Canadian Committee on Women’s History (CCWH)
Newsletter, 2005-6
The goal of the Canadian Committee on Women’s History (CCWH) is to support and encourage women’s history within Canada. This newsletter aims to give readers a snapshot of that activity. It begins with reports from this year’s CCWH executive. Reports from graduate students (this time focusing on a particular conference) and the independent scholars representative follow. The next report is of special interest – here we see the important results of the Committee on the future of the CCWH. Reports from the regional representatives follow, starting west and working our way east. Thanks to Lesley Cowan for her help in preparing this newsletter, and to Christophe Horguelin for the translation.
Adele Perry, University of Manitoba,
Associate Chair, CCWH
Report from the Chair
The year kicked off with the 30th Anniversary bash and a strong representation of panels on women’s history at the CHA at University of Western Ontario. The three anniversary sessions - “Race and Gender in the Making of the Canadian Historical Profession”, “Great Books in Women's History”, and “Reflections: 30 Years of the Canadian Committee on Women's History” – were extremely popular and members asked that we continue to put together special panels at the CHA. This year at York University a CCWH-organized panel picks up on the theme of the Congress – The City – focusing on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Christine Stansell’s City of Women. Beyond this panel our members are well represented throughout the program.
This past year was a fantastic one for women’s history conferences beginning with the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women in June and continuing with the Labouring Feminisms Conference at University of Toronto in September. We supported graduate students attending the latter conference and we also heard from those attending the Berks for the first time. Inspired by their words, this years graduate student report focuses on that conference.
Perennial questions and challenges concerning our role, purpose, and identity persist. Issues of inclusion/exclusion remain and we need to address questions of relevance. Last year Catherine Carstairs and Lisa Chilton designed a survey of the membership to explore some of these issues. I thank them for their dedication and look forward to discussions emanating from their findings.
One area of immediate concern is the CCWH website. It is my opinion that we need to devote more funds to ensure that the web is kept up-to-date and searchable. For those of us familiar with it and Diana Pedersen’s annual bibliographies we know it is a valuable resource but as Diana pointed out, one is hard pressed to find the bibliography from cyberspace. I would like to propose that we dedicate more money to the website/webspinner and move toward making a more pertinent site along the lines of H-Women. I thank Christine Ferguson for her webspinning over the last few years and welcome our new webspinner, Amanda Shaw from SFU.
Many thanks are in order from the chair’s seat. First I wish to acknowledge the efforts of Lara Campbell (Treasurer), Adele Perry (Associate Chair), and the executive this past year. The University of Winnipeg, under the direction of Dean of Arts Neil Besner, made a generous donation of $1000 to the CCWH. Thanks to all.
Tamara Myers, University of Winnipeg
Report from the Secretary- Treasurer
I am currently working with our new webspinner, Amanda Shaw, to update the CCWH website. By the CHA meeting in May, we plan to have an updated membership directory, membership form, and minutes. Look for this easier to navigate website, which will also highlight the wonderful bibliographies done by Diana Pedersen, by early May.
At last spring’s reception, CCWH members raised over $900 for the Barbara Roberts Scholarship fund, administered by CRIAW. Please donate generously again this year, as the success of this scholarship depends on your generous contributions.
Last year, many full time, employed members of the CCWH sponsored membership for graduate students. I would encourage everyone to think about doing the same this year-it’s a wonderful way to introduce new historians to the work and activities of the CCWH.
Lara Campbell, Secretary-Treasurer, Simon Fraser University
Independent scholars are neither professors nor students but make up an important group of dynamic women’s historians. They have been active across Canada, pursuing research, writing, publishing, teaching part-time, and working in a variety of positions as well as settings. While many independent scholars are attached to a variety of institutions, others are without any affiliation. Consequently, this diverse group does not regularly communicate amongst each other and with the CCWH.
Clearly a need exists to encourage better links amongst independent scholars so that on one hand their successes can be celebrated and on the other hand some of the difficulties associated with an independent status may be addressed. This is a call to independent scholars to have a voice in the CCHW. Perhaps a round table on this subject at next year’s meeting of the CHA could be organized.
