The Road Warrior's Tales
from the Archives

(by Brenan Smith, M.A. Candidate in History)

Richard Nixon Library

Despite my hopes that I had mastered the art of archival research while at the Eisenhower Library, I soon learned that one always has more to learn. 

On the second research trip, for example, I discovered that while the Richard Nixon Library does indeed have more documents related to Richard Nixon than the Eisenhower Library, it has much tighter controls.  There's probably a joke about a paranoid need for control in there somewhere.

Still, I was able to conduct lots of research; I scanned an average of 858 pages per day of research.  While in Abilene, I had found that on a short research trip (as they generally are, given research funding constraints) it is easiest to find things that might be of use and scan as many of them as possible.

But in L.A. there were several complex layers added to this process.  The Nixon Library's protocol is that the researcher present the files within the folders within the boxes that s/he would like to scan before actually scanning them.  If that sounds complicated, that's because it is.  According to a fellow Canadian who was also at the Library, it was "the most ridiculous policy" that he'd ever encountered.

Another key lesson that I learned (after "know thy protocol") is that being extra polite, combined with some level of feigned (not so feigned?) helplessness, can go a long way with archivists.  The archivists were friendly and helpful -- and with each passing day, my research became easier.

And so ended my first two research trips.  I had lots of fun and discovered all sorts of great information, although some of it might only amuse other historians in my field.  I have a newfound respect and admiration of the American Interstate system (N.B. Dwight Eisenhower created it!) and I became ever more enthusiastic about my topic even as the gads of information that I gathered have made me start to worry about fitting it all in to one tiny thesis.

Fountain outside Richard Nixon Library

Fuelling History:

Tips on Diet, Health and Driving

from the History Road Warrior

(by Brenan Smith, M.A. Candidate in History)

After driving from Saskatoon to Abilene, Kansas, and spending a solid week researching at the Eisenhower Library, I thought that I had at last mastered the arts of travelling amongst Americans and archival research.  One of the most important research strategies that I discovered was forgoing lunch in order to keep up my research momentum (and which allowed me to leave half an hour early each day--when my concentration was waning anyhow, of course).

Protein bars helped in the absence of lunch (N.B. no tiger's milk included)

 Nutrition is obviously important in daily life, but doubly so during a research trip as the long grind can quickly wear one out.  Luckily the fabled In n' Out Burger was not ridiculously far from the Library, and I quickly made a vow to have nothing but two "Flying Dutchman" and a diet Coke for supper every day until I left.  Such a vow was also cost effective:  $8 American.

Flying Dutchman Burger (N.B. no bun included)

Since Los Angeles is a rather warm location, it was important to stay hydrated.  I found that the $3 bottle of Voss, an imported Norwegian water, had the distinct advantage of looking like a rather large vial of cologne, but otherwise it tasted oddly similar to tap water.

Fancy, overpriced water (N.B. tap water cheaper and better)

On the topic of heat, people in L.A. can spot a Canadian rather easily: while 23 degrees (celsius) may be shorts and sandals weather for any Ice-loving Saskatchewanian™, it is apparently considered a "cold snap" in June, and thus jeans and shoes are recommended.

Californian Flora during cold snap (N.B. no cold included)

I like to try to stay healthy even when traveling (diet notwithstanding) and I find that a good work-out relieves the stress of a long day of sitting and scanning dusty papers.  Fitness centres abound in Los Angeles, few of them affordable, and some of them not actually fitness centres as I found out when I poked my head into Fitness Grill only to be asked if I'd like a table.

Fitness Grill (N.B. no fitness included)

Driving in L.A. was a challenge, but I found that unless Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and California are the exceptions, American drivers conduct themselves in a much more polite fashion than Saskatchewanians.  I will admit that while in L.A. a local strip club manager was randomly gunned down on a South L.A. freeway, but I doubt that it had anything to do with his driving...

Coming up tomorrow -- the final installment, "The Road Warrior's Tales from the Archives"!

Editor's Note: The History Department is not promoting any of the above-mentioned products.  In any case, the thought of a bunless burger horrifies this editor.

Another Summer Research Trip:

The Weyburn Way

(by Lucas Richert, Postdoctoral Fellow)

Correspondent Brenan Smith is by no means the only historian from our department who is on the road this summer.  Earlier this month, history of medicine enthusiasts Daniel McFarlane (3rd year undergrad), Ryan Buhay (3rd year undergrad), and I embarked on a 3-day research trip to Weyburn. Our goals: to look at the Weyburn Mental Hospital during the Great Depression and to examine the hospital’s innovative art, music, and movement therapy programs in the 1950s-1960s. To this end, we scanned microfilm, shot video, conducted an interview, and even visited the cemetery and hospital ruins. Yet the journey to Weyburn produced so much more than just intriguing historical insights!

According to Ryan, “Weyburn was quite the time.  There was blood, a disgruntled CN worker, an old-school accordion jam session of Neil Young's 'Helpless', a paper-airplane contest, the fastest water slide in history (three seconds), Boston Pizza (repeatedly), and a continental breakfast that had a 'make your own waffle' contraption. All in all, it was an epic, mind-blowing experience.”

