Category Archives: ActiveHistory.ca

The Personality is Political

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Editor’s note: Over the course of the next week, Paul Litt, Timothy Stanley, Matthew Hayday and Colin Grittner will provide insights on the history of elections and electoral politics in Canada from the 19th century to the present, with a special focus on the 1949 and 1979 – 1980 elections. Although references to history have dotted the current election campaign, they… Read more »

Tenth Anniversary Repost: The Role of Historical Monographs

Active History is celebrating its tenth anniversary! As part of our anniversary celebrations we are sharing glimpses of how Active History developed and showcasing our favourite and most popular posts from the past ten years.  In 2009 Active History launched with a focus on soliciting paper length contributions. Within the first year we shifted our focus to blogging. Many of… Read more »

Why Blackface Persists and What Historians Can Do to Change It

Cheryl Thompson  Years ago, my former Banting-postdoctoral supervisor Stephen Johnson, Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto was to appear on a radio talk show to explore the question, “Why has there been a resurgence in the use of blackface in contemporary society?” The interview never took place because seemingly more… Read more »

Negotiating the Personal: Working with the Diaries of Ida Martin

Bonnie Huskins & Michael Boudreau Ida Martin, a working-class housewife from Saint John, New Brunswick, kept daily entries in a series of five-year diaries from 1945 to 1992. These diaries are the basis of a manuscript for McGill-Queen’s University Press that we are currently revising. They are the focus of the reflections here, which also consider the importance of “life… Read more »

A new mission statement for HistoireEngagée.ca

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For nearly a decade, Active History and our French-language partner, Histoire Engagée, have shared similar goals and concerns, while working independently in two quite different social and historiographical contexts. Today the editorial team of Histoire Engagée have published a new mission statement that anyone interested in their work or more broadly in what it means to be active historians today… Read more »

No Home without History

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By Arpita Bajpeyi and Sinead Cox Home is where much of the drama of identity is enacted. Home is where we learn our histories, and it is from these that our concept and connection to a ‘home’ is shaped. This was one of the themes that emerged during New Histories / Old Roots at the Livery Theatre in Goderich, Ontario… Read more »

Recognizing Active Historians

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In early December, we put out a call for nominations to recognize historians or projects that model the practice of Active History. We received several nominations, all of which were deeply engaged in a responsive historical practice that aimed to make a tangible difference in people’s lives. Though selection was difficult, two submissions stood out to the adjudication committee. In… Read more »

Doing Active History: Introducing the 2019 Small Grants Recipients

In addition to our work online, ActiveHistory.ca is committed to supporting and developing engaged historical practice in the material world. As such, drawing on funds donated to our project, in December we launched a new funding program to support the development of Active History projects with small grants. Several wonderful projects were put forward for our consideration, making selection difficult. Today,… Read more »

Activehistory.ca Repost – Cold Cases: Hypothermia before, and after, Stonechild

ActiveHistory.ca is on a hiatus for the winter break, and will return to daily posts in early January.  During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite holiday and winter themed posts. Thank you to all our contributors, guest editors, and readers for making 2018 a very successful year. Happy holidays to all and we look forward to continuing our work… Read more »

Activehistory.ca Repost – Cold Comfort: Firewood, Ice Storms, and Hypothermia in Canada

ActiveHistory.ca is on a hiatus for the winter break, and will return to daily posts in early January.  During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite holiday and winter themed posts. Thank you to all our contributors, guest editors, and readers for making 2018 a very successful year. Happy holidays to all and we look forward to continuing our work… Read more »