Mary Anne Poutanen
Report on the Committee on the Future of the CCWH
The committee circulated a survey at the 2005 CHA, and then re-circulated it by e-mail this fall. In total, 36 people responded to the survey. Ontarians were vastly over-represented, perhaps because the CHA was held in Ontario this past year. 19 respondents (53%) were from ON, 5 respondents (14%) were from PQ, 4 respondents (11%) were from the Maritime Provinces, and 4 respondents (11%) were from the Prairie Provinces. 2 respondents (6%) were living abroad. All but 3 respondents were members of the CCWH, or had been members in the recent past. 16 (44%) had been members for less than 5 years, 9 (25%) had been members for 5-15 years, 4 (11%) had been members for 15-25 years and 4 (11%) had been members for more than 25 years. The majority of respondents (56%) were working as professors, while 36% were PhD students, and 8% were working as sessional instructors.
Purpose of the CCWH
Respondents were asked “Which of the following functions do you feel should be considered central to the mandate of the CCWH:
a) Provide Mentoring for New Scholars
b) Provide a social/professional network for people interested in similar areas of
research.
c) Provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and resources regarding the study
of women’s history
d) Provide a vehicle for feminist organization and action.
Respondents were allowed to check off more than one answer. 86% of people felt that B and C were central functions. 53% thought that A was central, and 50% thought that D was central. With respect to D, a number of respondents expressed concern about the decline of women’s history at the high school level. Two felt that it was better to restrict our efforts within the world of academe.
Recruitment of New Members
Respondents suggested a number of different ways of recruiting new members including making more extensive use of the Web, as well as personal invitations. A number of respondents suggest that we make links with various ethnic studies groups to recruit new members. Others suggested additional events, especially ones outside of the Congress.
Services of the CCWH
By far the most popular services are the listserve, with 72% saying that they made use of it, and the newsletter with 75% of people making use of it. Somewhat less popular were the bibliography, with 53% of people saying that they made use of it, and the membership book, with 39% of people saying that they made use of it.
Two respondents suggested that Changing Women/Changing History needed to be updated, and that this was a really valuable resource. Quite a few people said that they would like the listserve to be used more extensively, particularly for announcing regional events. One person suggested that an on-line membership directory, perhaps members only, might be more useful.
Reception vs. Dinner at the CHA
Most people (64%) said that they preferred a reception over dinner. Only 17% said that they preferred dinner. Many people indicated that they could not attend. All of the people who said that they preferred dinner (6 people in total) had been members for more than 10 years. 81% of the people who had been members for less than 5 years said that they preferred the reception. The other 19% could not attend the reception this year. In short, it seems as if newer members find the reception easier than the sit-down dinner, while some longer-standing members enjoy the opportunity to sit down and eat with colleagues. Some people liked the idea of doing both.
Special Sessions
The special sessions at this year’s CHA were hugely popular. Nearly everyone wanted to see more of them. Suggested topics included in rough order of popularity: the changing nature of women’s history, women and colonialism/imperialism, women and First Nations history, teaching women’s history, diversity of women and their experiences, women and racism, recent books in women’s history, the importance of region, a panel on younger scholars and the future of the CCWH, women and religion, women and peace, women’s history vs. gender history, women and addictions, technology.
Changing Our Name
The survey asked if the CCWH should maintain its women’s history title or if the title incorporate gender. 24 people, (67%) wanted to keep women’s history in the title. 4 people (11%) did not. Others were unsure or didn’t answer. Seven people (19%) wanted to include gender in the title, while 17 (53%) did not want to see it included. Again, many others were unsure or didn’t answer.
Many people felt torn about this issue, and several commented that it was a difficult question to answer. One respondent commented that “I am grappling with this. Women&gender? Language is important – but so are women-centered spaces.” She added that providing a women-centered space was one of the key aspects of the CCWH. One person expressed the view that gender was a separate category, “if it were tied together then the women’s angle might be pushed aside,” while another said that “Because many of us research in areas that include analysis of gender ideology more broadly…the organization’s title should be, I think, the Canadian Committee on Women’s and Gender History…The inclusion of “gender” in the title would in no way diminish our commitment to women’s history.”
Annual Business Meetings
Those who commented on the annual meetings seemed to regard them as a necessary evil. One person said that they thought that the meetings created an insider/outsider atmosphere, with too many older historians sharing memories and anecdotes; another person added that they could be more professional while a third suggested that child care be provided.
The Most Useful Aspect of the CCWH
Overall, the survey showed that there was considerable enthusiasm for the CCWH and the services it provides. When people were asked which aspects were the most useful they responded: networking, mentoring, sense of community, and a forum for the exchange of ideas.
Costs of the Survey
A student at Guelph was hired at $15/hour to create a database, and type out all of the comments. It took her 10 hours, for a total of $150.