Daniel had this to say about the fieldwork in Weyburn: “I didn’t know what to expect going into this trip, but it turned out to be a really fun and eye-opening experience. It’s amazing how helpful people are when you tell them you want to learn about their local history. The history of the Weyburn asylum is incredibly unique, and really comes alive when you talk to people who were actually there.”

We still need to do some more primary research, but are on track to finishing our respective historical projects later this summer. That said, it seems unlikely that writing-up our research will be nearly as much fun as our Weyburn fieldwork.

Digital Mapmaking

Alumna Alice Glaze (B.A. Hons. in English and History 2007, M.A. in History 2009) sent in a link from today's New York Times on the use of Geographic Information Systems to map historical information spatially.  This technique allows historians to spot information that otherwise would not be visible.  But, as Alice cast her keen eyes over the article, she spotted a reference to one U of S historian in particular...  The article refers to Geoff Cunfer's use of GIS to examine the Dust Bowl during the 1930s.

The History Road Warrior's Abilene Adventures

(by Brenan Smith, M.A. candidate)

I went to Abilene for research, but also managed to find a fantastic museum and fascinating assortment of roadside attractions.  The giant saluting "Chieftain" welcomes travellers to a motel just down the street from the town highschool.  I was impressed not only by the fact that it had zero graffiti on it, but that the people standing beside us wondered, "What does he mean by 'Aboriginal?",  when I commented on the statue to my wife.  A real cultural difference!

Louis Lamour Lane, other than being a poorly maintained street dedicated to a Western author, leads to the giant buffalo statue -- which I did not see, as it was closed to visitors without money.  (That includes travelling grad students.)

The next two pictures are the grounds at the Eisenhower museum, every part of which essentially tells the story of the Eisenhower family and how soldiers are great.

 

The semi-pointilist semi-pixelated Eisenhower mural is on the side of a liquor store, obviously a nice slice of Americana...

I also found a drive through liquour store, which seemed to be uniquely American.

The following pictures are from the Eisenhower Museum, including Mamie's hats.

Then... something I found both hilarious and a tad risque for the time:  "I like Ike" pantyhose and garters.  I'd never thought of such provocative campaign tools before (especially since the men were simply given branded ties).

 

The safe conduct pamphlet below interested me because it was a type of psychological warfare.  It guaranteed that any German soldier who surrendered would receive fair treatment, as opposed to any other treatment that German soldiers might otherwise receive.

One of the first teleprompters was also at the museum -- a great example of early technology!  Eisenhower apparently distrusted cameras and such technology, but understood the necessities of them.

Once outside the realms of the museum, I discovered the world's largest spur.

Which, in turn, reminded me of something that I should be doing:

A Fateful Trip

Now sit right back and you'll read a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...

Back in September 2005, History Honours alumna (2005) Jill McKenzie was one of eight Canadians chosen for the Young Professionals International Program, which is administered by the Canadian Museums Association and supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs. For six months, Jill worked as a Junior Curator at the Migration Museum in Adelaide, South Australia.  She reviewed the Museum’s collection of Vietnamese objects to assess their relevance to the South Australian Vietnamese community's immigration and settlement history and made recommendations for future museum acquisitions. She also worked with South Australian Vietnamese community organisations to research and develop South Australian content for the exhibition, Fall of Saigon: Collected Fragments of Post 75 Generation.

After her internship, Jill worked as a curator at the Migration Museum in Adelaide and the South Australian Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide.  Jill also met her partner David (an Aussie) during her placement and they married in November last year.  She is now managing online and other public programs at History SA, but has recently applied to begin her PhD at the University of Adelaide.

What started as a six month placement has become six years! 

Jill and her husband David in Port Douglas, Queensland

"I like GPS -- it gives me direction

when I am driving."

Earlier this summer, I received news of our alumna Akira Peters (2010) who had suffered a hemorragic stroke in 2008 just before her final year of a combined Honours degree. Now entering her final year of an Education degree at the University of Alberta, she was recently featured in an inspirational article by the Stroke Recovery Association of Edmonton in which we learn about the usefulness of GPS and how to put "possibility in stroke disability."  But that is not her only big news: while on a cycling trip in the Rockies in June, she got engaged to her long-term boyfriend, Andrew.  Exciting times ahead, GPS or no GPS!

What Graduate Students
Do in the Summer

So far this summer we've heard about our grad students giving conference papers, but The Summer Research Trip is another staple activity of grad student life.  MA student Brenan Smith has kindly agreed to be a roving graduate student reporter this summer.  As a history road warrior, he will be sending us a couple dispatches from the highways and byways of the United States as he goes forth in search of his sources.  Up next week: Abilene, Kansas.

Weekend Plans?

If not, how about a book signing at McNally's?  Stuart Houston and Bill Waiser will be having a book signing at McNally Robinson on Saturday, July 16 at 1 p.m.  Their book, Tommy's Team, has been shortlisted for the CAA Lela Common Award for Canadian History and the winner will be announced in just over a week!

