Saying Yes to the (Royal) Dress

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Forrest Pass

King Charles and Queen Camilla arrive in Canada next week for a visit that has been timed to buttress Canadian sovereignty amid tensions with the United States. Royal watchers will pay close attention to the royal couple’s wardrobe choices for subtle signs of the Sovereign and Consort’s support for Canada. Recently, the King chose to wear his Canadian medals for a Royal Navy visit, and the Princess of Wales’ choice of a red dress for Commonwealth Day festivities may also have been a gesture of solidarity.

The intersection of sovereignty and sartorial selection presents an interesting parallel between this visit and the Canadian tour of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later Elizabeth the Queen Mother) in 1939 – the first by a reigning monarch and his consort. Then as now, organizers hoped that the visit would emphasize Canadian autonomy within the Commonwealth and shore up national unity in uncertain times. And in 1939 as in 2025, some Canadians and Canadian heritage institutions became very excited about an article of royal clothing.

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Diseased Neoliberalism

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Mack Penner

For more than a decade, there has been a flourishing cottage industry in predicting and proclaiming the demise of the “international regime” called neoliberalism.[1] An opposite if not equal enterprise in disclaiming such proclamations has tagged along.[2] Lately, though, this discursive equilibrium has all but crumbled as blunt-force events, emanating most of all from the United States, seem to force the conclusion that, at last, something has truly cracked. The neoliberal era that began in the 1970s has now, it seems, come to an end, buried, perhaps surprisingly, by the forces of the far-right.

 Amidst the daily maelstrom of those blunt-force events, drawing up a compendium is a Sisyphean task. Sticking to the general, and leaning on an existing assessment, it is helpful to refer to the political economist Branko Milanovic who early in the year declared that the second Trump administration “marks a symbolic end to global neoliberalism. Both of its components are gone. Globalism had now been converted into nationalism, neoliberalism has been made to apply to the economic sphere only. Its social parts—racial and gender equality, free movement of labor, multiculturalism—are dead. Only low tax rates, deregulation and worship of profit remain.”[3] Fair summary.

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Race & Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake – What’s Old is News

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By Sean Graham

This week I talk with Judith Weisenfeld, author of Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race & Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake. We discuss about the origins of the book, how the antebellum period shaped perceptions of African American religion, and the role of ‘religious excitement’ in insanity diagnoses. We also chat about the connections between race and religion, the pathologizing of religion by professional psychiatrists, and the legacy of this era.

Historical Headline of the Week

Mark Moran, “Faith Communities Are Potent Resources for Creating Connection and ‘Mattering’,” Psychiatric News, December 9, 2020.

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A Beacon of Light: Hidden 2sLGBTQ+ Histories in Saint John’s The Lighthouse

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by Meredith J. Batt

Atlantic Canadian port cities have some of the most colourful and vibrant queer spaces and stories. Saint John, New Brunswick is no exception. In 2020, the first summer of the pandemic, I celebrated my 25th birthday in Saint John by attending a drag show hosted by Justin TooDeep (portrayed by Alex Saunders) and Saint John’s jewel of the sea, Dia Monde (portrayed by Shawn Craft). It was a distanced drag show, but after months of only participating in queer life through Zoom calls, I felt weepy being in a space of so much excitement, queer community, and joy. Five years later, I am now lucky to call Saint John my second home as I split my time between Fredericton and the great port city where my partner lives. 

Saint John has a vibrant contemporary queer scene. Saint John Pride has hosted many of the city’s 2sLGBTQ+ summer pride events for over twenty years. Chroma NB, which formed in 2020, offers everything from youth lunch clubs to hiking trips for queer and trans people of all ages. But the city has long remained overlooked by historians interested in queer life and culture. Particularly unknown, and at risk of being forgotten by younger generations, is the work of the activists who formed the Lesbian and Gay Organization – Saint John (LAGO-SJ). Active from 1983 to 1985, their monthly publication The Lighthouse offers valuable insight to early LGB activism. 

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Lessons from the Past: How Mark Carney and the Liberals Can Tackle Housing Challenges in First Nations with a Renewed Focus on Building Homes and Reconciliation

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Jason Nichols

A black-and-white copy of a house blueprint. It is a modest one-and-a-half story home with a little porch. The cladding is labeled "1X8 rustic". The roof is labeled "shingles". A feature on the roof is labeled "ventilator." The whole image is labeled "perspective view."
Blueprint for “proposed Indian Dwelling” by The British Columbia Mills Timber and Trading Company. n.d. file 163163, vol. 3983, reel C-10201, RG10, Library and Archives Canada.

The 2025 Canadian federal election is over, and the Liberal Party of Canada has received a new mandate from Canadians. A significant aspect of the Liberals’ election platform involved a commitment to “get back into building homes,” with a pledge to construct over 500,000 new homes annually over the next ten years. There is a critical shortage of affordable housing throughout Canada, and this is particularly evident in many First Nations communities. Housing on reserves has faced chronic underfunding since the establishment of the first reserve communities in Canada, and this neglect persists, negatively impacting health and well-being in First Nations communities.