Catherine Carstairs, Guelph University
Lisa Chilton, University of Prince Edward Island
Graduate Student Report: The `Berks’
In June of 2005, we were fortunate enough to attend the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians at Scripps College in Claremont, California. The theme of the conference was ‘Sin Fronteras: Women’s Histories, Global Conversations’ and – once everyone made it past US Customs – the over 1,400 participants from around the world forged a number of important connections. As graduate students working on Canadian topics, we were excited to see so many scholars moving beyond ‘the nation,’ a historiographical frontier that has kept too many of us from talking to each other for too long. We saw several non-Canadianists refer to Canada in their own work, and heard a number of papers showing that the Canadian past can only be understood in a global context. Another highlight of the conference was an international roundtable in which the Canadian historical profession was represented by Franca Iacovetta. The transnational conversations that took place in both formal and informal settings throughout the conference continue to affect our own thinking, teaching, and writing.
Intellectual connections aside, the Berks conference was a really fun and inspiring experience for those of us who are just beginning our academic careers. Meeting other graduate students from across Canada and around the world was an enriching experience, and we’re already looking forward to seeing many of these new friends at the next Berks. Especially exciting to junior scholars like us was the chance to listen to and meet more senior historians whose writing we were already familiar with. We heard Alice Kessler-Harris speak about the first Berkshire conference in the early 1970s, and it was great watching scholars who had been there at the beginning greeting each other and catching up. Even more exciting was the conference dance (“from 9 pm til whenever!”), where the sizeable contingent of graduate students and professors from Canada spent most of the night dancing together. It would be great to have see more Canadians (graduate students especially) at the next Berks conference in Minneapolis in 2008.
Kristine Alexander (Doctoral Candidate in History, York University)
Robin Grazley (Doctoral Candidate in History, Queen’s University)
Alison Norman (Doctoral Candidate in History, OISE, the University of Toronto)
Report from BC
(Thanks to Nikki Strong-Boag, Jacqueline Gresko, Cheryl Krasnick Warsh, Alisa Webb, Robynne Healey, and Mona Gleason for their contributions of news and publications.)
Mona Gleason - mona.gleason@ubc.ca (Department of Educational Studies, UBC) has two publications of note, including the new edition of the essential reader for women’s history in Canada.
Mona Gleason and Adele Perry, eds. Rethinking Canada: The Promise of Women’s History, 5th Edition. (Toronto: Oxford University Press, forthcoming in September of 2006).
Mona Gleason, “From ‘Disgraceful Carelessness’ to ‘Intelligent Precaution’: Accidents and the Public Child in English-Canada, 1900 to 1950” Journal of Family History 30, 2 (April, 2005): 230-241.
Jacqueline Gresko - jgresko@telus.net (History Department, Douglas College and President of the British Columbia Historical Federation), retired from Douglas College Feb. 28. She will continue to teach one course at Corpus Christi College/St. Marks UBC.
Robynne Healey - Robynne.Healey@twu.ca (Department of History, Trinity Western University) is the newly-hired gender historian at Trinity Western University, teaching gender and feminist theory and history at both the senior undergraduate level as well as in the new interdisciplinary MA programme. Her new book, From Quaker to Upper Canadian: Faith and Community Among Yonge Street Friends,1801-1850, integrates gender relations and an analysis of Quaker women in 19th century Ontario.
Robynne Healey, From Quaker to Upper Canadian: Faith and Community Among Yonge Street Friends, 1801-1850 (forthcoming from McGill-Queen's University Press in 2006).
Veronica Strong-Boag - veronica.strong-boag@ubc.ca (Educational Studies and Women's Studies, UBC) reports a new book on the history of adoption in Canada:
Veronica Strong-Boag, Finding Families, Finding Ourselves: English Canada Encounters Adoption from the 19th century to the 1990s (Toronto: OUP 2006).
Jenéa Tallentire - jltallen@interchange.ubc.ca (PhD candidate, UBC and Instructor, History Department, University College of the Fraser Valley) is aiming to defend her dissertation this summer: “Everyday Athenas: Contexts for the Material and Autobiographical Conditions of Ever-Single Women in British Columbia,1880-1930 .” She will also be giving a paper, “Thinking Through Marital Status as a Category of Analysis,” at the much-needed first conference on single women’s history, “Single Women in History:1000-2000” June 23 & 24 2006 at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.
