History News

President Alastair Summerlee will be speaking about his recent visit to famine-stricken East Africa, on October 28th at 12pm in the UC Courtyard. His address will preclude a discussion with Professor Femi Kolapo, which will address a variety of issues and moral questions pertaining to the 2011 Horn of Africa Famine. The discussion will also be a fundraiser for the World University Service of Canada’s (WUSC) “Shine a Light Campaign”. This initiative is run through the WUSC Student Refugee program and is aimed at expanding the education of young people, and especially girls, in refugee camps in Kenya and Malawi.  Get the flyer: .pdf

The Centre for Scottish Studies is delighted to announce the publication of The Shaping of Scottish Identities: Family, Nation, and the Worlds Beyond, edited by Jodi A. Campbell, Elizabeth Ewan, and Heather Parker.  In 1994, T.C. Smout pointed to the concentric loyalties which go to make up the identity of those who see themselves as Scottish. Building on the last decade of new research, this volume continues this discussion with the second volume in the Guelph Series in Scottish Studies exploring the multi-faceted construction of Scottish identities from the medieval to the modern era.

by Susan Bubak for at Guelph       It’s a researcher’s dream come true: digitization is making rare books and historical records available and searchable online. “Computers are changing the way we do pretty much everything,” says Stuart McCook, history professor and associate dean of research and graduate studies in the College of Arts. Digitization and its impact on humanities research will be the subject of the Tri-University Digital Humanities Workshop from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1. Presented by the University of Guelph, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, the conference will focus on digital applications and tools for humanities research.                    
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Lisa Cox, a PhD history student at U of G, has been cataloguing the collection since May along with University professor emeritus Ian Barker and two other history students – master’s student Melissa Segeren and undergrad Jennifer Bardon. They hope to make their database of written records and photographs available on the Internet. - from at Guelph (read the story)

History professor Kevin James is returning to the small screen, this time in the United Kingdom. James took part in a television series on Scotland and tourism that is set to air on the BBC Oct. 6.

Our congratulations go to History Department instructor Dr. Robert Davison, who has just released a new book with Ashgate Publishers. The Challenge of Command: The Royal Navy's Executive Branch Officers, 1880-1919 is the latest volume in Ashgate's Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies Series.  Get the flyer: .pdf      

The Department is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Christine Ekholst for a three-year appointment as Assisitant Professor of Medieval and Early Modern Europe and Gender History, effective this month.  Dr. Ekholst holds her PhD from Stockholm U (2009) and writes and collaborates extensively in the field of gender and law in medieval history.  As a postdoctoral researcher she has worked with Dr Nancy Partner at McGill University and with Dr. Judith Bennett at the University of Southern California. Dr. Ekholst brings strong scholarship, outstanding teaching, and commitment to new pedagogies and new ways of engaging students. We know she will be a strong colleague and will energize and inspire our students in medieval, early modern and gender history. Welcome Christine!

History Professor explores our fascination with the unknown.   - by Teresa Pitman
From the mid-19th to the early 20th century, there was great interest in séances and other supernatural occurrences. Inevitably, there were also many people attempting to understand and explain these puzzling phenomena. U of G history Prof. Sofie Lachapelle’s new book Investigating the Supernatural (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011 and noted in Vanity Fair magazine's "Hot Type" column this past June) provides a fascinating look at the various attempts made to explain séances and other such events with a focus on events in France.         Read more in @Guelph

U of G history professor Matthew Hayday says Ottawa’s Canada Day celebration is a great way to celebrate being Canadian. But it’s also a party designed and orchestrated by federal politicians to send their own messages to citizens. With the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attending this year’s event on Parliament Hill, partygoers may witness the beginning of a new relationship ─ or the new look of an old relationship ─ with Britain’s royal family. ...
          - by Teresa Pitman       (read the story)