Historians and Global Warming

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Rising tide on Dutch coast, 2010.

By Dagomar Degroot

It’s always been my belief that historians either consciously or unconsciously situate their histories in the context of the present. History is inevitably “active,” no matter our occasional insistence on pursuing history for history’s sake. This is no surprise to environmental historians who, more than colleagues operating in any other historical genre, explicitly address contemporary issues in their often declensionist narratives. As part of a small but growing number of environmental historians exploring the relationship between climatic changes and human affairs, I am drawn into modern debates about global warming whether I like it or not. That’s why I decided to use my first few blog posts to reflect on how my research as a historical climatologist has allowed me to address some big ideas in the discourse about global warming today. Continue reading →

2012 Olympic Park: Remediating the Environmental and Social Conditions

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The clock is counting down to the start of the 2012 Olympics in London. The main Olympic Park [map] is located in East London in heart of the Lower Lea Valley, which happens to be the same place I studied in my recently completed PhD. My research demonstrated the close correlation between the degraded environmental conditions and the disadvantaged social conditions in the sections of West Ham built on the wetlands. I ended my dissertation wondering whether the current  multi-billion dollar project to clean up the environment for the Olympics might result in a comparable effort to clean out the socially undesirable people from this landscape.

An article in the Guardian, “Houseboaters being ‘socially cleansed’ from Olympics area,” suggests this process might be underway. House boaters are concerned that British Waterways are going to increase the mooring costs along canals in the Lower Lea:

British Waterways, which manages 2,200 miles of canals and rivers, has put forward changes to the mooring rules on the river Lea, in east London, that could increase the cost of living on the waterway from about £600 to £7,000 a year. Residents see the move as a deliberate attempt to drive them away. A draft note from British Waterways on 6 December 2010, seen by the Guardian, says: “The urgency … relates to the objective of reducing unauthorized mooring on the Lea navigation and adjacent waterways in time for the Olympics.” Continue reading →

Upcoming Event

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The next HerstoriesCafe Toronto takes place on Friday, April 8, 2011 at the Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queens Park, Glass Room, 4th floor, at 5:30 pm.  This free talk “Women and Museums,” features Janet Carding (CEO and director of the ROM); Lynn Teather (Museum Studies, University of Toronto) and Cara Krmpotich (Museum Studies, University of Toronto).

HerstoriesCafe Toronto is an exciting way to connect with the Toronto community and start conversations about local women’s history. Our events provide an opportunity to meet with a diverse group of people–history enthusiasts, historians, archivists, museum practitioners, history teachers and students. Think of it as a salon: a place to share ideas, pool historical resources, and stimulate debate in an intimate and relaxed setting. These events are free.

There is limited space for this event.  If you’d like to attend please RSVP to herstoriescafe@gmail.com.

This event is made possible by support from the THEN/HIER History Education Network and the Royal Ontario Museum.

Left History Theme Issue on ‘Active History,’ Launching a New Paper

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ActiveHistory.ca and Left History are delighted to announce the launch of Left History‘s theme issue on Active Histories. We are also delighted to launch our sixth short paper on our website, “Disappointment, Nihilism, and Engagement: Some Thoughts on Active History” by York University SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow Stuart Henderson.

The table of contents for the full issue are below the cut. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the Active History theme issue, we are distributing FREE copies to our readership (quantities are limited, so we will be generally operating on a first-come-first-serve basis). Please e-mail info@activehistory.ca with your name, mailing address, and a brief two sentence rationale for why you’d like to receive the issue. We would then be happy to send it to you free of charge. For information on Left History or to express interest in subscribing, please e-mail lefthist@yorku.ca. Continue reading →

Podcast: Ian McKay on the Right-Wing Reconceptualization of Canada

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

John Buchan, 1st Baron Lord Tweedsmuir

Ian McKay, professor of history at Queen’s University, recently delivered an engaging and provocative talk titled “The Empire Strikes Back: Militarism, Imperial Nostalgia, and the Right-Wing Reconceptualization of Canada”.  McKay’s talk was the keynote address of the 15th annual New Frontiers Graduate History Conference at York University.

The talk is available here for audio download.

