The Unwritten Rules of History
Family enjoying a meal at the beach, seated around a fire, British Columbia. Photo by Gar Lunney, 1969. National Film Board of Canada. Library and Archives Canada. 4301659 Copyright expired.
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What’s this? An extra blog post? Surprise!
So for the past couple of weeks, there have been several debates regarding the roles that Sir Hector-Louis Langevin and Sir John A. Macdonald played in establishing the residential school system. First, there was considerable debate about the renaming of Langevin Block, including Matthew Hayday’s post, Tabatha Southey’s column, Serge Gauthier’s op-ed, and David Tough’s Twitter essay. Then earlier this week, Sean Carleton wrote an op-ed for The Star arguing that Macdonald was the real architect of the residential school system. A great deal of debate on both of these subjects has ensued on Twitter. So, I have compiled all of the relevant tweets together on Storify, and organized then chronologically so that everyone, including those not on “the Twitter,” would be able to follow along. Enjoy!
And just in case, please let me know if I’ve missed anything that should be included!
Welcome back to one of my favourite series, Historian’s Histories, where we learn about the historiography of historians! This week, we have a very special guest, Maxime Dagenais! As you all know, Maxime is the research coordinator for the Wilson Institute, and manages their social media accounts as well as their blog, Beyond Borders: The New Canadian History. But what you may not know is that in addition to being a fellow Montrealer, Maxime also did his Master’s degree with my husband! That pretty much makes us family in my book, so I’m super excited to feature his work this week!
Maxime Dagenais is the Research Coordinator at the Wilson Institute and was, until recently (2014-2016), a SSHRC post-doctoral fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a PhD in French and British North American history from the University of Ottawa in 2011 and was a L.R. Wilson post-doctoral fellow at the Wilson Institute for Canadian History (2012‒14). He has published in several academic journals, including Canadian Military History, Bulletin d’histoire politique, Quebec Studies, and American Review of Canadian Studies, and co-authored a book entitled The Land in Between: The Upper St. John Valley, Prehistory to World War One. He has also written over a dozen articles for The Canadian Encyclopedia. Max is also presently editing a volume on the Canadian Rebellion and the United States – Revolutions Across Borders: Jacksonian America and The Canadian Rebellion – currently under consideration for publication with the Rethinking Canada in the World Series published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Family making a shore dinner on Stony Lake. Mother, Father, and two little girls around fire in the foreground. August 1951. Photo by Chris Lund. National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada. 4312118 Copyright expired.
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
Note from Andrea: As promised, today we have a special guest post from Claire Campbell! As many of you already know, Claire Campbell is an environmental historian who has been featured several times on the Roundup for her fantastic articles on NiCHE and Borealia. So I’m super excited to be able to present a new blog post from her — a meditation on beginning a new research project. Enjoy!
Bucknell University’s Claire Campbell – Faculty Profile Shoot
Michael KubelClaire Campbell is an associate professor of history at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She is interested in the environmental history of North America and the North Atlantic world. She has taught at universities across Canada and in Denmark, in the areas of history, Canadian Studies, and Environment and Sustainability. Publications include Shaped by the West Wind: Nature & History in Georgian Bay (2004), A Century of Parks Canada, 1911-2011 (2011), and Land and Sea: Environmental History in Atlantic Canada (2013) with Robert Summerby-Murray. Her most recent work, Nature, Place, and Story: Rethinking Historic Sites in Canada (forthcoming 2017), uses environmental history to expand public history and discussions of sustainability at national historic sites.
Chris Lund. “Betty Dixon (left) and Barbara Coutts select Indian souvenirs at St. David’s, Ontario. At left is Chief Sky of the Six National Indian Reserve, Brantford, Ontario. At right is Warrior Running Deer.” 1949. Office National du Film du Canada. 4312260. Copyright expired.
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
At the beginning of 2017, I came across a note on Twitter from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Native studies about a new course they were offering, called “Indigenous Canada.” Curious, I clicked over to their website, and discovered that the course was designed to teach a non-specialized audience about Canadian history from an Indigenous perspective. Even better, it was being offered fully online, and it was free to audit. I had been looking for opportunities to learn more about Indigenous history in Canada, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I quickly signed up. Since I was one of the history nerds who actually looked forward to school (I really never understood the irony behind the Staples campaign, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” since I literally looked forward to returning to school all summer long), I was super excited to have the chance to be a student again. The prospect of finding some good resources that I could use in my own teaching seemed too good of an opportunity to pass up. But, to my pleasant surprize, the experience was far more enriching and transformative that I could have possibly imagined.
With the new session for the course beginning on July 10th, I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to tell you about my experiences, and why I believe that everyone should take “Indigenous Canada.”
“Piscines de l’île Saint-Hélène, 10 juillet 1965.” Archives de la Ville de Montréal. VM94-Ud-27-017. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
Welcome back to our monthly series, “Upcoming Publications in Canadian History,” where I’ve compiled information on all the upcoming releases for the following month in the field of Canadian history from every Canadian academic press, all in one place. This includes releases in both English and French. To see June’ releases, click here.
***Please note that the cover images and book blurbs are used with permission from the publishers.***
N.B. This list only includes new releases, not rereleases in different formats.
Growing up in Montreal, hockey was very much a part of my cultural landscape. I’m not really even sure that I ever made a conscious decision to be a Habs fan – it just came with the territory! The names of Maurice Richard, Jean Béliveau, Saku Koivu, and Patrick Roy were as familiar to me as the names of Sesame Street characters. I vividly remember the elation of the Habs winning the Stanley Cup in the 1992-1993 season, the sense of betrayal when Patrick Roy left the Habs for the Avalanche, and being annoyed when the team moved from the Forum to the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre). I even own my very own copy of The Hockey Sweater, in both book and video formats.
So, several weeks ago, when I was offered the chance to sit down and speak with Dr. Jenny Ellison about the new exhibit at the Canadian Museum of History, “Hockey,” I of course jumped at the opportunity! The blog post that follows is the result of that conversation, a behind-the-scenes look at the new exhibition and about Ellison’s work on the project.
*Please note that all images, with the exception of Jim Logan’s “National Pastimes,” are courtesy of the Canadian Museum of History, and used with permission. The images of Jim Logan’s “National Pastimes” have been made available by the Canadian Museum of History, and are used with permission from Jim Logan. Please do not reproduce.
Photo credit: Stephen Darby, CMH.
Jenny Ellison joined the Museum’s staff in 2015. Her research examines the representation and experience of sport, leisure, physical fitness and health. In keeping with the priorities identified in the Museum’s Research Strategy, Dr. Ellison will be looking at how sports and leisure shape Canadian experiences and help us understand the past. In terms of collections development, this includes research on sports and health activism, adaptive sports, representations of the body, games and government-supported physical fitness programs.
Dr. Ellison has published articles in the Journal of Canadian Studies, the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association and the award-winning Fat Studies Reader. She is also the co-editor of Obesity in Canada: Critical Perspectives.
Dr. Ellison holds an Honours BA in History from the University of Toronto, an MA in Canadian Studies from Carleton University and a PhD in History from York University. She completed her postdoctoral training at Mount Allison University’s Centre for Canadian Studies, and has worked as an assistant professor of Canadian Studies at Trent University and as a researcher at the Australian Museum.
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