Felicitations, Felix!

Felix working those winking and smiling muscles

As many of your know, Erika Dyck gave birth to the charming Felix back in May.  I'm delighted to report that Felix was finally able to go home just over a week ago after spending 118 days in hospital.

Erika writes that Felix is doing well and that he "makes himself heard at every opportunity".  Happy parents Erika and John are relieved to have their son at home and are enjoying "the sleepless nights and a new rhythm of life".

Welcome home, Felix!

A very sleepy Felix with his doting mother

SSHRC Workshop for Grad Students

Interested in applying for SSHRC funding for your M.A. or Ph.D.?

The Department is hosting a workshop on Friday, September 30th from 2:30-4:30.  Come find out what makes a successful application from Lisa Smith (SSHRC Ph.D. fellowships committee member), Keith Carlson (supervisor of several SSHRC-funded grad students), and Jason Grier and Amy Samson (recent recipients).

Local Conference on Religious History

A conference on "Emerging Normativities: Examining the Formation of Proto-Orthodox Christianities and Rabbinic Judaisms 200 - 800 CE" will be held on September 21-22 at STM.


The events begin on Wednesday, the 21st from 4:00pm-10:00pm, with a conference dinner at STM from 5:30 to 6:45, followed by plenary lectures by Dr. Daniel Boyarin from the University of California, Berkeley and Dr. Anders Runesson from McMaster University.


On Thursday, September 22, speakers from across the U.S. and Canada will give presentations from 9:15 to 4:00 at the Parktown Hotel. 


Fees are as follows:
Individual - $125.00
U of S/STM Student - No Fee
Other Student - $75.00

You can register online via the STM website: www.stmcollege.ca.

A Historian's Perspective

Jim Miller  (Canada Research Chair) will be speaking to the Saskatoon Theological Union Graduate Studies Seminar on "Reconciliation and Residential Schools: A Historian's Perspective". 

All are welcome to attend.

September 29, 7:00 pm

St. Andrew’s College

Room 322.

The Bilson Lecture

Dr. Andrea Tone

The Bilson lecture, held every two years, honours the late Professor Geoffrey Bilson, a specialist in American Colonial History and Canadian Medical History.  He also wrote children's historical fiction. The focus this year is on the history of medicine.

The History Department is delighted to welcome Dr. Andrea Tone (McGill) as our Bilson Lecturer.  She will be speaking on “The Curious Case of Val Orlikow: Cold War Psychiatry and the CIA”. 

 

As Canada Research Chair in the Social History of Medicine at McGill University, Dr. Tone's scholarship explores women and health, medical technology, sexuality, psychiatry, and industry.  She has written and edited several books, including The Age of Anxiety: A History of America’s Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers (2009), Medicating Modern America: Prescription Drugs in History, with Elizabeth Siegel Watkins (2007), and Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America (2001).  Currently, Dr. Tone's research (funded by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research) focuses on the CIA and Cold War psychiatry.

Her work has been featured on ABC News, PBS, National Public Radio, the CBC, the History Channel, Newsweek, Macleans, and the New York Times.  In 2011, Dr. Tone received the American Psychiatric Association’s Benjamin Rush Award for her contributions to the history of psychiatry.

Professor Tone’s visit to the University of Saskatchewan is supported by the Geoffrey Bilson Memorial Trust Fund, the Department of History, the Humanities Research Unit, the Canada Research Chair, History of Medicine, the College of Arts and Science, and the College of Medicine.

                                                                       

The Bilson Lecture is open to the public.  Everyone is welcome.

Thursday, October 6

7 p.m.

Arts 241

University of Saskatchewan

Reception to Follow

Mark Your Calendars for Some Fantastic History of Medicine

History of Medicine Seminar Series, 2011-2012

Seminars are held at 4pm in the Club Room

at the Faculty Club

September 22 Gayle Davis

(U of Edinburgh)

‘Bulls, Bastards, Baseness, and Bunk: Issues Surrounding Artificial Insemination in 1950s Scotland’

October 6 Andrea Tone

            (U of McGill)

‘The Curious Case of Val Orlikow: Cold War Psychiatry and the CIA’           

           

November 10 Dominique Tobbell

(U of Minnesota)

‘Political Pills: The Struggle for Prescription Drug Reform in Recent U.S. History’

November 24 Leslie Baker

            (U of Saskatchewan)

‘Enabling Eugenics: The role of the Massachusetts Halifax Health Commission in the surveillance and improvement of the provincial population’

December TBA Maureen Lux

            (U of Brock)

‘North Battleford Indian Hospital: Translating and Interpreting Treaty Rights in the 1960s and 1970s’

January 19 Paul Hackett

(U of Saskatchewan)

‘Inherent Weakness: The Use of Genetic Explanations to Explain Excessive Aboriginal Mortality’

February 16 Amy Sampson

(U of Saskatchewan)

‘Social Work and Eugenics in Alberta, 1930-1970’

March 15 Jonathan Metzl

            (U of Vanderbilt)

‘The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease’

Welcome Back, Historians!

Here we are once again at the start of a new year.  Although we do academic advising in the department in the spring, it's worth starting to think about your future career even before we all get caught up in the hamster-wheel of the academic year.  Students often wonder: "what can I do with a history degree?"  Even though we all love history here, many students believe that a history degree just won't lead to a job.

Don't worry: your prospects are better than you think.  The American Historical Association has a helpful overview of what you can do with a history degree and the Canadian Historical Association provides career advice for graduate students.  For a more tangible idea of what having a history degree means, see The Guardian for a breakdown of what U.K. history graduates did.  Indeed, not only do we know that American graduates with a B.A. in History earned more over a lifetime than other humanities graduates, but it turns out that "historian" has been listed as one of the top ten jobs!

So, positive news all around.  If you're interested in learning more, drop by to chat with your profs -- and keep your eyes open for our various departmental career-related events.

T.A. Workshop

A workshop for all teaching assistants will be held on September 9 at the Faculty Club (11:30-5:00). 

The programme is as follows:

 

11:30 Gathering

11:45 – 12:00   Welcome – Jim Handy, Head and Lesley Biggs

12:00 – 1:00  Sandwich Buffet Lunch (courtesy of the Department)

1:00 – 1:30  Professionalism in the Classroom – Robert Englebert

1: 30 – 2:00 Marking Essays – Bill Waiser

2:00 – 2:30 Plagiarism – Simonne Horwitz

2:30 – 2: 45 Break

2:45 – 3:15: Leading Class Discussions – Lisa Smith

3: 15 – 3: 50 TAs and TAing: What I wish I knew when I started this job -- Deanna Diener, Frances Reilly, Brenan Smith

3: 50 – 4:00 Final Remarks – Martha Smith

4:00 – 5:00 Beer and chips

Lots to learn, but with lots of opportunities to socialize, too.  We look forward to catching up with our old T.A.s and meeting our new ones.  See you there!