Valerie Korinek is just back from London, where she presented a paper, "Having a gay old time in Winnipeg? Gender and sexual histories of a Prairie city" at the Gender and the City conference, held Feb 24,2006 at Canada House, Trafalgar Square. The event was organised by the London Conference for Canadian Studies, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute for the Study of the Americas.

News today that Keith Carlson's research has had an an impact. By adding documentary evidence to the oral traditions of the people of the Stó:lo nation, Keith was able to reconstruct the tragic story of a young native boy lynched in 1884 by a mob of white men crossing over into B.C. territory from Washington State. Neither government disgintuished itself in the ensuing investigation, and nobody was ever brought to justice for the killing. A recent film documentary based on Keith's work helped spread the story to a wider audience, including the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, Iona Campagnolo. Her polite but firm diplomacy backed by Keith's research has now resulted in the Washington State House of Representatives preparing to issue a formal resolution intended to "address errors committed by both the U.S. territorial and Canadian goverments" and to extend "deepest sympathies" on behalf of the government of Washington State to the descendents of Louis Sam. Click here to learn more.

The Right Honourable Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, Iona Campagnolo, who saw to it that the truths Keith's research revealed would be acknowledged.

Saturday, February 25th, HUSA/CMRS will be holding a beer night at Winston's beginning at 7:00 pm. The cost will be $10 a person. This is a fundraiser for students who will be attending the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan this May. All are encouraged to come out and have a couple of drinks (as good a way as any to replicate the Kalimazoo experience) and a real good time.

On February 17th, three members of the History Department past and present -- Bill Waiser, Jim Miller, and Mike Hayden -- were among 37 men and women honoured with the Commemorative Medal for the Centennial of Saskatchewan at a ceremony at Convocation Hall hosted by Her Honour the Honourable Dr. Lynda Haverstock, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan. Over the course of this centennial year, 4,000 such medals will be awarded. The medal recognizes "individuals who have made significant contributions to society and honours their outstanding achievements." As indeed our three worthy friends, colleagues, and teachers have.

Astonishingly, if you click here you can already read more about the medal in Wikipedia. Just remember, kids: don't use Wikipedia for your essays.

There will be a CMRS “Meet the Profs” night this Thursday, February 23 from 4:30-6:30pm in the Lounge of the Faculty Club. There will be food and a cash bar, with donations received for students planning to attend this year's Medieval Studies conference in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Admission is free. Anyone interested in the Classical, Medieval, or Renaissance periods is welcome.

The History Grad Students Association has been casting about for an athletic activity for its members to engage in and bond over, but having failed to find one has decided instead to hold a Curling Bonspiel with their counterparts from Geology this Friday (Feb. 24th). Profs, staff, students and their guests are all invited to come out to Alexander's Bar & Grill at 5pm. After a bite to eat, the assembled curlers will head over to the campus curling rink from 7 until 9, after which they will retire to one watering hole or another to celebrate/drown their sorrows.

The History Department and HUSA are holding a Career Development Workshop for Undergraduate Students in History on Friday, February 24th from 1-4pm in Room IE80 of the Agriculture Building. Now, agriculture might not be one of the career options that is discussed in depth, but you can look forward to presentations from career counsellors, independent scholars, librarians, archivists, and lawyers. Click here to see our handy summary of what you can do with a history degree. And click here to see a program for Friday's workshop.

As if the resumption of classes next week was not enough to look forward to, it now seems that the next HUSA Film Night is upon us. John McCannon will be presenting Enemy at the Gates, an epic saga of snipers and lovers set against the massively recreated Siege of Stalingrad, starring Joseph Fiennes, Jude Law, and Rachel Weisz. The screening is Tuesday, February 28th, at 7pm in ARTS 146. Absolutely free to absolutely everyone. Click here to learn more about the film.

