Directions West Conference News

Valerie Korinek reports that twelve U of S students and faculty presented at the Third Annual Directions West Conference at the University of Calgary.


Jon Clapperton spoke "Unmaking a hunter's paradise: Rocky Mountains Park, the Stoney Nakoda, and Game Conservation" as part of the closing plenary session (which also featured Dr. Merle Massie, currently a post doctoral fellow at SENS at the U of S, and former History grad), Jon was awarded the NiCHE award for the best graduate or postdoctoral paper on environmental history presented at this conference.  


This is super news! And as Valerie notes, "Fantastic to see the U of S students do so well, and, naturally, see Jon's work awarded this distinction."

ParticipACTION

The days of ParticipACTION and Body Break will sound familiar to many readers, as a fond (or perhaps not so fond) memory. Turns out, it was a distinctly Canadian movement, as Vickie Lamb Drover (supervisor: Valerie Korinek) has been finding. Her doctoral research was recently profiled in The National Post ("The cure for national disunity: chinups and sneaker days"). You should read it.

And until then, keep fit and have fun!

With sadness

The department announces the death of Peter Burnell, whom many of you will know. The following is a tribute to Peter given by Frank Klaassen before the University Council.

I am here today to celebrate the life of my friend and colleague, Peter Burnell who died of cancer on the 7th of May, 2012.

Peter was born and raised in Cardiff, Wales. He took his BA and MA degrees at the University of Wales before coming to do a PhD in Classics at the University of Toronto in 1969. He taught at several universities in Canada and the United States before joining the Department of Classics here in 1983. He served as Department Head from 1994 until 2000. Subsequently, he moved to the Department of History where he was Full Professor until the time of his death. He was an internationally respected scholar; he wrote articles on classical literature and theology, and two books on St. Augustine, the second of which was written while he lived with cancer.

Raised on the classics from boyhood, Greek and Latin literature flowed in his veins in a way that they do for few modern intellectuals, and I never ceased to learn from him. When I asked for his assistance with translations, Peter’s suggestions were like epiphanies: unadorned yet poetic and elegant witnesses to the original texts. As a teacher, Peter was demanding, but this was wound inextricably with his charm, pointed humour, and his deep commitment to the humanistic enterprise.

In first-year Latin, Peter would routinely begin by putting a few English sentences on the board for the students to translate into Latin. One day a student raised his hand to ask a point of vocabulary: 

“Professor Burnell, what is the Latin word for “toga”?

Without hesitating Peter responded “Hmmm. What is the French for “Je ne sais pas?” He then went on to explain kindly that the Latin word for “toga” is “toga.”

Peter was a true intellectual and humanist. He had an insatiable, wide-ranging curiosity and a great moral passion. One colleague quoted F. Scott Fitzgerald in reference to him: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” The coincidence of many sorts of opposites were somehow resolved in Peter’s mind. He was at once a devout Catholic dismayed by modern innovation (by which Peter sometimes meant medieval ones) and a great interpreter and student of St. Augustine. At the same time, he was profoundly engaged by popular culture. He valued truth wherever he found it, whether in The City of God, or David Lynch’s Eraserhead, Virgil’s poetry or South Park. 

And it was with infectious delight that he would leap from the miles gloriosus of classical literature to Flash of the Black Adder television series. Another colleague remarked that at times Peter reminded him of Woodehouse’s Bertie Wooster, not for the latters silliness or inanities, but rather for his boyish innocence: “his utterly charming enthusiasm for, and delight in, things.”

Peter’s many friends were his family, and in those relationships he also embraced remarkable differences. Among the closest of these were those with whom he fundamentally, sometimes tumultuously disagreed on the most basic issues, whether intellectual or professional.  This speaks to his honesty, his intellectual passion and depth of conviction every bit as much as it speaks to his essential courtesy and civility, his fundamental good will, and ultimately, his capacity for love. These and friendship were, for Peter, inseparably wound up with the life of the mind. 

I ask you to join me in a moment of silence to remember and celebrate the life of Professor Peter Burnell.

(Substantial portions of this were drawn from the suggestions of John Porter and Bill Bartley.)

Happy News

This just in from the proud grandpapa himself...