A 2023 report titled Closing the Infrastructure Gap by 2030, published by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), indicates that to satisfy the housing demands of First Nations communities, an additional 108,803 housing units must be constructed by 2030. The Indigenous and Northern Housing plan within Canada’s current National Housing Strategy is a good start, but it does not go nearly far enough to meet the long-standing housing needs of First Nations communities. With the new Liberal platform prioritizing the rapid development of affordable and sustainable homes, Prime Minister Mark Carney has a chance to begin remedying some of the historical and ongoing injustices that First Nations peoples encounter regarding housing on reserves. This can be accomplished by integrating the AFN’s proposal into the National Housing Strategy, providing a streamlined process for First Nations to benefit, and working directly with First Nations to meet the specific needs of each community, steering clear of the paternalistic dynamics that have largely fueled the housing crisis experienced by First Nations communities throughout Canada.

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Free Trade & Cultural Diplomacy – What’s Old is News

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

By Sean Graham

I’m is joined by Sarah E.K. Smith, author of Trading on Art: Cultural Diplomacy and Free Trade in North America. We talk about Sarah’s interest in cultural diplomacy, what constitutes art in the context of free trade, and how cultural policies shaped artistic and curatorial expression at the end of the 20th century. We then discuss art as a form of resistance, the benefits and challenges of touring exhibitions across countries, and how contemporary questions on trade have influenced the book.

Historical Headline of the Week

“Mexico says Canada wishes it had its ‘cultural riches’ amid tariffs feud,” The Guardian, December 4, 2024.

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Blogging from the ground up: Active history and working against ‘post-truth’ discourses

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Fionnuala Braun

This post is part of a series, Essays on the Future of Knowledge Mobilization and Public History Online.

In August 2024, I had the privilege of being able to attend a two-day workshop on the place of blogs like Active History in the current media landscape. Against the humid backdrop of UWO’s Huron College, we spent hours discussing just how disheartening it feels to be blogging history these days. People access most of their information through minute-long videos, and trust in more conventional outlets is at an all-time low. It would be easy, listening to our conversations, to think that maybe history blogging is a thing of the past.

In the months that followed this workshop, I spent a long time reflecting on that thought. It made me disheartened. How are we meant to spread history to a disengaged and uninterested public? Do we need to reduce complex analyses to soundbites simply to remain relevant? Amidst all this confusion, what’s the place of writers like myself, who value nuance and integrity? I wondered if I should simply stop writing. After all, who would read it? Would they care for the hours I had spent researching, crafting, honing a complex argument into something readable?

Interestingly enough, the answers to this personal crisis came to me during the period of incredible instability in which we currently find ourselves. Because while it’s true that more misinformation is flooding our algorithms with every passing day, it’s much more difficult for that misinformation to wind its way into complex, well-researched work. Amidst all the falsity that pollutes our social channels, perhaps blogging, for historians, can become a form of resistance against that tide.

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Online History Projects: Challenges and Impact

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Sara Wilmshurst

Four website logos. The one of the top left is a square with lime green, dark green, pink, and orange triangles in the corners. It has the words "Histoire Engagée" in the middle. The logo on the top right is a lower-case a made of five dark green lines on a white background. The logo on the bottom right is a blue maple leaf on a grey background. The logo on the bottom left is a circle with three grey sails inside it.

This post continues my conversation with Corey Slumkoski (Acadiensis Blog), Tom Peace (Active History), Samia Dumais (Histoire Engagée), and Jessica DeWitt (NiCHE’s The Otter – La Loutre). For more, see our series page of Essays on the Future of Knowledge Mobilization and Public History Online.

SW: Which challenges does your project face today?

TP (AH): Relevance. Active History has not done enough to engage the public. We remain a bit of a niche forum. It would be great to see the site become something that non-historians make reference to in their day-to-day conversations.

SD (HE): L’enjeu des privilèges des membres est au cœur de nos préoccupations en raison des positions variées occupées par les membres d’Histoire Engagée (professeur.e.s, étudiant.e.s, fonctionnaires, etc.).

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The Open History of Crisis

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James Cairns

“It is exceptionally difficult to grasp the present as history.”[1] Thus begins David McNally’s book on the 2008-09 financial crisis. In everyday usage, the present means now, this instant. History is what happened in the past, and the future is time yet to come. The real relationship of past, present, and future, however, is far more fluid and interdependent. In fact, the present is the result of a process of active making over time, and the future is the product of our actions in this context. What that means, in McNally’s words, is that “the present is invariably saturated with elements of the future, with possibilities that have not yet come to fruition, and may not do so – as the road to the future is always contested.” Grasping the present as history means understanding the present as a becoming.

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Online History Projects: Change and Sustainability

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Sara Wilmshurst

After the Future of Knowledge Mobilization and Public History Online workshop in August 2024, I wanted to hear more about each project’s history, structure, and plans for the future. Workshop participants Corey Slumkoski (Acadiensis Blog), Tom Peace (Active History), Samia Dumais (Histoire Engagée), and Jessica DeWitt (NiCHE’s The Otter – La Loutre) kindly answered my questions. For more, see our series page of Essays on the Future of Knowledge Mobilization and Public History Online.

SW: How has your project changed since its inception/since you joined? 

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