Prince Rupert – What’s Old is News

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Sean Graham talks with Blair Mirau, author of The City of Rainbows: A Colourful History of Prince Rupert. They talk about the benefits of the city’s geography, the impact of colonialism on local Indigenous communities, and the different eras in the city’s history. They also discuss Prince Rupert during the world wars and Great Depression, its challenges through the second half of the 20th century, and how the city’s history speaks to local histories across the country.

Historical Headline of the Week

Prince Rupert port to get busier with $1.35B gas export plant,” The Canadian Press, May 30, 2024.

Sean Graham is a cultural historian, an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University, and a contributing editor with Activehistory.ca

Are historians valuable in 2024? Perspectives of an interdisciplinary researcher

By Fionnuala Braun

Every month, my team at SPHERU (Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit) meets to discuss the progress of our work and share professional development ideas. At the first meeting of the year, we all had to tell a bit about ourselves: our name, degree, and what project we were assigned to. Working around the room, it became clear I was in the company of medical doctors, public health researchers, and quantitative data specialists. When my turn came, I had never felt so out of place.

“I’m a recent history graduate, working mainly on homosexual societies and identity in 1950s France. I also work on a project looking at magic practitioners in 13th-century Europe. And, I’m helping to write about the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on Saskatchewan.”

I also admitted that this was a departure from the rest of the introductions in the room. Honestly, I had a limited understanding of the difference between qualitative and quantitative research– and I certainly hadn’t fully understood most of the projects my colleagues had described. As much as they had seemed bemused by my work, so too was I by theirs. I remember wondering if these differences would be reconcilable.

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Letters of the First World War – What’s Old is News

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By Sean Graham

This week, I talk with Marth Hanna, author of Anxious Days and Tearful Nights: Canadian War Wives During the First World War. We discuss Martha’s entry into the world of First World War letters, the challenge of tracking down letters from over 100 years ago, and how women on the front lines managed their relationships with significant others fighting the war. We also chat about censorship of letters, the challenge of what to share and what to hide from your spouse during the war, and what happened to relationships following the war.

Historical Headline of the Week

Arthur White-Crummey, “Captured First World War pilot’s note reunited with family in Ottawa,” CBC.ca, August 17, 2024.

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Repost: A Signature Pedagogy for History Instruction?

Active History is on its annual August hiatus. In honour of syllabus-writing season, we are reposting a selection of teaching-related articles from the past year. Today’s repost features Paul McGuire’s piece from 11 April 2024. While you’re here, we also invite you complete our survey.


Paul McGuire

This is the sixth entry in a monthly series on Thinking Historically. See the Introduction here.

Photo by author.

At least twice a year, we take a trip to the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. One of the most beautiful parts of the valley is Grand Pré and Hortonville. From here, you can see Blomidon and the vast expanse of the Minas Basin. Hortonville is also one of the ports used during the British expulsion of Acadians in 1755. Just down the road, you can see a Parks Canada plaque commemorating a vicious massacre of New England troops by French and Mi’kmaq fighters in the dead of night during a winter blizzard; some New Englanders died before they could stir from their beds.

Plaque describing the Attack at Grand Pré. © Parks Canada Agency / Agence Parcs Canada.

When I read the plaque at Grand Pré for the first time, it caught my attention. Somewhere in the recording of the battle, there was the suggestion, just a suggestion, that this nighttime raid may have been one of the reasons the Acadians in the area were expelled from their homes eight years later.

This is what history does: It captivates the reader and hints at the consequences to come. This is the way we need to teach history in public schools: Give the students a spark to ignite their desire to dig deeper and explore further. But how do we do this? Is there a method, a pedagogy, that teachers can use to engage students in historical inquiry?

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Repost: Entering The Jagged Landscape of History: Can We Teach Our Students to Apply Historical Thinking Skills?

Active History is on its annual August hiatus. In honour of syllabus-writing season, we are reposting a selection of teaching-related articles from the past year. Today’s repost features Paul McGuire’s 2 November 2023 article. While you’re here, we also invite you complete our survey.


Paul McGuire

This is the second entry in a monthly series on Thinking Historically. See the Introduction here.