Chris Kent and Mary Marino are thrilled to (belatedly) announce on behalf of her parents, Andrew and Leslie, the birth of a grand daughter, Lily Jane Elizabeth Kent, on February 23, 2012.

Happy news, indeed!

If you're in Waterloo on May 29th...

The presentation of Jim Miller's Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Canadian Historical Association will be held on Tuesday, May 29th. If you are going to be at Congress at that time (or will be in Waterloo for any other reason), please come out to congratulate Jim.

Time: 6:30 pm.

Place: Mathematics 3 Building, Room 106  (University of Waterloo) 

A Supernatural Trip

In History 333 ("Defining Boundaries: Natural and Supernatural Worlds in Early Modern Europe"), we studied all sorts of strange and fascinating supernatural creatures (like vampires) and curious happenings (such as a woman giving birth to rabbits). Despite our focus on early modern Europe, we took a field trip to the Museum of Antiquities on campus, where Director Dr. Tracene Harvey gave us a private tour. Our goal: to think about the continuities and differences in supernatural beliefs over time.

History 333 Students, with Tracene Harvey and her assistant Carla Watson at the front
 and the Rain Miracle god behind.

Dr. Harvey began by introducing us to the Assyrian god Pazuzu (the forerunner of the Devil) and his wife Lamashtu (who appears as a donkey on the Hell Plaque). We then moved to Egypt to look at the protective sphinx who would kill you if you couldn't answer riddles, the false tomb door to allow easy passage between the worlds, and the small faience charms to ensure safe passage after death. Next stop was the Rain Miracle Scene that commemorated Marcus Aurelius' defeat of barbarian tribes with the aid of timely rain sent by a god. Not surprisingly, pagan and Christian accounts differ on which god was involved. We rounded off the visit by looking at medieval gargoyles. Then we returned to our classroom to discuss beliefs about the devil and possession in early modern England, Netherlands, and Spain.

What struck the class is the continuance of certain practices and images over time: the use of charms to ward off sickness or evil and the persistent belief in half-human and half-animal creatures with supernatural powers. There were some changes, though. Pazuzu, for example, was a neutral deity for the Assyrians, although his appearance was co-opted in the later Christian ideas of Satan. The rain miracle reveals the differing interpretations of events by competing groups (much as possession was by sixteenth-century Protestants and Catholics).

Each week, two questions haunted our course:

• Why did certain supernatural explanations make sense more during different periods, and how did they shape peoples' experiences? 
• Why was there a growing rejection of supernatural beliefs during the late-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the educated elite who had previously believed?

At the start of the sixteenth century, a cultural shift away from the supernatural world was unimaginable. At the end of the eighteenth century, by contrast, supernatural entities such as ghosts and vampires were considered mere figments of disordered imaginations (at least by the educated elite).

Arguably, there never was a complete change, given the continued modern beliefs in ghosts. But perhaps this is to be expected. The move away from supernatural beliefs in the eighteenth century is, after all, relatively recent in the wider historical frame. As our visit to the Museum highlighted, the idea of supernatural entities regularly interacting with humans and the natural world has a long and fascinating history.

The Museum of Antiquities is open Monday to Friday, 9:00-4:00, but public tours and additional opening hours can be arranged.

Finding a Way to the Heart

The University of Manitoba Press is hosting a book launch for Finding a Way to the Heart: Feminist Writings on Aboriginal and Women’s History in Canada, edited by Robin Jarvis Brownlie and Valerie J. Korinek.

The book is a "Provocative examinations of race, gender, and identity from fourteen new and established writers." Books will be available for purchase at the launch, although you can pre-order them from McnallyRobinson.com.

Date: Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Place: Travel Alcove, McNally Robinson Booksellers
(3130 8th Street East, Saskatoon)

Light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP to miki@cc.umanitoba.ca

Blue Sky Thinking on Shelterbelts

Ph.D. student Andrew Dunlop (supervisor: Geoff Cunfer) was recently interviewed on the CBC’s Blue Sky program about his master’s research related to the history of shelterbelts in the prairies. To listen to the 10 minute interview, clicking on the Audio button half way down the page:

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2012/04/12/sk-agriculture-cuts.html

The interview is part of a larger news story about the Canadian government’s recent decision to close the shelterbelt centre at Indian Head after nearly 120 years of operation.