In case you thought all history grads were fated to work in one branch or another of education, you might want to catch tomorrow night's presentation by Glenn Carley (BA, 75) who went on to do a law degree and an MBA, and has since worked for many years as an entrepreneur in the oil and gas business, founding and running several successful businesses. Glenn has also been active and generous in U of S alumni fund-raising activities. Glenn will be speaking on the topic of the oil and gas business in Saskatchewan at the Radisson Hotel on Thursday, February 16th in a talk sponsored by Saskatchewan Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs. Doors open at 6:30, Presentation at 7:00. Cost is $15. RSVP to 652-8220.

The library is test-driving a new database: 19th Century Masterfile is an index of indexes, the largest resource for historical research prior to 1925. It does a single search through indexes of journals, newspapers, magazines, books, and government material of the time. Click here to try it, but remember that the trial ends March 8th.

And now some fabulous news: Jeff Wigelsworth, who successfully defended his Ph.D. this past fall, has just been awarded a two-year SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he will pursue a project entitled "Advertising the Commodity of Science in Early Modern England." Congratulations, Jeff!

More new resources from the Library: the Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies (MECAS) database offers a bibliographic index of periodicals, including grey literature, covering research, policy and scholarly discourse on the countries and peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. "Subject coverage includes: political affairs & law, international relations, economic affairs - business & industry, cultural heritage, arts & humanities, society & social welfare, ethnic diversity & anthropology, significant religious events & movements and recent history (1900 - present) & archaeology." Click here to check it out.

Another valuable new resource is that of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an offshoot of The Economist, one of the world's oldest, best, and snarkiest magazines. This new database provides in-depth analysis of social and economic trends and developments in over 200 countries from a business perspective. Click here to check it out.

Brendan Cook (BA, MA 2000), now a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, just gave what our correspondent on the scene described as an excellent paper at the U of T Annual Graduate Symposium. Brendan, who studied here with Peter Bietenholz, gave a paper entitled "The Uses of Resipiscere in the Latin of Erasmus: In the Gospels and Beyond."

Judith Henderson will present the next CMRS Research Workshop this Thursday, Februrary 9, on "A Dialogue Between Dialogues: Erasmus's 'De recta pronuntiatione' and 'Ciceronianus'. Faculty Club, Club Room, 3:30-6:00 pm. Faculty and grad students welcome. Please note that the CMRS website now features an up-to-date listing of events: click here to check it out.

The History Grad Students Association (HGSC) will host the first event in its new HGSC Lecture Series, Wednesday February 22nd. There will be two papers that day: Jason Zorbas, "1956: The Last Good Year in Canadian Foreign Affairs?", and Geoff Cunfer, "Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Methods for Historical Research". 3:30-5:00 pm, STM Room 120, everyone welcome.

Congratulations to Omeasoo Butt (History Honours, 2005), who performed splendidly last night as one of five finalists on CTV's The Next Great Prime Minister. The show -- surely a hit and a budding national institution -- was good viewing, and the high quality of debate and wit and courage on display from all five of the finalist candidates bodes well for the future of the country, as does the fact that substantive political debate could be presented as popular entertainment. The carefully balanced panel of one Liberal and three Conservative judges -- Brian Mulrooney, Kim Campbell, Joe Clark, and John Turner -- also acquited itself well. Like so many Jimmy Carters, the ex-PMs seemed more human and candid and interesting and appealing than one remembers them when in office. Omeasoo's platform of radical devolution of powers to local communities was the boldest and least conventional, and the one completely divorced from the platforms of the major parties. It was perhaps the platform least likely to serve any federal political aspirations of the candidate herself (not that we shouldn't expect a "Draft Omeasoo" campaign after last night), and perhaps also the platform most likely to initiate debate on issues of local empowerment perennially swept under the federal rug. Omeasoo was wonderful on camera, held up remarkably well under questioning, and more than held her own in debate. She even drew forth an endorsement for Steven Harper from John Turner. She did us all proud.