Researchers continue to write about the value and importance of teaching Historical Thinking Concepts (HTC). There is a near consensus on the importance of moving from a transmission approach to teaching history to one that focuses on inquiry.  This ongoing discussion has been shaped by the works of several researchers including Sam Wineburg who wrote, “the essence of achieving mature historical thought rests precisely on our ability to navigate the jagged landscape of history, to traverse the terrain that lies between the poles of familiarity with and distance from the past.” (Wineburg, 1999, p. 490)

Wineburg’s challenge to history teachers, written over twenty years ago, is to take students on a journey to a foreign land – his jagged landscape of history. While the research supports this aspirational goal, is it possible to do this in the classroom? There is no question that teaching historical thinking concepts offer a new way to engage students in the study of history, but no one really writes about how to do this.

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Repost: It Starts Here: Black Histories Research Guide at the Archives of Ontario

Active History is on its annual August hiatus. In honour of syllabus-writing season, we are reposting a selection of teaching-related articles from the past year. Today’s repost features Melissa J. Nelson and Natasha Henry-Dixon’s article of 22 February 2024. While you’re here, we also invite you complete our survey.


“Levi Veney, ex-slave who lived in Amherstburg, Ontario. Taken at J. D. Burkes’ general store,” ca. 1898. Alvin D. McCurdy fonds. Reference Code: F 2076-16-3-5. Archives of Ontario. I0024830.

This is the final instalment in a three-part series on the use of content warnings in classrooms, archives, and museums. You can read the first instalment here and the second instalment here.

Melissa J. Nelson & Natasha Henry-Dixon

 

Melissa J. Nelson : Making Description Remediation Visible

The Archives of Ontario is the largest provincial archive in Canada. However, many of our records were created and collected through extractive colonial processes. Our collections are incomplete — there are omissions, erasures, and silences. This has caused a lot of harm and contributed to mistrust in our institution. Over the last few years, the Archives has shifted its focus to breaking down barriers and building trust. Our goal is to collect, preserve, promote, and provide access to records that document Ontario in all its diversity.

We are working to amplify the voices and stories of communities who have been underrepresented in our practice. Historical records sometimes contain language that is colonial and racist. Past descriptive practices have not always used accurate or community-preferred language, resulting in descriptions that are not easily discoverable. Our Description Remediation Team has been repairing descriptions, and in the process, excavating the presence of marginalized groups in our archives. We include respectful, community-preferred language to minimize harm and improve the findability of these records. I am part of this team, and I provide leadership on the remediation of descriptions for anti-Black archival materials.

I was aware of the violence of the archives — the violence captured within the records and the violence against Black researchers who have to search for hidden archival materials by using derogatory language. Black presence in historical archives is often captured and described by white people. In many cases, the work to locate Black people in the archives necessitates searching for white people first.[1]

I realized there was a need to make this description remediation work visible to support researchers and help direct them to relevant records. I developed our “Records Relating to Black Communities in Ontario Research Guide.” This guide provides respectful keywords that can be used when searching in our collection. It also lists Black records that have been identified in our holdings. The guide is divided into three sections: private records created and collected by Black individuals, Ontario Government records that document community-government interactions, and records related to slavery and freedom. A list of institutions and community archives is also provided to support further research within Ontario.

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Repost: When Class Content Gives the Professor Nightmares, It Might be Time for a Warning

Active History is on its annual August hiatus. In honour of syllabus-writing season, we are reposting a selection of teaching-related articles from the past year. Next up is Erica L. Fraser’s piece from 21 February 2024. While you’re here, we also invite you complete our survey.


Photo by Fernando Arcos, public domain, https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-caution-cone-on-keyboard-211151/

This is the second in a three-part series on the use of content warnings in classrooms, archives, and museums. You can read the first entry here. 

Erica L. Fraser

Looking back, I probably began using content warnings for students after giving myself night terrors from reading the memoir of a Holocaust survivor as class prep. I was on an evening train back to Ottawa after winter break. I was tired, trying to anticipate how students in a new class on the topic would respond to Ruth Kluger’s Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered, and thumbing through it quickly to check it off my to-do list. It is a beautiful, horrifying memoir – but I had read material like this before. Next thing I knew, I was sitting bolt upright in bed the next three nights, terrified of something unnamed and with vague images from Kluger’s text fading from my mind.