A Fine Prize

Congratulations to alumnus Bradley Skopyk (M.A., 2002)! While with us, he wrote an intriguingly titled thesis on "Moctezoma's Menagerie: Managing the Beast in Pre-Cortesian Tenochtitlan".  He continued his environmental interests into his Ph.D. at York, writing his dissertation on "Undercurrents of Conquest: The Shifting Terrain of Indigenous Agriculture in Colonial Tlaxcala, Mexico". This fine Ph.D. dissertation has just received the Rachel Carson prize for best dissertation from the American Society for Environmental History. 

Workshop: Situating Early Modern Science Networks

'Situating Early Modern Science Networks' will be held at Diefenbaker Centre on April 13 and 14. The programme follows below. Attendance is free, but please register by contacting Marc MacDonald (jmm328@mail.usask.ca).

Friday, April 13

10:00-10:30 Coffee

10:30-10:45 Introduction

10:45-11:15 Elaine Leong, Cambridge

Family, Friends and Neighbours: Recipe Networks in Early Modern England

11:15-11:45 Kim McLean-Fiander, Oxford

Digitizing Gender: Women's Correspondence and Knowledge Networks in the Early Modern Era

11:45 – 1:00   Lunch 

1:00 – 3:00 Digital Coffeehouse      

• Allison Muri, Saskatchewan (The Grub Street Project)
• Peter Robinson and Frank Klaassen, Saskatchewan (Textual Communities)
• Brent Nelson (Digital Ark and Textual Communities)
• Robert Iliffe (Newton Project)
• Alison Walker (Sloane Printed Books Project)
• Kim McLean-Fiander (Early Modern Letters Online 

3:00-3:30 Surekha Davies, Birkbeck
Transnational Networks of Ethnographic and Cartographic Knowledge: Mapping New World Peoples in Sixteenth-Century Europe

3:30-4:00 Brent Nelson, Saskatchewan 
Collections of Curiosities and Social Networking in the Seventeenth Century

4:00-5:30 Reception

Saturday, April 14

10:00-10:30 Marc MacDonald, Saskatchewan
L’hôtel Delessert, 1801-2: The Actualization of Networks in the Twilight of the Enlightenment

10:30-10:45 Coffee

10:45-11:15 Alison Walker, British Library

The Library of Sir Hans Sloane: 17th and 21st Century Networks

11:15-11:45 Robert Iliffe, Sussex

Early Modern Networks and the Future of Online Scholarship

11:45-2:00 Working Lunch and Digital Discussion 

Funding for this workshop has been provided by Situating Science, The College of Arts and Science, The Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, and the Department of History.

Meet the Spring and Summer Session Profs

Thinking about taking some spring and summer session courses this year?


Come find out more about History's Spring and Summer Session course offerings and celebrate the last day of term!  Please join the profs  for appetizers.

Where: Browsers
When: Thursday, April 5, 2:30- 5:30 

For more info and to R.SV.P., please email Marc Macdonald  (jmm328@mail.usask.ca).

Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal

This just in from Jim Handy, Department Head...

"Late last week we learned that Jim Miller will be awarded 

a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. This medal will be 

presented at the CHA meetings in Waterloo on May 29th by

the Governor General, His Excellency, David Johnston. The 

medal is to honour Jim's contribution to the discipline of 

History and to the CHA. 

"Recipients of the Jubilee Medal needed to be nominated by

communities and organizations. It is especially noteworthy 

that Jim was nominated for this award by the CHA 

[Canadian Historical Association], speaking volumes about

his standing among colleagues in our profession. 

"Please join me in congratulating Jim."

And indeed we do: congratulations, Jim!

Annual Book Pub and Silent Auction

The History Graduate Students' Committee's annual Book Pub and Silent Auction will be taking place Tuesday, April 3.  In addition to dozens of books, they will also be auctioning a variety of gifts donated by local businesses, faculty, and students. In past years these have included: opera, symphony, and theatre tickets; gift certificates to local restaurants and pubs; a guided canoe trip; home-cooked meals; and a variety of handmade arts and crafts.