Cheryl Krasnick Warsh - warshc@MALA.BC.CA (Department of History, Malaspina University College and Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin canadien d'histoire de la medicine) notes the publication of her collection, co-authored with Nikki Strong-Boag:
Cheryl Krasnick Warsh and Veronica Strong-Boag, eds. Children's Health issues in Historical Perspective (Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2005).
Alisa Webb - Alisa.Webb@ucfv.ca (Department of History, University College of the Fraser Valley) has an article forthcoming in the Women's History Review on girls' bodies in the British popular press, 1898-99:
Alisa Webb, "'Constructing the Body: Girls, Health, Beauty, Advice and the Girls'Best Friend." Women's History Review (forthcoming).
And the Women’s History Network of British Columbia (WHN/BC) is seeking proposals for the Fall conference: “Women & the Visual Arts in British Columbia’s History” in Victoria, September 29-30, 2006. (CFP deadline: June 1, 2006). For membership info and to receive the latest newsletter (Feb 2006) contact: whnbc@shaw.ca
Jenéa Tallentire, BC Representative
Report from the Prairies
At the University of Alberta, Susan Smith has been awarded a SSHRC Research Grant for her project “Race, Health and War: the impact of mustard gas experiments on soldiers and society.” Jane Samson has been awarded a McCalla Professorship, which provides release time from teaching and administration for nine months beginning next fall. Samson’s project and forthcoming book, “Race and Redemption: Missionary Anthropology in the Pacific,” sets British missionary writings into the larger context of science and colonialism in the Pacific world between the late eighteenth century and the Second World War and challenges traditional assumptions about the incompatibility of science and faith in this period. Erika Dyck organized a conference, “A Day of Medical History at the University of Alberta” on April 1, 2006. Lesley Cormack prepared and presented a ten part course series on the History of Science for Access TV, shown this past winter. Beverly Lemire’s new book is out: The Business of Everyday Life: Gender, Practice and Social Politics in England,1600-1900 (Manchester University Press). Sarah Carter will be joining the Department of History & Classics as the newest Henry Marshall Tory Chair, with a cross appointment in Native Studies, from 1 July 2006.
The first of two volumes originating the in the “Unsettled Pasts” conference on Western Women’s History held at the University of Calgary in 2002 is now in print. Edited by Sarah Carter, Lesley Erickson, and Patricia Roome, Unsettled Pasts: Reconceiving the West Through Women's History, was published in December 2005 by the University of Calgary Press.
At the University of Manitoba, Tina Chen won the University’s RH award for research excellence in the Humanities for her innovative work on gender, politics, and modern China. Adele Perry won the Jensen-Miller Prize for the best article in Western American Women’s History awarded by the Coalition for Western Women’s History, for “The Autocracy of Love and the Legitimacy of Empire: Intimacy, Power and Scandal in
Nineteenth-Century Metlakahtlah,” published in Gender and History, 16: 2 (August 2004) 261-288. She and Mona Gleason’s new edition of Rethinking Canada: The Promise of Women’s History was published by Oxford Canada in 2006. Esyllt Jones will join the History department in January 2007. The Department of History of the University of Manitoba, the Department of the History at the University of Winnipeg, the Winnipeg History Workshop and the CRC in Western Canadian Social History sponsored two prominent historians of women to speak in Winnipeg in the winter of 2006 -- Betsy Jameson of the University of Calgary and Donna Gabbacia of the University of Minnesota.
This past year the University of Saskatchewan history department celebrated the accomplishments of a number of our female faculty. Dr. Pamela Jordan published a monograph with the University of British Columbia Press, entitled: Defending Rights in Russia: Lawyers, the State, and Legal Reform in the Post-Soviet Era. Dr. Jordan was also awarded a SSHRC standard research grant for her new project the “Evaluation of Russian membership in the G8.” Dr. Angela Kalinowski, published a co-edited work with S.T. Stevans, and H. vanderLeest entitled Bir Ftouha: A Pilgrimage Church Complex at Carthage. (Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series Number 59, 2005). She is presently working on a SSHRC funded study entitled “ Family, Memory and Community in Roman Ephesos.” Professor Janice MacKinnon was elected to fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada, a tribute to her contributions to scholarship in Canadian women’s history and Canadian public policy. Career milestones – Dr. Valerie Korinek was promoted to full professor. New hires: Sharon Wright, a historian of early modern England (specializing in crime, women’s and gender history ) was hired to a tenure-track position in the Dept of History, at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan. Anticipated hires: The History Department has been given permission to hire in the area of American Native-Newcomer history. Additionally, we hope to have tenure-track positions to fill in Pre-industrial French Canada and Asian History. Scholars in the areas of women’s and gender histories are strongly encouraged to apply.
