By Sean Graham
This week I talk with Paul Kahan, author of Philadelphia: A Narrative History. We talk about the city’s origins, its connection to the American Revolution, and how the city’s history is distinct from the national story. We also chat about community, Philadelphia’s political history, and the local culture.
Historical Headline of the Week
Nancy Steinbach, “Philadelphia: A City Famous for its History,” Voice of America, March 9, 2025.
Continue readingBy Mark Humphries
In the last few months, there has been a growing debate about how historians should respond to AI. And that’s a good thing. I’ve argued that we need to engage with the technology or risk becoming irrelevant. Recent pieces in Active History by Mack Penner and Edward Dunsworth make the case for why we should approach AI with caution and stand-up to resist its use in historical practice and teaching.
One thing on which we can all agree is that teaching critical thinking is essential—probably more so now than ever before—and that higher education generally, and history as a discipline specifically, play essential roles in that regard. I agree with Dunsworth too that it would be wrong to either throw our hands up in surrender to the machines or embrace AI as a panacea. Both will surely lead to the destruction of history and the university as we know them. I would argue, though, that the question of how to respond to AI—especially in the classroom—remains very much unresolved.
Dunsworth argues for resistance, reaffirming the intrinsic value of deliberative human thought and mindful writing by embracing the traditional, tactile, and analog. While I agree that critical thinking and engagement are essential, I don’t believe rejecting AI is a viable way to uphold those values without ultimately distorting them into something unrecognizable. Looking at issues from a variety of perspectives, so long as they are grounded in evidence is, after all, the essence of critical thinking. If we deny that generative AI can be useful at least in some circumstances—or worse, pretend it doesn’t exist and that our students don’t have to contend with it—we simply aren’t being true to the evidence.
Continue readingEdward Dunsworth
Two approaches dominate discussion about how professors should handle generative “artificial intelligence” in the classroom: give up or give in.
Give up. Faced with a powerful new technology custom-cut for cheating, many professors are throwing up their hands in despair. This was the dominant mood of last month’s widely shared New York Magazine article. “Everyone is cheating their way through college: ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project,” its doomsday headline proclaimed. The article paints a depressing picture: students using AI to cheat, constantly and without compunction; professors out of ideas for how to deal with it. “Every time I talk to a colleague about this, the same thing comes up: retirement,” one professor told author James D. Walsh. “When can I retire? When can I get out of this? That’s what we’re all thinking now.”
Give in. A second response has been to surrender to the techno-hype of ChatGPT, to embrace generative AI as a teaching tool. “It’s an opportunity to open the door of creativity in the classroom,” gushed historian Jo Guldi in a 2024 interview, “and simultaneously raise the bar for the quality of the work we expect from our students.” Professors are encouraging students to use AI software not just for rote tasks like transcription and data compilation, but for more cerebral activities like brainstorming, analysis, and even writing. Mark Humphries, who has led the pro-AI charge among Canadian historians, boldly declared in a February article that, with increasing AI use among students, “poorly crafted theses, unsupported arguments, and narrative papers without an argument should become a thing of the past.”
I reject both approaches.[1] Not because I don’t appreciate the revolutionary challenge that generative AI poses to humanities and social sciences education, and to our society at large, but precisely because of it.[2] At this worrying juncture, as multitudes – on campus and off – cede ever more of their thinking and writing to computer programs, historians and other humanistic intellectuals should not be shying away from the challenge, but rising to it. We know (or should know) the value of deep thinking, of labouring through complex research and writing projects. We have (or should have) an inkling of what students are losing when they skip over these tasks. Rather than giving up or giving in, we should be standing up and speaking up. For our students, for our craft, and for quaint human practices like thinking and writing.
Continue readingby Jess Wilton
Threads of gender dysphoria unite the yellowing pages of adolescent diaries with the smudged print of typewritten letters in the Erica Rutherford fonds at the Prince Edward Island Public Archives. A trans artist who settled on Prince Edward Island (PEI), Rutherford passed away in 2008. She left behind numerous artworks that have been on display at the Venice Biennale as well as an autobiography and many records located at Archives PEI. Her archival record in this post will be primarily explored through her adolescent diary and a few letters. This illuminates experiences of gender dysphoria before and after her transition. It also sheds light on an important figure in PEI trans history.
