July 2011

Podcast: An Environmental History of the Lower Lea River Valley, Site of the 2012 London Olympics

July 28, 2011

In this talk, Jim Clifford explored some of the findings of his PhD dissertation on the environmental problems created by half a century of urban-industrial development along the Lower Lea River Valley, and the challenges this history poses for redevelopment for the 2012 London Olympics.

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IQT “Solutions”: Company Closures, Workers’ Rights, and the State of the Canadian Labour Movement

July 25, 2011

How does it feel to arrive at work one day to find the doors locked permanently? Most of us can imagine how cataclysmic an event this would be; unfortunately, 1200 more workers had to experience this recently, as IQT Solutions closed its doors in Canada. Claiming bankruptcy (no official filing could be immediately located), the [...]

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Looking Back on Pride

July 21, 2011

By Mathieu Brûlé The relationship between the City of Toronto and the city’s queer communities has been a popular topic of discussion in Toronto over the past few weeks. Prompted by Mayor Rob Ford’s decision to forego Pride Week’s festivities in exchange for time at his family cottage, many, critics and supporters alike, have expressed disappointment [...]

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Renaming Schools: A sign of a society in dialogue with its past

July 19, 2011

The Halifax Regional School Board’s decision to rename Cornwallis Junior High fits into a long Nova Scotian tradition of changing names with evolving social and political conditions in Nova Scotia.

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Renaming Schools: What Does Sanitizing History Teach Students?

July 18, 2011

Removing the name of Halifax’s founder, Edward Cornwallis, from the masthead of a South End junior high school is perhaps the most recent and blatant example of the old controversy over renaming schools.

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The “Asbestos Issue” Then and Now, Again and Again

July 14, 2011

By Dr. Jessica Van Horssen [Re-posted from NiCHE's Group Blog, The Otter] This past July 1st, I was fortunate to have been able to attend one of the anti-asbestos protests in London on Canada Day while in the United Kingdom for research. Why was I researching in the UK? Because the first reported death due [...]

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Writing Digital History

July 13, 2011

As of December 2010, I have been engaged in a digital history project for the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) in New York. The project is a web history being created to coincide with the centennial of the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) in 2013. The goal of the project is to create what essentially amounts to an online [...]

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Education for Sale: The Culture Industry and the Crisis in University Education

July 12, 2011

Britain’s investment in post-secondary education was, not unlike Canada’s, a post-war phenomenon that saw university education entrenched firmly within the public sector as part of the new welfare state. Since then, we’ve seen Britain move from largely free university education after World War II to the imposition of moderate tuition fees in 1998 and then to the current tripling of that figure to 9,000£.

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Like history? There’s an app for that

July 11, 2011

I recently purchased an Apple iPhone, so that means I now enjoy texting, web browsing on the go and, of course, a higher monthly cell phone bill. But I’m also able to use a number of great apps that relate to history. An app (short for “application”) is essentially a computer program for a smartphone. Apps are [...]

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