The Book Pub is the HGSC's primary fundraiser and provides funds to put on such events as the Dave De Brou Lecture and the Keewatin Graduate Conference as well as social activities such as Halloween and Christmas parties. If you wish to donate something and have not yet done so please contact Jason Underhill (jason.underhill@usask.ca).

Date: April 3
Time: 3:00-6:00
Place: Grad Commons

HUSA's March Movie Night

Attention Grad Students:Two Professionalization Workshops

Grad students (and other interested parties), don't forget to mark your calendars for March 23! Two workshops that day that will be of interest if you're thinking about publishingyour dissertation or wondering what to do with a Ph.D. in History.

The first workshop, "How Do I Get My Dissertation Published?", will be led by Dr. Kyla Madden, Editor at McGill-Queem's Press.

Time: 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Place: Arts 710

At the second workshop, "What Can I Do with a Ph.D. Degree in History?", presenters will discuss their non-academic track careers.  Speakers include: Kristen Woods, Employment Coordinator (University of Saskatchewan); Dr. Nicole Kehrig, Marketing Coordinator (Wilson Centre); Dr. Kylan Madden, Editor (McGill-Queen's Press); and Dr. Gordon Barnhart, former Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan.

Time: 1:00- 4:30 p.m.
Place: Prairie Room, Diefenbaker Centre.

Coffee and tea will be served at both workshops. If you plan to attend, please R.S.V.P. to Nadine Penner (nadine.penner@usask.ca).

Dispatches from Alumni

Bruce Dawson (M.A. 2001, supervisor Jim Miller) has recently taken on the role of Manager, Historic Places Program with the Heritage Conservation Branch of the Ministry of Tourism Parks, Culture and Sport.  Previously, he worked as the Manager of the Records Processing Unit at the Saskatchewan Archives Board. Bruce is involved with the province’s heritage property designation program and the Main Street Saskatchewan demonstration program.

Kristina Rissling (B.A. 2010) reports that she is an Information Management Archivist with the Saskatchewan Archives Board. She has been assisting different government branches to develop their Operation Records System, as well as processing and reviewing disposal requests. The Provincial Archivist then determines whether the records are of historical significance, or can be destroyed. The highlight of her job? New challenges every day!

Not Quite the Ides Trivia Night

Guess what, folks...  It's time again for the annual Ancient and Medieval Trivia Night at the Museum of Antiquities!

There will be food! prizes! a good time to be had by all!

Date: Sunday, March 18
Time: 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Place: Engineering 2C02
Cost: Adults $12, Students $9, Children $8

What a splendid way to spend a Sunday evening -- and you'll be helping to support the Museum's volunteer programme.

A.S. Morton Lecture

The Department of History, with the College of Arts & Science, presents the first A.S. Morton Lecture in History.

Bill Waiser, the current A.S. Morton Research Chair in History, will be speaking on "Inland Country of Good Report: Henry Kelsey Revisited".

Grasslands National Park, Wikimedia Commons

Date: Tuesday, March 13
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Place: Neatby-Timlin Theatre, Arts 241

All are welcome to attend.  Reception to follow.

Rugby Chapel

Local and U of S history buffs will be interested in a recent article -- "Revived Rugby Chapel a campus treasure" -- written by Lucas Richert (Postdoctoral Fellow) for the Saskatoon Sun. Lucas traces the history of the U of S heritage site, Rugby Chapel, as the campus continues to expand.

Phantasma - A Masquerade Formal

Street Carnival, Bogota, with Personification of Disease and Medicine (Credit: Wellcome Library)

 

The HGSC is excited to invite you to put on your formal wear, don your favorite mask and attend "Phantasma - A Masquerade Formal." For a small entry fee of $10, you will be treated to an evening of music, dancing, food, fun and fabulous door prizes! 

Finger food and desserts will be served and alcohol will be for sale.

***Masks can be purchased from any local costume shop or the base and material to decorate one can be obtained at Michael's.***

Date: March 9th

Time: 6-10 p.m.

Place: Third Avenue United Church (304 3rd Ave. N.)

Cost: $10 (tickets available from HGSC executive or Nadine Penner Arts 721)

Dress: Formal