Born on February 1st 1923, Rutherford was assigned male at birth in Scotland. In 1975, she legally changed her name to Erica and, in the following year, received gender affirming surgery. For much of her life, Rutherford was a transient artist living in England, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain, the United States, and Canada. In 1985, she permanently settled in eastern PEI having already lived many lives as she details in her autobiography Nine Lives: The Autobiography of Erica Rutherford. At different times she was a painter, actor, screenwriter, children’s book illustrator,clothing store owner, and officer in the British Occupation Army of the Rhine. In 2009, her records were added to the Public Archives and Records Office of Prince Edward Island after her death. They represent the archive’s only available records with explicit themes of gender identity and dysphoria.
Continue readingJody Mason
In her incisive discussion of Elon Musk’s recent gutting of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Jill Campbell-Miller correctly assesses the move as motivated by MAGA-movement isolationism. She further notes that Musk’s actions are complicated by the fact that, for many decades, the aid paradigm has also been subject to substantive critique from those who, unlike Musk, care about global poverty. Ultimately, Campbell-Miller concludes: “since the Second World War, it has never been the case that a US administration has so fully refused to state a commitment to the global order it helped create, or refused to participate in a dialogue about compassion and care for the world’s poorest.”
Weighing her own response to the attack on USAID, Campbell-Miller finds herself “in the strange position of missing” the “hypocrisy” of American foreign policy. I sympathize with this. But, for historians of development, is lament the most useful response? An activist mobilization is necessary on many fronts in the current moment. As part of this work, we historians of development would do well to return to the critical Indigenous thought on the development paradigm to inform our efforts.
Continue readingBy Sean Graham
Sean Graham talks with Caitlin Keliiaa, author of Refusing Settler Domesticity: Native Women’s Labour and Resistance in the Bay Area Outing Program. They discuss the residential schooling system in the United States, the goal of outing programs, and Indigenous young women and girls’ domestic labour as part of the program. They also chat about the community built by the women, how they resisted in their workplaces, and program’s legacy.
Historical Headline of the Week
Cecily Hilleary, “Indian Boarding Schools ‘Outings’: Apprenticeships or Indentured Servitude?” Voice of America, November 14, 2021.
Continue readingAndrew R.S. Marchese
Active History is hiring a part-time site manager. Come work with us!
Site Manager, Active History
Qualifications:
Duties:
Reports to: the editorial collective of Active History (represented by two editors)
Hours and pay: 10 hours per week. Pay commensurate with education and experience. $26-30 per hour, plus benefits.
Duration: 1 year contract with possibility of renewal for up to 3 years total.
Start date: mid-August 2025.
Location: Remote work. Possibility of temporary office space if successful candidate lives in Montreal or Ottawa.
To apply, please send a CV and cover letter to activehistoryinfo@gmail.com. Include the phrase “Site Manager Application” in the email subject heading. References will be requested at the interview stage.
By Sean Graham
This week I talk with John M. Efron, author of All Consuming: Germans, Jews, and the Meaning of Meat. We discuss the relationship between Jewish culture and meat consumption, the unique relationship between Germans culture and Jewish meat, and how that has been depicted over the years. We also chat about the cultural significance of meat and meat production, displays of anti-Semitism related to meat and meat production, and the current discussions surrounding Kosher and Halal meat in Germany.
Historical Headline of the Week
James McAuley, “Why Halal meat generates so much controversy in Europe,” Washington Post, October 8, 2018.
By Sean Graham
This week I talk with Peter Fortna, author of The Fort McKay Métis Nation: A Community History. We talk about the origins of the Nation, which is located in northeastern Alberta, the community connections between the Métis and First Nation, and how colonial government structures have influenced community relationships. We also discuss the role of resources and resource extraction in the economic history of the nation, the significance of the trapline system, and Peter’s motivation to make the book open access.
Historical Headline of the Week
Chris Nelson, “Fort McKay Métis Nation builds booming business in oilsands sector,” Calgary Herald, March 25, 2021.
Continue reading