How Professors Spend the Summer:

The Heritage Fair

Robert Englebert (see February 10th entry) has been busy introducing the young people of Saskatoon to Métis history.  Below is his special report on his participation in the Saskatoon Regional Youth Heritage Fair...  It sounds like a fun day -- maybe next year he will provide What's Up with a video of him playing the spoons!

*******

For the last couple of years I've been on the organizing committee for the Saskatoon Regional Youth Heritage Fair. Think science fair: but history for students grades 4 to 9.

It has been a great experience. One of the things I've enjoyed the most has been bringing in a Métis fiddler and jiggers to entertain the kids and their parents. This year, Dallas (Fiddler) Boyer and St. Mary's Dance Troupe performed, while I helped kids in the audience learn to play the spoons.

I was also excited to be able to contribute a book prize this year on behalf of the history department. Valerie Korinek and Linda Dietz provided a couple historical fiction books written by Dr. Geoffrey Bilson, which I presented to the winner of the highest judged project at the grade 4-5 level.  Bilson would have approved.  An American specialist who taught at the University of Saskatchewan from 1964-1987, Bilson also had side interests in Canadian medical history and children's historical fiction.

The best part of the Heritage Fair, though, has been spending time meeting the students and talking to them about their projects. Their enthusiasm for history is infectious and has made the Fair one of my favorite events of the year!

An Accounting

A note from MA student Mark Geldof (supervisor Sharon Wright) recently appeared in your loyal correspondent's mailbox.  Mark wrote that he "thought the department should know what one of its students has been up to with his GTF (Graduate Teaching Fellowship) the last two years".  And a fine accounting it is, too.  

Earlier this summer, he presented at the infamous Zoo (Kalamazoo, 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies) on “Amen Quod J Ledall: BL Additional 39564 and Late Medieval English Fight Texts".  Just before the conference, Opuscula published his article, “Strokes of ij hand swerde: a Brief Instruction in the Use of Personal Arms.” Opuscula 1, no. 2 (2011): 1-9.  His summer of success will be rounded off when The Antiquaries Journal publishes his article on "Signo Dicti Collegii: Instruction for a Fourteenth-Century Corporate Badge for the College of Trinity Hall, Cambridge” in September (The Antiquaries Journal 92, 2011). 

It is always wonderful to see such projects coming to completion!

Double Trouble

Keith Thor Carlson with his two awards (photo credit: Bill Waiser)

One of the must-read books of the summer for anyone wanting to know more about Aboriginal history is surely Keith Thor Carlson's The Power of Place, The Problem of Time: Aboriginal Identity and Historical Consciousness in the Cauldron of Colonialism.  The book received two awards at the Canadian Historical Association's annual conference and is described by the CHA Clio committee as "engaging, clearly-written, and important".

The awards are the Aboriginal History Studies Group's Aboriginal History Book Prize and the CHA's Clio Prize for British Columbia.  It is worthwhile to read each committee's rationale in full at the CHA website: AHSG and CHA. The short version, however, is that Keith's innovative work examines dynamic Stó:lõ identities since the eighteenth century, situating the identities within temporal and spatial contexts.  His book redefines how Aboriginal history can be done.  By using ethnographical, archaeological, geographical and anthropological tools to frame his understanding of archival and oral sources, Keith shows how Aboriginal history can be studied on its own terms. 

Congratulations, Keith!  This is fantastic and exciting news.

Soundbites

Congratulations to Bill Waiser and Stuart Houston.  Their book, Tommy's Team, has been shortlisted for the CAA Lela Common Award for Canadian History.  You can read an excerpt of the book at The StarPhoenix -- or even better, buy a copy of it!  We'll keep our fingers crossed for you, Bill and Stuart.

Simonne Horwitz gave a smart, eloquent and thought-provoking interview to John Gormley on May 13 about the John Demjanjuk case: http://www.newstalk980.com/audio/john-gormley-live/20110513-john-gormley-live-may-13-2011-freed-nazi.  This is well worth a listen.

On a more frivolous note, Lisa Smith was interviewed by CBC Calgary on April 28 about the rituals of pomp and ceremony surrounding the royal nuptials.  She nearly did not make the interview time, as she had been en route to Moose Jaw for the Keewatin Conference when her car stalled and needed to be towed back to Saskatoon.  She delivered the interview from a telephone in a local garage...   The best bit was when the mechanic burst into the room midway through, exclaiming "Sorry, love, but your engine is shot!"  Or was it?  Alas, you'll never know, as there is no podcast to prove the story either way...

Hot Hot History: The CSHM Version

Whereas our department participated in the CHA, we positively dominated the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine and Canadian Association for the History of Nursing conference!  The count includes five grad students, one postdoc, two faculty and two former postdocs -- considering the much smaller size of this conference, this is an impressive number.  The breadth of our presentations highlights the vibrancy of our history of medicine programme (in which, incidentally, students will soon be able to take a minor).

