Ma’s grinning. “We can do anything now.” “Why?” “Because we’re free.” – Emma Donoghue, Room (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2010). Free of “Room” – a locked garden shed with a single skylight, the primary setting of Emma Donoghue’s award-winning fiction novel, Room. In Room, Donoghue brings readers into Jack’s world, an eleven by eleven ‘cell,’ that he shares with Ma and a… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Harris-History-Matters-lecture.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadHistorical Geographer Richard Harris recently presented a talk entitled “The Making of Dufferin-St. Clair: 1900-1929” at a local library located in this Toronto neighbourhood. Following his talk, a room full of community members shared their personal memories of the area’s social and physical development. Harris’s talk comes from research for his book, Unplanned Suburbs:… Read more »
Discovering Constance Margaret Austin and the Value of Experiential Learning with Spadina Museum
Trees are a common symbol for genealogy. Like lines of ancestry, trees contain many branches that are united through a common trunk but grow in their own direction. And like family history, we often only see the complexity of their roots when we start digging. In a previous post, I outlined strategies on conducting the research of one’s home, and offered… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Rumiel-History-Matters-talk.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadHistorian Lisa Rumiel recently presented a talk entitled “Three Mile Island to Bhopal: the Life and Work of Environmental Activist Rosalie Bertell” in front of an engaged audience at Toronto’s Parkdale library. Bertell, who has a PhD in biometrics, has long spoken out about the environmental consequences of nuclear power. Rumiel’s talk is available… Read more »
By Raphael Costa PhD Candidate, History, York University Coordinator, Portuguese Canadian History Project Like many initiatives, the Portuguese Canadian History Project (PCHP) started with a conversation over coffee. Brews in hand, historians of the Portuguese-Canadian experience, Susana Miranda and Gilberto Fernandes, hashed out the basis of the PCHP. It was 2008, with Susana knee-deep in her research on Portuguese-Canadian workers… Read more »
Upcoming events: Approaching the Past workshop 5 Oct. 2011; Parler Fort 24 Oct. 2011; Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Conference 15 Oct. 2011.
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Frager-History-Matters-lecture.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadLast week, historian Ruth Frager presented a talk entitled “Spadina Sweatshops: Jews and Gender in Toronto’s Labour Movement 1900 to 1939.” The lecture examined the dynamics of the Jewish labour movement in Toronto and focused on a strike at the clothing factory of the T. Eaton Company in 1912. Frager’s talk is available here… Read more »
Two years ago Brant County proposed to sell eight community buildings to save costs. These buildings served as schools, daycares, museums, and community centres for the rural residents of Brant County. This article examines the fight to save one building, Langford School.
In this post Dagomar Degroot explores problems in the understanding of the relationship between society and climate in models of the future and descriptions of the past, before considering how historical climatologists can help forge more accurate visions of humanity on a warmer planet.
