Attention History Grad Students! Wanna get soaked at a conference? The University of Saskatchewan Department of History invites proposals for the 1st annual Buffalo Province History Conference, May 11-13, 2007, Manitou Springs Hotel Resort and Mineral Spa, in Watrous, Saskatchewan. Presentations on all historical topics are welcome. Come join other graduate students and faculty from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta in a supportive and academically enriching environment. We invite you to present a paper on an aspect of your research, listen and comment on the presentations of others, network with peers and faculty, and meet and socialize with potential future advisors and colleagues. Although preference is given to graduate student submissions, we welcome proposals from faculty, senior honours students, and other specialists in the field of history.Please submit a 250 word abstract and short CV to Keith Thor Carlson (keith.carlson@usask.ca) no later than February 15th 2007. To see the conference poster, click here.

The Geology Department is sponsoring a public lecture Tuesday evening on the origin of modern geological thought in 17th century Florence. Dr. Alan Cutler of the Smithsonian Institute presents "Science, Seashells, and Religion: Nicolaus Steno and the Birth of Geology." Tuesday, November 28th, 7:30 PM, in the Battlefords Room of the Delta Bessborough. Everyone welcome. Sponsored by Sask Industry & Resources. Click here to see the poster.

The latest fabulous edition of the History Grad Students Committee Newsletter is now out on newsstands everywhere, but why pay $5.99 plus tax when you can get the whole thing just by clicking here?

A fabulous opportunity for students has come to our attention. The Canadian Battlefields Foundation is sponsoring its 13th Annual Battlefield Study Tour this summer, "The Canadians and the Liberation of Europe: Normandy, Dieppe, Vimy, Beaumont-Hamel". It runs from 1-16 June, 2007 and is intended for undergrads, grad students, and recent graduates. The tour will be led by Dr. Geoffrey Hayes of the University of Waterloo, and Lieutenant-Colonel David Patterson, Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff College. The foundation offers 12-16 scholarships that cover most of the expenses, though participants should expect to contribute between $1200 and $1500 of their own ($500 if they make their own way to Paris). Click here to view the poster, or here for the website and application forms.

The second gala presentation of the History Grad Students Colloquia Series will take place this Friday, November 24th from 3:30 - 5:00 pm, downstairs at the Faculty Club. This Colloquium will feature MA students Matt Finn and Mark Polachic. Matt will be presenting "Atlantic History and Illegal Trade in Northeastern North America:1650-1750." Mark's presentation is entitled "Edmund Burke and Roy Porter: Two Views of Revolution and the Enlightenment in Britain." All faculty and grad students invited. Snacks will be provided.

Special Guest Lecture:

Tom Brooking, of the History Department, University of Otago in New Zealand, will be visiting the University of Saskatchewan this Thursday, November 23, 1:00-2:00, ARTS 203. Tom is an environmental and agricultural historian, the author or editor of six books, and he will present a public lecture on his current research: "Empires of Grass: The Reconstruction of New Zealand Grasslands, 1850s-1920s". All interested faculty or students are encouraged to attend.

Further congratulations are in order for Mike Hayden (U of S Professor Emeritus) and Malcolm Greenshields (U of S alumnus and Univerisity of Lethbridge Professor of History), whose book 600 Years of Reform: Bishops and the French Church, 1190-1789 (McGill-Queens, 2005) has just been awarded The John Gilmary Shea Prize, given annually by the American Catholic Historical Association to the author(s) of a book, published during the preceding twelve-month period, which is judged by a committee of experts to have made the most original and distinguished contribution to knowledge of the history of the Catholic Church. The award will be presented to Malcolm and Mike during the 87th annual meeting of the Association on January 6, 2007 in Atlanta, Ga. which is held in conjunction with the annual meeting of American Historical Association.

Winning international acclaim is all very well, but Mike's and Malcolm's book is also nominated for a Saskatchewan Book Award in the Scholarly Writing category. The awards banquet is this coming weekend, in Regina. Stay tuned...

Last weekend, Pam Jordan and John McCannon represented the U of S at the National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, held in Washington, DC. Pam presented a paper entitled “Legal Defenders or Passive Assistants to the Court? The Complex Political Identities of Russian Advocates after Stalin.” John commented on a panel and delivered his own paper, “Gateway to the East: Decorative Art and Orientalist Imagery in Moscow’s Kazan Railway Station.” Much to the delight of all conference-goers, baby Miranda came along as well, and narrowly missed being chosen to give the keynote address.

Meanwhile, also in Washington, John McCannon and some of his colleagues celebrated the recent publication by Northern Illinois University Press of Russian Art and the West: A Century of Dialogue in Painting, Architecture, and the Decorative Arts, edited by Rosalind P. Blakesley and Susan E. Reidwhich, which contains John’s essay “Mother of the World: Eurasian Imagery and Conceptions of Feminine Divinity in the Works of Nikolai Roerich.” Click here to learn more about the book.

We here at What's Up stop at nothing, nothing, to track down old friends and departmental alum. We want to know what they -- you, maybe -- are up to, and frankly we intend to find out. Take Alex Taylor, for example. Alex completed his MA here in 1995 and then proceeded to the University of Calgary for his Ph.D. Word has now reached us that Alex is married and a father and living in Washington, D.C. where he works for the Council of Latino Agencies, which works on behalf of the Latino community in D.C. and the surrounding region of Virginia and Maryland. In keeping with his longstanding interest in human rights, and with his scholarly and personal interests on human rights abuses in Guatamala, Chile, and Argentina, Alex is also actively involved with Amnesty International. So much so, in fact, that he was the subject of an online profile in the Fall 2006 edition of their online newletter. Click here to see Alex and read more about his work.