On the final day of the conference, a miniature meeting resumed at the Fredericton airport, where several CSHMers waited several hours for their much delayed flights.  Fortunately, the company was good, so the time sped by! 

Presentations included (in order of appearance):

Matt Mossey, "From Radon Gas to Radioisotopes: The Birth and Legacy of the Saskatchewan Cancer Initiative"

Myra Rutherdale and Maureen Lux (former postdocs, now at York and Brock respectively) were on the roundtable, "Accounting for the Importance of Home-place, Workplace, Landscape and Identity in Canadian Health Care Services"

Marc Macdonald, "Trafficking Disease: Unexpected Death in an Enlightenment World"

Sheila Gibbons, "'A Moral and Physical Menace': Motherhood and Eugenics in UFWA Politics, 1815-1925"

Lucas Richert, "The American Psychiatric Association's Radical Caucus, 1968-1969"

Amy Samson, "Identifying Mental Suspects: Alberta School Teachers and Eugenics, 1930-1960"

Elizabeth Scott, "'Rejected on Account of His Eyes': Canadian Medical Inspection and Emigrant Selection amongst London's Labouring Poor in the 1890s and 1900s"

Lisa Wynne Smith, "Defining Old Age: Men's Debility in Early Eighteenth-Century England"

Simonne Horwitz, "Reading HIV/AIDS in Saskatchewan's Newspapers, 1981-2010"

Hot Hot History: The CHA Version

Now that we're all back from Congress, it's worth taking stock of our department's participation in the CHA conference.

A highlight of the Canadian Historical Association conference was the roundtable focusing on Keith Carlson's recent book, The Power of Place, The Problem of Time: Aboriginal Identity and Historical Consciousness in the Cauldron of Colonialism.

Keith and Erika Dyck [in absentia] also participated on the same panel, "Silencing the Past: Barriers to Historical Research", which was cross-listed between the CHA and Canadian Society for the History of Medicine.  Keith's paper was on "The Hidden Promise: History, the Archives and Ethics in the Salish Community", while Erika's paper looked at "Searching for the Voices of Patients: Medical Records, Health Information Laws and Challenges/Opportunities for the History of Medicine".

The panel, "Imperialism, Displacement and Resistance", included Martha Smith-Norris speaking on "American Cold War Policies and The Enewatakese: Environmental Degradation, Community Displacement, and Indigenous Resistance in the Marshall Islands") and Daniel Macfarlane (alumnus, now a postdoc at Carleton), "Displaced Waters and Displaced Communities: Exploring the Formation of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project".  Tolly Bradford (U of S postdoc) spoke in another panel on "Religion, Leadership and the Re-Making of Community amongst the Grant River Six Nations, 1822-1870".

Workshop: Religious Encounter and Exchange in Aboriginal Canada

Members of the University Community are invited to be involved as non-presenting participants in a workshop titled "Religious Encounter and Exchange in Aboriginal Canada." It will be held at the University of Saskatchewan, 12-14 May 2011.

Recent public discussions about the history of residential schools in Canada are a stark reminder of religion’s central role in Canadian Aboriginal history. This history was not simple or straightforward, nor is it over. Existing historiography on religion in Aboriginal Canada has examined the history of residential schools and considered Christian missionaries as colonial agents of assimilation and change. However, significantly less has been said about Aboriginal roles and perspectives on religious encounters and the ways in which spiritual, as well as material and political, forces contributed to religious exchange and transformations. This is all the more striking in view of rich literatures in other (post)colonial contexts like Africa, China, and India, where religion has long figured as a central category of analysis. This three-day interdisciplinary workshop, to be held 12-14 May 2011, will, for the
first time, bring together established and emerging scholars from across North America to address this gap. By giving participants a venue to present their original research and share it with other experts, the workshop will establish a baseline of knowledge for a new and vigorous debate about the role of “religious encounter” in scholarship about Aboriginal Canada.

DATES & LOCATION OF WORKSHOP:
May 12th 8:30am-3:45pm:  STM Room 344a
May 13th 9:00am-12:15pm: STM Room 344a
May 14th 9:00am-12:00pm: Graduate Student Commons

For more information and to access workshop papers prior to the event please contact: Tolly Bradford, Department of History (tolly.bradford@usask.ca).

How to Publish Journal Articles

A workshop on publishing journal articles will be held on April 21st, from 1:00-3:30 at the Grad Commons.

1:00-1:30 Jim Miller: An Editor's View: How to Choose a Journal
1:30-2:15 Erika Dyck: Formatting and Structuring Articles for Publication
2:15-2:30 Refreshment Break
2:30--3:00 Panel Discussion (Justin Bengry, Frances Reilly and Tolly Bradford)
3:00-3:30 Questions and Answers

All are welcome!

If you have any questions, please contact Michael Kirkpatrick (kirpak@hotmail.com).