The University of Winnipeg has hired Ann-Laurence Caudano in Medieval History; she will start in July 2006. Tamara Myers gave the University of Winnipeg's Distinguished Faculty Lecture this year. Tamara is leaving for UBC in July and the UW will be making an appointment in Canadian History to replace her.
At the University of Regina, Robin Ganev has been hired to teach British history, replacing a retiring professor. Her research involves looking at 18th century folk songs. Last year Campion College at the University of Regina hired Dawn Flood in a new appointment in American history. Dawn’s research looks at rape trials in 20th century U.S. history. Yvonne Petry, currently on sabbatical, is working on a book on attitudes towards magic and witchcraft in sixteenth-century vernacular medical books. She received a fellowship from the Countway Library at Harvard medical school to conduct some of this research, and spent two months there in the fall semester. Sadly, Dr. Anne Leger-Anderson passed away in the spring. She retired a few years ago and had been battling cancer for several years. She was a pioneer in the field of western Canadian women’s history, as well as a professor of American history.
Heidi MacDonald, Lethbridge University, Prairie Representative
Report from Ontario
At conferences, in new publications and films, during international women’s week, and through awards, scholars of women and gender have continued to be busy this year. I am pleased to report that Catherine Carstairs, who was nominated by the CCWH for the International Federation for Research, has been elected to the board. Next year you will be hearing from Lisa Helps (lisa.helps@utoronto.ca), our new Ontario representative. These reports are far more interesting to read (and to write) when many people contribute news about events in their area. Please share!
The Labouring Feminism Conference held at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, in September was a roaring success. The weekend united scholars from across the globe for lively and engaged discussions on exciting new research and developments in labour history. Together, these scholars well demonstrated that much important work is being done that can enlarge the parameters of working-class history. Topics included the cultural history of racialized, sexualized, diseased and disabled bodies; the history of sex tourism and transnational sex-trade workers; and the cross-border nature of labour feminist ideologies in the Americas. Many of the conference papers have been submitted to co-sponsoring journals. The meeting also inspired a new publication with New York University Press, which will draw on conference plenary sessions and papers in its exploration of culture and labor in North American history. Please see the most recent issue of Left History, for Franca Iacovetta’s reflection on the conference and its feminist objectives.
Described as brilliant by Dionne Brand and enthralling by Natalie Zemon Davis, Afua Cooper’s new book, The Hanging of Angelique: Canada, slavery, and the burning of Montreal, provides a window into a little explored topic in Canadian History, slavery. Catherine Carstairs’ forthcoming book, Jailed for Possession: Illegal Drug use, Regulation, and Power in Canada,1920-1961, also promises to change the way we think about gender, race/ethnicity, and drug use in Canada. Reviewers describe
Jailed for Possession as “extremely well written”, “timely”, and “intriguing”. Along with Katie Pickles, Myra Rutherdale of York University published their edited collection, Contact Zones: Aboriginal and Settler Women in Canada’s Past (Vancouver, UBC Press, 2005), which includes essays by Rutherdale and historians from across the country. Ruth Sandwell from OISE published Contesting Rural Space Land Policy and Practices of Resettlement on Saltspring Island,1859-1891 (Montreal and Kingston, McGill Queen’s Press, 2005)
International Women’s Week generated all kinds of activity across the province in March. Nipissing University adopted the theme “Women, Religion and Spirituality” and hosted a series of events: a film about women in Islam; workshops devoted to the exploration of religious traditions and spiritual practices; and a keynote address by Dr Norma Baumel Joseph on the connections between food, gender, and religious authority. In Toronto, the Columbus Centre hosted an International Women’s Day event, which focused on the exciting new film, Looking for Angelina. Karen Dubinsky and Franca Iacovetta, along with the movie’s filmmakers discussed the complexities of translating historical research into art and domestic violence into film.
Finally, many congratulations to Joan Sangster who recently received a prestigious Killam Research Fellowship for her new project, Transforming Labour: Women and Paid Work in Post World War II Canada.
Katrina Srigley, Nippising University, Ontario representative
Report from Québec
The Quebec section of the CCWH organized three meetings at a downtown Montreal restaurant. Our informal meetings allow faculty members and graduate students to discuss selected themes. This year’s themes were 1) consumption; 2) recent books by two members, Magda Fahrni and Susan Mann; and 3) the uses of, and connections between, the history of sensibilities and women’s history.