Congratulations to Keith Carlson, who, along with Kristina Fagan of the English Department, has co-edited a new edition of Henry 'Hank' Pennier's 1972 autobiography, 'Call Me Hank': A Stó:lõ Man's Reflections on Logging, Living, and Growing Old (University of Toronto Press & The Pennier Family, 2006). Pennier was a logger, story-teller, and self-described 'half-breed' whose memoirs offers poignant political commentary on issues of race, labour, and life. Keith and Kristina have added a scholarly introduction that set's Hank and his story in context. The U of T Press won't sell you a copy until next month, but their web site is working these days so you can learn more about it by clicking here. Keith reports that the Pennier family has organized a sacred "burning ceremony" whereby a shaman will burn food, clothing and a copy of the book for the now deceased author so he can have it "in the afterlife". This appears to be the first public book-burning ceremony that the University of Toronto Press has endorsed.

Congratulations to Steve Hewitt (U of S Ph.D., 1997) who has just published his third book, Riding to the Rescue: The Transformation of the RCMP in Alberta and Saskatchewan, 1914-1939 (University of Toronto Press, 2006.) The book incorporates previously classified material, and explores the RCMP both in the context of its ordinary policing role and in its work as Canada’s domestic spy agency. Steve demonstrates how much of the impetus behind the RCMP’s transformation was ensuring its own survival and continued relevance. Steve's first book, also with U of T Press, was Spying 101: The RCMP's Secret Activities at Canadian Universities, 1917-1997 (2002), followed by Canada and the Cold War (James Lorimer & Co, 2003), which he co-authored with Reg Whitaker. Be sure to go to Steve's website to find out, among other things, whether the Mounties have been spying on you and yours. Steve is a lecturer in American and Canadian Studies at the University of Birmingham, in England. Click here for his departmental web site.

Dog days of November getting you down? Is the grind of your compulsory non-history courses more than usually fatiguing? Has even the joy of writing history essays temporarily lost its lustre? Do not despair, for the social highlight of the season is almost upon us. This very Friday, November 17th, HUSA will sponsor the umpteenth annual Meet the Profs Night at Louis' pub, starting at 5pm. Drag yourself there and be revived.

History and fiction overlap in more ways than many of us realize, or care to admit, and so you might be interested to know that on November 14th at 3:30, the English Department and the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild present Governor General's Award winner Maggie Siggins, who will speak about "A Fictional Truth: New Literary Genre or Old Hodgepodge?" Reading from her most recently-published book, Bitter Embrace: White Society's Assault on the Woodland Cree and from a manuscript of a book about Louis Riel's grandmother, Siggins will explain what she sees as an "emerging new literary genre." Or is that the re-emergence of a very old literary genre? Go along and find out.

The sun shines and all seems right with the world, but it is not so.

It is with the deepest regret that we report the death of Rogan Bailey Garner (August 15 to October 30, 2006), beloved daughter of our friend and student Chris Garner and his wife Megan Garner. Our hearts and our thoughts are with Chris, Megan, and the Garner family. Please click here for a loving tribute to Rogan.

And we are sad to report that two other friends and members of our extended History family, both of them doctoral candidates as it happens, have lost loved ones in recent days.

We offer our condolences to Denyse Saint-Georges-Smith and her family. Denyse's mother died on October 29.

And we extend our deepest sympathies to Merle Massie and her family. Merle's brother died in tragic circumstances just yesterday, November 1.

Click here to read the fabulous, informative, droll, full-colour History Grad Students' Committee Official Newsletter for October, 2006. And click here, or go through the HGSC link under "Graduates" on the Departement web site, to see the entire backlist of this fine publication.

The History Graduate Students Committee invites you to attend the first installment of the 2006-2007 HGSC Lecture Series, featuring Dr. Keith Thor Carlson (Dept of History) presenting: “Dreams, Footnotes, and History”

Today, Thursday November 2nd 4:00-5:00 in Arts 214

The footnote: a citation or brief explanation. But what does one do when the person we’re interviewing tells us that he or she is not, in fact, the source of historical information, but merely a conduit; that the voice transmitting the “historical evidence” is not the ethnographic “other” sitting across the table from us, but the other’s other – an ancestral voice acquired not from memory in the western sense, but from dreams across shamanic chasms? And how do we respond when the other’s other informs us that our own voice is actually not ours, but one directed by an Aboriginal ancestral spirit whose alleged design is to influence questions so as to illicit particular responses? In such a relationship where does the power and agency reside, and more basically, how does one cite one’s source? Building upon such diverse historical theorists as Michel de Certeau, Carlo Ginzburg, and Marshall Sahlins, Carlson engages with Salish indigenous knowledge and explains how he came to learn that skepticism isn't always as clever as one might think, and why a historical footnote can be a difficult thing to craft.

The Lecture is open to the general public. We hope to see you there!

Just a reminder of the History Honours/Graduate Reception being held this evening, Thursday November 2nd, from 6:30 until 9:00 p.m. at Boffins Club. Pizza buffet and refreshments will be served. All History Honours and Grad Students welcome.