(Before I go further, please note that this blog post contains references to Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust and the sexual assault of serf women in 18th century Russia).

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Deindustrialization Studies MA Fellowships at Concordia University

 

The Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DePOT) Project, a transnational SSHRC Partnership Project, is in a position to fund up to THREE (3) DePOT Master’s Fellowships for MA students starting at Concordia University in September 2025. The Fellowships are valued at $12,000 CAD a year for two years (total value of $24,000 CAD).

  • Two fellowships are open to students interested in researching any aspect of deindustrialization studies for incoming September 2025 students in the MA History or INDI programs at Concordia University, who will be working under the supervision of Professor Steven High in the Department of History. Proposals focused on the trade union movement, or the environment are particularly encouraged but we are open to other ideas. The geographic focus of the proposed projects is open. Fellowship holders are eligible for other funding sources (TA and RA contracts, internal and external scholarships).
  • One fellowship is open to students interested in researching on any aspect of deindustrialization studies focused on China for incoming September 2025 students in the History or INDI programs at Concordia University, who will be working under the supervision of Yuan Yi in the Department of History. Fellowship holders are eligible for other funding sources (TA and RA contracts, internal and external scholarships).

DePOT Fellowship holders are expected to be active members of the transnational project, including attending meetings, and maintain their thesis focus on deindustrialization. For more on the project, please visit our website at deindustrialization.org.

To apply: Please send a cover letter outlining your project idea, including cumulative GPA, and CV, to Steven High (steven.high@concordia.ca ). The deadline for applications for these fellowships is November 1st, 2024.

If you are nominated for this fellowship, Drs Steven High or Yuan Yi will work with you on your formal admission proposal to the Concordia program’s graduate committee. Your fellowship is dependent on your successful admission into the program.

 

Repost: Trauma-Informed Teaching: Creating Classrooms that support learning

Active History is on its annual August hiatus. In honour of syllabus-writing season, we have decided to repost a selection of teaching-related articles from the past year. First up is Jo McCutcheon’s piece on trauma-informed teaching, first published on 20 February 2024. While you’re here, we also invite you complete our survey.


In recent years, teachers and heritage professionals have wrestled with the question of when and how to provide alerts about materials that students or users might find difficult to navigate. This is the first in a three-part Active History series on the subject of content warnings that elaborates the crucial processes and approaches that inform this work.

Source: Students in a classroom at Carleton University, 1961. National Film Board. Phototheque. 1971-271, TCS 01186, Library and Archives Canada.

Jo McCutcheon

…to foster an optimal learning environment, we need to pay attention to emotions and how the learner is feeling, as learning cannot take place in the absence of emotion.

Myas Imad[1]

As a researcher and teacher who has read exceedingly difficult archival material and as someone who has openly sobbed in the middle of the reading room at Library and Archives Canada after finishing a work of fiction and in a few cases, after reading government reports and documents, I came to realize how important it is to carefully consider assignments, readings, and topics covered in class and explicitly warn students in the syllabus, on lecture slides, and before discussing some of these topics about the difficult material we encounter as historians and researchers.[2] I have learned over the past several years that content warnings, and a consideration of triggers are part of a pedagogical framework that can provide a learning and teaching environment that can support all students.[3]

The process of teaching and learning is dynamic and often challenges us to carefully consider our approaches on an ongoing basis. When I reflect on some past experiences of teaching difficult material, I feel that I did not always have the framework or understanding at the time to fully support the diversity of challenges inherent in my courses, beyond the course content. Looking to other professions, I noted the work that was taking place to provide a trauma-informed approach, and I wanted to review the whole of my classes to see how I could provide an overall approach in this vein. This post is a reflection of what I have learned and what I am working on.

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We Want to Hear from You

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Active History turned 15 this year and we are taking stock of our project and its future directions. We want to hear from you! What do you like about Active History? What could be improved?

Please take a few minutes to complete this anonymous survey.

Thank you!

An employee of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics operates an IBM Document Reader, 1960. Library and Archives Canada.