The 2006 conference of the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française (IHAF) will meet in October at the Université du Québec à Montréal. This year’s theme, “L’histoire au quotidien,” is an important concern in women’s history. The call for papers (and soon the conference programme) can be found at the following address: http://www.cam.org/~ihaf/ . Recent Publications :
Bettina Bradbury and Tamara Myers, eds. Negotiating Identities in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Montreal (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005). — With contributions by Denyse Baillargeon, Marie-Ève Harbec, Karine Hébert, Darcy Ingram, Suzanne Morton et Anna Shea, Mary Anne Poutanen, Jarrett Rudy, Sylvie Taschereau, and Brian Young.
Magda Fahrni, Household Politics: Montreal Families and Postwar Reconstruction (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).
Andrée Lévesque, ed. Madeleine Parent Activist, trans. by the author (Toronto: Sumach Press, 2005). First published as Madeleine Parent, militante.
Susan Mann, Margaret Macdonald: Imperial Daughter (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005). Susan Mann, Lionel Groulx et l'Action française. Le nationalisme canadien-français dans les années 1920, trans. Manon Leroux (Montréal: VLB, 2005). First published as Action française: French Canadian Nationalism in the 1920s (1975).
Finally, three prestigious prizes were awarded to Dominique Deslandres and Denyse Baillargeon. In June 2005, the CHA gave Dominique Deslandres the Sir John A. MacDonald Prize for her book Croire et faire croire. Les missions françaises au XVIIe siècle (1600-1650) (Paris: Fayard, 2003). On the same occasion, Denyse Baillargeon received the Clio Prize (Québec) for Un Québec en mal d’enfants. La médicalisation de la maternité,1910-1970 (Montréal, Remue-ménage, 2004). In October, that same book received the Prix Lionel-Groulx–Yves Saint-Germain, awarded by the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française for the best book on the history of French America.
Amélie Bourbeau (doctoral candidate in history, Université du Québec à Montréal)
Québec representative
Report from the Atlantic region
The second Symposium on Teaching Women's History at Atlantic Canadian Universities was hosted by the History and Classics Department at Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, on 17 September 2005 (special thanks to Gillian Poulter and Leigh Whaley for their hard work on this event!). Despite dire storm and wind warnings, faculty and graduate students representing most of the Atlantic area universities gathered at Acadia for a symposium on the theme of "Teaching Women's/Gender History: Problems, Methods and Sources." The meeting included a session of three papers on this theme (presented by Elaine Naylor (Mount Allison), Marie Hammond
Callaghan (Mount Allison), and Lisa Chilton (UPEI)), small group discussions, dinner, and a presentation of a series of short films useful for the teaching of women’s history. Participants enjoyed the opportunity of sharing their expertise and debating problems and methods.
Margaret Conrad (UNB) is a co-investigator in a team that just received a $983,218 CURA grant from SSHRC (2006-2011) to explore aspects of Canadian history and identity. The funded study will probe how gender, income, culture, region, and language influence the way people engage the past, while several case studies (e.g., Aboriginal, Acadian, immigrant, Newfoundland, and Labrador) will offer a more in depth analysis of the impact of historical consciousness on notions of individual and group identity.
Several new hires in the region are of interest to historians of women and gender. Dalhousie University recently hired three specialists in the history of music, all of whom study women and gender in music: in the Music Department, Jacqueline Wright and Steven Baur; in the History Department, Jolanta Pekacz. Dalhousie’s History Department has also recently hired Todd McCallum, who is now teaching a senior seminar course in history of sexuality. Wendy Churchill will be joining the History Department at the University of New Brunswick, and Sasha Mullally will take up a Hannah Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Gorsebrook Institute at Saint Mary’s University in July 2006.
Gillian Thompson has been awarded a “Distinguished Service Award” by the University of New Brunswick. The award “honours outstanding research, teaching and administrative contributions.” Among other things, Gillian’s service as Secretary to the Task Force on the Status of Women (1975-78), her work as Adviser to the President on Matters Pertaining to the Status of Women (1980s), and her position as one of four Founders of UNB’s Women's Studies Programme (1985) is being recognised. Gillian retired from the Department of History at UNB in 2005, after 33 years of service at the university.
Lisa Chilton (UPEI), Atlantic Region Representative.