in Canada and what it says about how we see ourselves as a nation. In this blog post, I’m going to talk about how we remember and how we forget, and the relationship between memory and history.

*And thank  you to Elise Chenier for suggesting this topic!

 

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Editorial: A Child of Immigrants

November 15, 2016 / / 2 Comments

I am a child of immigrants

Like so many of you, I was utterly heartbroken by last week’s American election results. But amidst everything that happened that night, one thing stands out foremost in my mind: this tweet from Ann Coulter.

 


When I saw this, my blood froze. Because I know that even though all four of my grandparents were born in Canada, I was one of the people she was talking about; I was a child of immigrants.

Let me explain.

 

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Guest Post: Lianne Charlie on Colonialism, Reconciliation, and the Environment

September 29, 2016 / / 1 Comment
Artwork by Lianne Charlie

eyínjâa tso tédelí kwän t’á / the girl is putting wood into the fire by Lianne Charlie

 

I have a special mid-week blog post for you today, written by Lianne Charlie. Lianne posted this on her Facebook feed yesterday in response to the visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Whitehorse, Yukon, and was kind enough to allow me to post it here on Unwritten Histories. This blog post is intended as the beginning of a conversation about larger issues around colonialism, the environment, and reconciliation. Thank you, Lianne!

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are in Whitehorse today, and half the town is out to see them. My facebook feed is full of photos posted by media outlets reporting on their visit. When I drove by Main Street on my way to work, I saw lots of people lining the streets, waving flags, and holding red and white balloons – all hoping for a glimpse. It’s hard not to get caught up in the hype—there is just so much energy and excitement surrounding their visit—but I’m not excited at all.

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What do Historians Do, Anyways?

May 3, 2016 / / 0 Comments

What do historians do?

TL; DR version: look at old stuff, think about it, write about it, and teach it.

I mean besides kicking butt at Trivial Pursuit. 😉 This seems to be something of a mystery, and historians haven’t done a great job of clearing things up. The answer that most historians give is that historians try to understand the past. But this isn’t really a satisfying answer for most people, since it sounds more like a philosophy than anything else. So in today’s blog post, following up from last week, I’m going to tell you exactly what historians do inside their little hobbit holes.

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Do You Have to be a Historian to Do History?

April 26, 2016 / / 1 Comment

photo-1444201716572-c60ec66d0494

This is a question that came up in my last knit night (shout out to Jessica and Rebecca!). It started when Rebecca asked me why I didn’t recommend Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast. After all, isn’t history just storytelling? Do you need a Ph.D. in history to tell a story?

This is something of a controversial topic. Look in any bookstore and you will see plenty of books in the history section that are not written by historians, but by journalists, politicians, etc… In fact, one of the most well-known history authors, Jared Diamond, is a biologist. But are these works good history? Is there a difference between work produced by historical enthusiasts and professional historians?

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