L-R: Freda Carlofsky, Rose Carlofsky and Anne (Carlofsky) Flesher. Photograph by New Paramount, Ottawa. [192-?] Abe Carlofsky fonds. Ottawa Jewish Archives. OJA 1-674-012
Tag: research (Page 1 of 2)
Macoun Club, Ottawa – David Smiley putting a crayfish on Jennifer Medd’s neck. March 22, 1963. Rosemary Gilliat Eaton. Library and Archives Canada
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
The maple tree that used to stand outside my parents’ place. Photo by author.
I recently re-read Pamela Sugiman’s wonderful article, “A Million Hearts from Here,” in preparation for a discussion group on WW2. If you haven’t read this piece yet, I highly recommend it. I often find myself rereading texts, whether they are academic articles or novels, and each time I do, I always find something new to think about. This time, I was particularly struck by Sugiman’s personal connection to her research. As the daughter and granddaughter of Japanese-Canadian internees, she is closely connected to her own research on this subject. And now, as a mother, she is an active “maker of memory” for her daughter.[1] As Sugiman was working on this project, her daughter also wrote a short story about a little girl who was interned. She selected the title, “A Million Hearts from Here,” explaining
“I called it “A Million Hearts from Here” because it is about a million people, well, a lot of people, that were interned. And they all had a heart somewhere. And “from here”? They were a long way away [from home]. And how would you feel if you were away, for about four years?”
Sugiman goes on to explain how her own research was in turn influenced by her grandmother, an internee, who, though she has passed, lives on in the memory of Sugiman’s daughter.
While Sugiman uses this story to set up her argument about “the ways in which our memories of historical injustices travel across generations and are strongly shaped by our most intimate relationships,”[2] to my mind it also speaks to an unspoken truth about much historical research: its personal connection to our own lives. So, in today’s blog post, I am going to share my own personal connection to my research, talk about subjectivity/objectivity and, and the importance of positionality.
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I was recently talking about the Louis Riel podcast episode from Stuff You Missed in History. This blog post is based off of that original Twitter essay.
Special thanks to Krystl Raven, Catherine Ulmer, and Melissa Shaw for their help reviewing this blog post, and also to Krystl Raven and Adam Gaudry for reading recommendations on this subject! Finally, a big thank you to my friends on Facebook, who insisted that I needed to write this post.
As I was getting ready for bed the other night, I received a notification that a podcast that I occasionally listen to, Stuff You Missed in History Class, had a new episode. I clicked over to see what it was, and immediately felt uneasy. The subject was Louis Riel. Not that there is a problem with the subject, but in most cases, the history of Louis Riel is handled poorly.
I do want to make it clear here that I’m not trying to pick on Stuff You Missed in History Class. To be fair, the hosts of the show do not claim to be historians. And the show is not intended to be academically rigorous. It is for entertainment value, though the hosts do try their best to be accurate and provide a list of their sources.
However — and it is a big however — I believe that they failed in their due diligence to ensure that they accurately and fairly represented this particular subject, especially given the sensitive and political nature of it. And I know they can do better; I’ve listened to some great and well-sourced podcast episodes from this show (like their series on Redlining or their “Unearthed” episodes!) But, if you’re using a public platform to explain and disseminate information about history, the onus is on you to present your information accurately and fairly.
This blog post is not a re-telling of the history of Louis Riel. Rather, I focus on some of the major errors in the podcast episode and the ramifications of these mistakes. You may think that this is just another historian griping about some non-historians being inaccurate about random obscure facts that no one else cares about, but perpetuating certain dominant historical narrative can do great harm.
I’m back! Did you miss me? For those who missed last week’s programming notice, the blog and my Twitter feed have been a little quiet as of late because I was off attending this year’s Canadian Historical Association’s Annual Meeting. As with most conferences, this year’s CHA was a blast, and totally exhausting. Before we let this year’s CHA fade gently into the night, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on my experiences, what I learned, and what we and I can take forward for CHA 2018. Enjoy!
I. Padraic Ryan, “The headquarters of Library and Archives Canada on Wellington Street in Ottawa, Canada.” CC BY-SA 3.0.
Welcome to back to Unwritten Histories! As promised, this week we have a special guest post by Dennis Molinaro. You may know him better as the Canadian historian who uncovered top secret documents showing that the federal government approved wiretapping on Canadian citizens during the Cold War. Being something of an expert on the subject, he has kindly agreed to provide a short guide to submitting ATI Requests, or “Access to Information” Requests, something all historians should know! Enjoy!
Dennis Molinaro holds a PhD from the University of Toronto and his research focuses on the historical use of emergency powers and their effect on society. He is currently completing a second book on Canada’s role in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance and its covert Cold War wiretapping programs. He teaches at Trent University.
A war effort poster: “Salvage! Every Little Helps” / Sia R. Chilvers. Library and Archives Canada, e010696424; Acc. No. 1983-28-190 / CC by 2.0
(Newly updated as of February 27, 2017!)
I’m actually rather surprised to find that no one’s really done this before. This collection started out as a Word document that I used for creating classroom activities for my survey classes. The one-page document has now grown to seventeen pages. Before anyone yells at me for leaving things out, I do want to warn you that this is not a comprehensive list. I have tried to limit this list to resources that are available from verified sources, archives, museums, universities, and historical societies. There are a ton of personal websites by genealogists and military history enthusiasts that are great, but because I can’t verify their sources personally and because this list is aimed mostly at educators, I chose to leave them out.
Each link will be listed by title, then institution. I have included a short description of each link, and which sections will be of particular interest or use to educators.
Many historians, including myself, tend to overlook various “history months,” mostly because it’s always history month for them. We’re the kind of nerds that do this kind of thing for fun. However, October is Women’s History Month in Canada, and, especially given the recent article by Elise Chenier, Lori Chambers, and Anne Toews, “Still Working in the Shadow of Men? An Analysis of Sex Distribution in Publications and Prizes in Canadian History” on the underrepresentation of female authors in the field, I want to highlight some of my favourite scholarship on the history of women in Canada. Many organizations are getting in on this, and are using the hashtag #becauseofher to spotlight women who have inspired. These are books and articles that I go back to again and again, that I actually enjoy reading, that fired my imagination, and that have shaped my own approach to historical research. I’ve tried to limit this list to women’s history rather than the history of gender and/or sexuality, given the theme of this month. And so, in no particular order, they are….
A young girl in a red sweater holding a black cat (1953-1964). Rosemary Gilliat Eaton. Library and Archives Canada, e010980903. CC BY 2.0
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
If there is one topic that goes nearly completely “unwritten” in the field of history, it is managing research. Whether you are writing your dissertation or writing your latest article, managing your primary and secondary sources is extremely important. This is especially the case for historians since the sheer number of sources that we use is enormous.
Back when I was writing my dissertation (in the dark ages of 2009), your options for management were pretty limited. I initially tried printing everything out, but that created mountains of paper that I seldom read once, if at all. I also tried keeping pdfs on my computer, but those were the days before cloud storage, and too many pdfs was a problem. To say nothing of the difficulty of searching for the information I wanted.
However, as I began reworking my dissertation into a book manuscript, I quickly realized that I needed to have a better system. So today, I’m going to talk about the workflow that I’ve developed using reference management software.