Outstanding New Teacher

Congratulations to Simonne Horwitz who has just received the Provost's Award for Outstanding New Teacher from the Vice-Provost of Teaching and Learning. She will receive the award at a Celebration of Teaching on April 27th at the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Excellence. Simonne was hired as tenure-track faculty in 2008 and has never failed to impress us with her energy, enthusiasm and dedication to her students.

For students interested in taking courses with the Outstanding Professor Horwitz, she will be teaching an exciting line-up of courses in 2011-12: Hist 245 (African History: An Introduction), Hist 303 (Sex, Gender and Sexuality in Africa) and Hist 397 (Approaches to History). And as it turns out, we've just started departmental advising this week...

Congratulations, Simonne, on this much-deserved honour!

A New Red Deer Resident

Congratulations to alumna Jillian Staniec (BA Hons. 2003, M.A. 2007) who leaves Saskatchewan to take up a permanent job at the Red Deer Archives. She reports that her M.A. in history was essential for getting the job.

If she hasn't yet discovered Glenn's Restaurant, I hope that she'll take the time to venture to Gasoline Alley sometime soon -- Red Deer is blessed with one of the few restaurants that knows how to brew a proper cup of tea (and has an excellent selection!).

Good luck in Red Deer, Jillian! We hope that you'll keep us posted on any interesting new collections or exhibitions at your archives.

This just in: Angela Kalinowski
Becomes Media Star

On March 15 (the Ides of March), Angela Kalinowski will be making two media appearances to discuss the Ideas of March. You can see her on the CTV News at Noon with Jeff Rogstadt -- and hear an interview with her on CBC! Her CBC interview will be aired at 4:41 p.m.. Stay tuned...

The death of Caesar: Caesar is lying on the ground, assassinated by a group of senatorial conspirators led by Cassius Longinus and Marcus Iunius Brutus on the ides of March. Etching, J.C. Armytage. Source: Wellcome Library, London

Book Pub and Silent Auction

An eccentric itinerant medicine vendor who collects old books, outside a bookshop. Source: Wellcome Library, London.

The HGSC's annual Book Pub and Silent Auction - our largest and most popular annual event - is just over two weeks away. Open to graduate students, faculty, staff, and guests, it will be held on March 25th in
the Grad Commons from 4:00-6:30. Snacks and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided free of charge and there will be a cash bar operating on a cost-recovery basis.

In addition to a wide array of books and gift certificates from local business (such as restaurants, spas, and theatres), we will also be auctioning off donations from graduate students, staff, and faculty members. In past years, faculty and staff have donated guided canoe trips, home-cooked dinners, knitted items and other crafts, gift certificates, and office supplies that have greatly contributed to the event's success. Proceeds benefit a variety of initiatives including student social events, the Dave DeBrou Memorial Lecture and Scholarship, and student participation in the Keewatin Graduate Student Conference.

If you are able to make a donation or if you have any questions, please contact Liam Haggarty (liam.haggarty@usask.ca) or Matt Todd (mrt585@mail.usask.ca).

We hope to see you on the 25th!

An Honourable Mention

Congratulations to alumnus (and U of S med student) Adam Fowler! His essay, "To Smile in the Face of Grim Death: Methodists and the Good Death in Eighteenth-Century Britain", received an honourable mention for the 2011 Osler Medal, awarded by the American Association for the History of Medicine. The medal is awarded annually to a medical student for the best unpublished essay on a medical history subject.

Keewatin Country Graduate Student History Conference 

Each year the Universities of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Winnipeg sponsor the Keewatin Country Graduate Student History Conference, which offers graduate and top undergraduate students the opportunity to present their research in a collegial and scholarly environment. This year the Keewatin Conference returns to Saskatchewan and brings more than thirty presenters as well as faculty, guests, and supporters to the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa Resort in Moose Jaw from 28-30 April 2011.

Moose Jaw Homestead Rush, c. 1908 (Source: University of Alberta Libraries Flickr Stream)

The name “Keewatin,” a Cree/Ojibway word for the Cold North Wind that blows across the Prairie Provinces and Northern Plains states, was chosen for its powerful local resonance and demonstration of a commitment to inclusivity beyond our individual institutions. As in previous years, this year’s conference is committed to remaining accessible to all students regardless of historical theme, geographic area or region. Organizers are committed to fostering an inclusive and collegial atmosphere welcoming papers on all historical subjects. So successful has this become, in fact, that this year the Keewatin Conference promises to see the widest participation yet as we are set to welcome presenters from no fewer than six provinces, two U.S. states, and Europe!


Our keynote speaker this year will be Professor Sterling Evans, holder of the Louise Welsh Chair in Oklahoma, Southern Plains, and Borderlands History at the University of Oklahoma. His address will be based on his book Bound in Twine, which won the Theodore Saloutos Best Book Prize from the Agricultural
History Society in 2008. Professor Evans’s talk “Nothing New About NAFTA” speaks to issues of particular interest to Saskatchewan, its agricultural history and the borderlands region.