McKay is the author numerous books, including The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia (1994) and Rebels, Reds, Radicals: Rethinking Canada’s Left History (2005).  He won the Canadian Historical Association’s MacDonald prize for his book Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and the People’s Enlightenment in Canada (2008). More recently, McKay co-authored In The Province of History: The Making of the Public Past in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia (2010), which was reviewed here on ActiveHistory.ca.

Why “I Used to Love H.E.R,” Why I Still Love H.E.R: Hip Hop THEN, Hip Hop NOW

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An impromptu performance held at the Hub (the area around 3rd Avenue and 156th Street) by The Mean Machine. One of the benefits of institutional neglect was that public concerts like this, common to the early days of Hip Hop, allowed artists to express themselves freely without the need for formal compliance.

By Francesca D’Amico

Chicago’s Cominskey Park on July 12th, 1979 was a scene like no other. Disco Demolition Night was a promotional event meant to protest the shift in radio programming from rock to an all-disco format. In exchange for admission, fans were asked to bring an unwanted disco LP. Following the first of a double-header game, a large crate of the collected records was detonated in center field. Against chants of “disco sucks,” 59,000 fans swarmed and vandalized the field. As the scoreboard flashed, “please return to your seats,” police in riot gear cleared the field and eventually cancelled the second game. This was the night Disco died and made way for Hip Hop. Continue reading →

Upcoming Events

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Ontario Women’s History Network

The Ontario Women’s History Network Annual Meeting and Conference and Conference will be held April 1-2 in Kingston, Ontario. It is on “Canadian Women & the Second World War” and has an interesting array of speakers. Please download the conference flyer here.  Contact rosefinemeyer@gmail.com for more information.

Calling all History Teachers & Curriculum Leaders, Museum and Historical Site Educators:

Benchmarks of Historical Thinking will provide the methodological core of the institute’s work on curriculum, lesson, and exhibit design and development. The “Benchmarks” approach opens up the interpretive nature of history by making explicit and central such fundamental concepts as “primary source evidence,” “historical significance,” and “continuity and change.”

This summer institute is ideal for educators, whether you’re a History teacher or an educator at a museum, as well as many other applications as well.

July 4-9, 2011 at UBC Campus, Vancouver, BC.

EH-SO: A Symposium of Environmental Historians in Southern Ontario

The Toronto Environmental History Network is hosting the first annual EH-SO, an informal two day workshop Friday March 25 and Saturday March 26 in Toronto.   For more information or to attend contact Jim Clifford at jcliffo9@uwo.ca.

Call for Website reviewers

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As a growing number of historical resources become available online, the internet is increasingly becoming a site of serious historical research, enquiry and education. Yet it is important to approach information on the internet with caution, assessing its value with a critical eye.

ActiveHistory.ca is expanding its review section to include scholarly analyses of websites. It is imperiative in this “digital age” to develop the tools necessary to critically engage with this expanding resource base. Continue reading →

Open Source Tools For Heritage Organizations

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Heritage organizations are continuously working to establish a digital presence and integrate digital tools into their collection management practices.  However, budgetary limitations are increasingly frequent in the heritage field and heritage organizations are forced to balance the benefits of using technology and the cost associated with digital tools.  High software costs can make it impossible for institutions to afford proprietary software and often result in limited technology choices.

The most commonly used and most expensive software in heritage organizations  related to photo manipulation, exhibit design, and collection management.  There are many open source alternatives for photo software and exhibit design.  However, complex collection management software which doesn’t require a programming background is currently somewhat rare in the open source world.  Despite this, open source software can be a huge benefit for an organization with a limited technology budget. Continue reading →

Performing History, Class and Gender in Billy Elliot: The Musical

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By Jay Young

Elton John was in Toronto last week for the official opening of Billy Elliot: The Musical, a production I was lucky to recently see.  The musical, which premiered in London in 2005 and won 10 Tony awards in 2009, is a stage adaptation of the popular 2000 coming-of-age film about Billy Elliot, a fictional, 11-year-old, working-class lad who dreams of becoming a professional dancer.  As I watched the musical, I was struck by the ways in which the musical’s overarching historical context – the British mining strike of 1984-1985 – served as the backdrop to examine issues of class and gender through the story of a struggling community and one very talented boy.  Yet I also pondered: what happened to those who lacked the opportunity to leave town like Billy? Continue reading →