Postcard from Moose Jaw, c. 1913 (Source: University of Alberta Libraries Flickr Stream)

Organizers of year’s Keewatin Conference are also excited to introduce a number of innovations. We now have Facebook and Twitter pages, including a dedicated hashtag (#keewatin2011), in order to maintain informal contact with presenters, as well as provide an opportunity to continue links and connections among presenters even after the conference is over. This year we are also introducing participant commentating, giving PhD candidates the opportunity to comment on panels.

Anyone interested in joining us in Moose Jaw for all or part of Keewatin 2011 can still register. Until 31 March there is also a special conference rate at the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa and Resort for those participating in Keewatin 2011. Contact keewatin2011@gmail.com for registration forms or more info.

Please come support us in Moose Jaw! We look forward to seeing you there.

Mac the Moose in Moose Jaw (Source: "Mac the Moose", Wikipedia, photo by Lisa from Bloomfield Hills)

Voyageur Database Update!

This just in: Robert Englebert's Voyageur database is in the news! Read and listen to the CBC Manitoba news article (in French).

A Budding Scholar

Congratulations to History Postdoctoral Fellow Tolly Bradford and his wife Lesley Harrington (a postdoctoral fellow at the Natural History Museum, London, U.K.) on the recent birth of their son, Ewan.

Pictured here is Proud Papa Tolly reading Ewan his first book!

Timely Topic

Congratulations to soon-to-be-doctored Merle Massie, who recently passed her Ph.D. defense (supervised by Bill Waiser) and is now leaving us to take up a postdoctoral fellowship. The goodbye will not be wrenching, though, as she is only going across campus to the School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS) where she will work with Dr. Maureen Reed.

Dr. Reed is the Canadian investigator of a three-country team (Sweden, Finland, and Canada) that researches environmental disturbances such as flooding, pests, major storm events, and economic restructuring in forest use. Merle's own contribution will look at flooding; given the floods last year in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the forecast for this year, this is a timely topic indeed.

A secondary aspect of her research focuses on UNESCO biosphere reserves, particularly the Mt. Arrowsmith biosphere reserve at Parksville, BC (just outside of Nanaimo). This will build on Merle's doctoral work on Prince Albert National Park and the Prince Albert Model Forest.

Merle reports that she is excited (as she should be!) to be a part of this international and interdisciplinary project. We look forward to the occasional report from the far side of campus and wish Merle the best of luck.

Alumni News

Congratulations to alumnus Alan Long (Interdisciplinary MA, theatre and history), who has just been named the general manager of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Compnay. Over the last decadeIn the last ten years, he has worked in various positions for Persephone Theatre, Rosthern Station Arts Centre and Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company.

For the full story, see today's article in The Star Phoenix: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/Theatre+company+names/4284103/story.html#ixzz1E3XXfPXo .

All Things Voyageur

An interview with Robert Englebert will be aired on French CBC programme, Téléjournal Ouest, on February 21st between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

In the interview, Robert discusses the recent launch of The Voyageur Database Project, a database of 35,000 fur trade voyageur contracts signed in front of Montreal notaries between 1714 and 1830 (http://shsb.mb.ca/en/Voyageurs_database). This is, to date, the largest collection of data regarding the contracts signed by men of the Montreal fur trade. The information collected from the contracts includes: family names, parishes of origin, hiring company, length of contract, destination(s), advances and wages, supplies, conditions of hire, the name of the notary, date of signing, and miscellaneous notes. This project was a component of the Métis National Council's National Research Initiative.

Robert Englebert in front of a poster display for the project

 
Over six years, working with Dr. Nicole St-Onge (Ottawa), Robert helped to build the database from the ground up as the project manager in charge of a dedicated team of students during his PhD. Although he left the project when he took up his position in our department, he continued as assistant director of the project, which included using the database for research and promoting the project.

The Voyageur Database is a valuable new research tool. For example, Métis and French-Canadian genealogists or labour and social historians can trace families across time and distance. The database is an important source of information on a largely illiterate group of people, who is otherwise difficult to document.

Congratulations, Robert, on the launch of this exciting new project! We look forward to your T.V. appearance.

Where's Waiser?

Bill Waiser and his wife, Marley Waiser (National Water Research Institute of Environment Canada), are spending February and March as visiting scholars at the Center for Canadian Studies at Duke University. Bill will bringing Saskatchewan to an international audience this month when he gives a talk at the Center on "A Tale of Two Futures: Saskatchewan in 1905 and 2005".


For more information on their activities as visiting scholars, see: http://jhfc.duke.edu/canadianstudies/newsletter.html.

HUSA Clothing Sale and Movie!

The History Undergraduate Students' Association will be selling clothing again this year.  Zip-up jackets are going for $90 and hoodies for $55. Both bear the University of Saskatchewan logo, as well as the Department of History. You can place your orders at the HUSA booth, which will be set up at the top of the Arts ramp on February 15, 16 and 17 from 11a.m. to 2p.m.  If you are unable to get your order in at the booth, just email Kristina at kar152@mail.usask.ca!

In the not-too-distant future, HUSA will be hosting a movie night.  The subject? Spies! World War II! French Resistance! The movie? Carve Her Name with Pride. Professor Pam Jordan will be introducing the movie.  
When: February 8
Time: 5 p.m.
Place: Arts 146

Reminder: Keewatin Country Graduate Student History Conference Deadline

The deadline to submit your abstract for the conference is fast approaching: January 31.  Re-posting the full call for papers below!


Presentations on ALL HISTORICAL TOPICS are welcome. The conference aims to promote interdisciplinary dialogue and is open to submissions from any relevant discipline. We encourage papers addressing a diverse range of regional, methodological, and thematic topics.

Over the past two years, the Keewatin Graduate Student History Conference has attracted graduate students and outstanding undergraduates from across Canada, the US and abroad. We look forward once more to welcoming young scholars to this opportunity to present exciting new work in an engaging and supportive academic environment.

This year we are excited to welcome keynote speaker Professor Sterling Evans, Louise Welsh Chair Oklahoma, Southern Plains, and Borderlands History at the University of Oklahoma. Author and editor of four books, Professor Evans is a leader in the fields of transnational borderlands and environmental histories. His address "Nothing New about NAFTA: Connecting the Prairies to a Larger North American History" will be based on his book Bound in Twine, which won the Theodore Saloutos Best Book Prize from the Agricultural History Society in 2008.

In addition to sharing exciting new scholarship and collegial interaction, the conference venue offers opportunities for physical relaxation and mental rest as well. Hotel accommodation at the conference venue includes complementary access to the rooftop mineral pool overlooking Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Applicants are invited to submit proposals of 250 words along with a short (one page maximum) CV. The submission deadline is January 31, 2011. Please submit your proposals, and any questions, to keewatin2011@gmail.com .

Publishing Workshop: How to Turn Your Dissertation into a Book

When: February 9
Time: 1:30-4:30
Where: Grad Commons

Attention Grad Students -- and anyone else who might be interested!  Ever wanted to know how your PhD thesis could be turned into a book?  For some helpful advice, why not attend a publishing workshop...  Snacks will even be provided.

1:30 Introduction: Erika Dyck and Michael Kirkpatrick

1:30-2:15: Presentation by University of Manitoba Press, Editors David Carr and Jean Wilson

2:15-2:45: Questions, Answers, Discussion

2:45-3:00: Refreshment Break

3:00-3:45: Panel on Experiences Turning Dissertations into Books
Lucas Richert, Postdoctoral Fellow (History), "Using my Post-Doc to Revise My Book"
Simonne Horwitz, Assistant Professor (History), "Balancing Work and Revisions"
Valerie Korinek, Professor and Head of History, "Dissertation to Book: Some Suggestions"

3:45-4:15: Questions, Answers, Discussion

For more information, contact Michael Kirkpatrick (kirpak@hotmail.com)

14th Annual Michael Swan Honours Colloquium

The Honours Colloquium will be held on Friday, January 21 from 9:00 to 4:30 in Agriculture 1E80.  Come see what our undergraduate students have been researching.  And as an added incentive: lunch is provided if you show up between 12:00 and 1:00!

Session One (9:05—9:50 a.m.): Questionable Practices in Modern US Policy

Shannon Colville. “‘Grave Moral Doubts’: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the Nuremberg Code.”

David Guenther. “Duck and Cover: The Effects of the U.S. Civil Defense Movement during the Cold War.”

Bradley Wickert, “U.S. Intervention in Guatemala: Did it ‘Work’?”

Session Two (10:00—10:55 a.m.): Dimensions in Canadian Social History

Scott Dumonceaux. “The California Gold Rush and the Fraser River Gold Rush: A Comparison.”

Ferron Olynyk. “A Changing Landscape: Impacts of Postwar Suburbanization in Canada.”

Myles Shingoose. “‘This Needs to be Stopped, But Where?’: The Decision to Stop the On-to Ottawa Trek in Regina.”

Kristi St. Laurent. “From ‘Je me souviens’ to “je ne me souviens pas’: The Historian’s Responsibility in Reconciling and Rehabilitating Canadian History.”

Session Three (11:05 a.m. —12:00 p.m.): Indigenous Practices and Minority Populations

Melissa Armstrong. “African and Western Constructions of Disease with Witchcraft in Mind.”

Laura Champ. “Re-imagining the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Process of Shared Exploration with the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians.”

Julie Sapsford. “Reflections on the Silver Screen: American Indians and the Hollywood Musical in the 1950s.”

Jason Stockfish. “Epitomizing the Canadian Mozaic: A Brief History of Multiculturalism in Saskatchewan.”

 

Session Four (1:00—1:55 p.m.): Rumors of War

Aaron Birkland.  “Frank Beecher Doran: The Perspective of a First World War Canadian Casualty.”

Filip Cupial. “The Priceless Horse: The Use of Cavalry in Two 17th- and 18th-Century East European States.”

Justin Fisher. “Uneasy Allies: The Soviet Union, China, and the Vietnam War.”

Isaac Mills. “A Decisive Factor? The Value of Intelligence in the Battle of the Atlantic.”

Session Five (2:05—3:00 p.m.): Ancient Texts, Tales, and Monuments

Keely Bland.  “The Vatican Vergil: Poetry, Art and the Historical Perspective.”

Victoria Hiebert. “The Building Program of the Emperor Maxentius.”

Guy Hucq. “Salesman and Statesman: The Senate’s Role in Promoting the Julio-Claudian Principate.”

Scott Tomkins. “Marco Polo and the ‘Old Man of the Mountain.’”

Session Six (3:10—4:05 p.m.): Women in Art and Reality

Melissa Allan.  “Making Something Out of Nothing: The Great Depression and Gendered Relief Policies in Canada.”

Chantal de Medeiros. “Erotic Imagery in Corinth’s ‘Boston Mirror,’ ca. 350 BC.”

Jannaya Friggstad. “Colouring Inside the Lines? Female Artists and Gender Boundaries in 17th-Century Europe.”

Sara Wright. “A Modern-Day Moses and the Freeing of the Israelites: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.”

For more information about the event, please contact our undergraduate director, Dr. John McCannon (john.mccannon@usask.ca).

Gold Medal Winner

Jim Miller, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Gold Medal Recipient

On Thursday, December 16th, SSHRC and Industry Canada announced that Professor Jim Miller (Canada Research Chair in Native-Newcomer History) has won the SSHRC Gold Medal, Canada's highest research honour, for his award-winning scholarship on Native-Newcomer histories.

Many department members were in attendance at Convocation Hall on December 16th to congratulate Jim on his marvellous achievement.  We are very proud! This is the first time that a scholar from the University of Saskatchewan has been awarded this distinction.  And there is really a gold medal, which we expect to see Jim wearing on all "ceremonial" occasions in the Department--or at the very least, the first department meeting of 2011...

For more details on the award and Jim's research contributions (and to see a video of the actual presentation, if you missed it), please see the article by the U of S Research Communications.

Congratulations, Jim!

Introducing a Future Historian?

Congratulations to Vickie Lamb Drover (Ph.D. student) & Doug Drover on the birth of their son, Samuel Clement Drover.  Sam was born on Sunday December 5th.  Big sister Grace has been handling the adjustment with aplomb.

Best wishes from all of us in the History Department!

World AIDS Day, Wednesday December 1st

Simonne Horwitz, our own AIDS scholar, would like to draw your attention to World AIDS Day.  In the past this has been a day of activism and global awareness but with the increasing availability of Antiretroviral Treatment in the North less attention has been paid to HIV/AIDS. The disease continues to affect many in the global south, while the statistics for Saskatchewan - double the Canadian national average - are horrific. A number of student groups of campus have arranged an awareness event, the screening of the brilliant docu-drama "A Closer Walk" followed by two brief presentations.  Professor Horwitz will be speaking.

Where: Neatby Timlin Theatre
When:  Dec. 1, From 5 p.m.
Cost: Free

Sir Hans Sloane's Correspondence Online

Credit: Wellcome Library, London
Sir Hans Sloane. Mezzotint by J. Faber, junior, 1729, after Sir G. Kneller, 1716.

Using my editor's privilege, I am pleased to announce the launch of my database of Sir Hans Sloane's Correspondence: https://drc.usask.ca/projects/sloaneletters . 

The pilot project already contains entries for over 1400 letters addressed to Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), who was a physician, scientist and collector.  Sloane's books, plant samples and curiosities formed the foundation collections of the British Library, British Museum and Natural History Museum.  The correspondence covers a wide range of topics from travel and collecting to scholarly disputes and medical cases -- and more is to come, as there are thirty more volumes of correspondence to enter.

Some transcriptions of letters are provided, but the database's initial intent to facilitate the use of the collection.  The collection has, until now, only been indexed according to letter-writer's name.  This has made it difficult to trace relationships between authors or to find specific subjects, given the sheer size of the correspondence.  As the database grows, it will be possible to make even more interesting connections.

But it is not just my project alone, as several students and alumni from our History department have provided research assistance for this project over the last couple years:
Jason Grier (B.A. Hons. and current M.A. student)
Amanda Harrigan (B.A. Hons. and M.A., now at the University of Alberta)
Rob Konkel (B.A. Hons., now at Oxford University)
Kurt Krueger (B.A. Hons. and M.A., now at the University of Victoria)
Melanie Racette-Campbell (M.A., now at the University of Toronto)
Heather Stanley (Ph.D. candidate)

I am sure that they will be just as glad that their efforts are finally seeing the light of day!

Interview with an Environmental Historian

Jonathon Clapperton, a doctoral candidate in our department, was recently interviewed for the Canadian Environmental History Podcast (Episode 18).  The interview is on Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park, a popular destination for boating tourists and swimmers.  Jonathon considers the interconnections between the park and British Columbia's displacement of the Aboriginal population.

To download this episode, visit: http://niche-canada.org/naturespast.