Book your calendars – the International Federation of Public History (IFPH) has launched their Call for papers (CFP) for the 2026 International Conference of Public History which will take place in September 2026.听

The 8th International Conference entitled, “The Public History of Difficult Pasts,” will be听 held in Lisbon, Portugal from September 7-11, 2026.听

Proposals are open now for panels, papers, and working groups:

Submit your panel proposal听.

Submit your paper proposal听.

Submit your Working Group proposal听.

All submissions are due by Nov 30, 2025.

For more information please follow the IFPH at:

Join us this Fall (Sept-Nov 2025) starting Monday Sept 22nd for the Shannon Lectures in History The Shannons are a series of thematically linked public lectures offered at 杏吧原创 University each autumn and made possible through the Shannon Donation, a major gift from a long-time friend of the Department of History.

Lecture 1: September 22, 7:00-8:30pm, Dominion-Chalmers Centre
Fighting for Their Place and Recognition: Canadian Servicewomen and Women Veterans in Post-Second World War Canada

Lecture 2: October 6, 7:00-8:30pm, Dominion-Chalmers Centre
Cold War Consent? Military Experimentation and Research Ethics in Mid-Century Canada

Lecture 3: October 20, 7:00-8:30pm, Dominion-Chalmers Centre
The Transnational Making of United Nations Peacekeeping

Lecture 4: November 3, 7:00-8:30pm, Dominion-Chalmers Centre
This is not my story, but yours: The Russ Moses residential school memoir

Bonus Shannon Lecture: November 19, 3:00-5:30 pm, Mayfair Theatre (1074 Bank Street)
Ottawa Premiere, The Nest (2025)

Lecture 5: November 24, 7:00-8:30pm, Dominion-Chalmers Centre
Purging the Canadian military of 鈥渟exual deviants鈥�: The war on 2SLGBTQIA+ members and their partners from the 1960s to present.

The objectives of the Shannon Lecture series are four-fold:

• to explore and illuminate the social dimensions of the past, particularly with reference to the social history of Canada;
• to demonstrate the linkages between approaches to Canadian history and the wider body of international scholarship;
• to encourage cooperation and a sense of collegiality between the different communities of historians in Canada, whether in universities, public institutions, or private agencies;
• to popularize innovative historical methods, practices, or genres, and to convey them in lectures intended to engage a general audience in an informative and accessible manner
• More information: /history/shannon-lectures-history/

The Shannon Funds were donated by Lois M. Long in memory of her parents James Buchanan Long and Ida May (Davidson).

Convenor:听Jean-Michel Turcotte, historian at the Department of National Defense and Adjunct Professor in the Department of History

Description:听Post-1945 Canadian military history is rich and complex as it is shaped by thousands of members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), but also by their families, civilian workers, researchers and communities, who remain largely 鈥渦nknown鈥� in scholarship.听In partnership with the Directorate of History and Heritage,听the 2025 edition of the Shannon series, 鈥淩evisiting CAF Experiences,鈥� examines those 鈥渦nknown voices鈥� and proposes to explore various and entangled trajectories related to the CAF after 1945. As such, invited speakers will address aspects of the militarization of Canadian lives beyond the traditional narratives of soldiers 鈥渟erving鈥� in the Cold War and deployed in various peacekeeping missions. While Canadian military social history has mainly focused on the 1914鈥�1945 period, the lecture series aims to deepen our understanding of how the Cold War transformed the Canadian military and the Canadian people鈥檚 lives in profound ways.

The 2025 Shannon series extends the discussion raised in the recent book,听Cold War Worker: Labour, Family, and Community in a Nuclear State, edited by Isabel Campbell (McGill-Queens University Press, 2025). As the volume shows, the Cold War created global and Canadian demands for new technological, scientific, construction, and other labour. The experiences of those workers raise questions about the influence of settler-colonial masculine institutional values developed in the Cold War state and society. In line with those questions, our objective is to examine how the development of CAF in the context of the Cold War affected diverse Canadians, their families, and their communities in ways that were both predictable and surprising, and both beneficial and harmful. By doing so, speakers will reveal contrasting experiences of marginalized peoples (Indigenous peoples, women, LGBTQUIA+ and northerners) and elite white men (scientists and psychiatrists).听By comparing the experiences of different types of workers, families, and communities having contact with the military, this series will highlight how race, gender, and privilege affected people in varied and sometimes unexpected ways.

Unless otherwise indicated, lectures will take place at Woodside Hall in the 杏吧原创 Dominion-Chalmers Centre.听The lectures are expected to run from 7:00-8:30pm and will be streamed as well. More details to be posted as they become available.

DATE: April 27, 2024

LOCATION: The event will be held in-person only at Library and Archives Canada, Alfred Pellan Room, 395 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON K1A 0N4.

REGISTRATION: Registration for the Symposium is now open, via

FEE: The registration fee is $15 for students and community members, and $45 for professionals. Fees include light refreshments, coffee, and lunch. Advanced registration will close on Tuesday, April 23rd. Pending early registrations, tickets at the door may be available for an additional $5 ($20 students and community, $50 professionals).

QUESTIONS: Please contact the 杏吧原创 Heritage Conservation Symposium Committee heritageconservationsymposium@cunet.carleton.ca

The full programme will be available April 15th. Please consider sharing this event with interested colleagues – PDF of event poster linked HERE.

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Public History Partnership Network (PHPN) Annual Reception

Wednesday April 3, 2024 at 6:30pm ET听

After a 5 year hiatus, we are pleased to announce the return of the Public History Partnership Network (PHPN) Annual Reception. Please RSVP to join us Wednesday April 3rd starting at 6:30pm for light refreshments, networking, and a brief program spotlighting some recent public history books, events, and student work.

The Public History Partnership Network (PHPN) connects Ottawa-area professionals, graduate students, and university faculty with an interest in public history. Besides nurturing a wide range of public history work both on- and off-campus, PHPN members include institutional partners who employ 杏吧原创’s history undergraduate and graduate students in practicum and internship courses. Our annual reception celebrates these relationships, provides updates on the 杏吧原创 Centre for Public History (CCPH), and highlights recent student work in public history. Most of all, the reception is an opportunity for conversation with both old and new friends. Event support provided by 杏吧原创’s Department of History, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and the CCPH.

The PHPN reception is open to all current and former Public History students, faculty, CCPH members, and PHPN colleagues. Please share this invitation widely with other public history partners and friends.

Event Agenda:

PDF of event program

6:30pm Doors and Light Refreshments

7:00pm Program

• PHPN Welcome & Highlights by Dr. James Opp, Department of History
• Book Celebration with Dr. Tonya K. Davidson, Department of Sociology & Anthropology,
• Public History & Children’s Literature Roundtable Discussion, moderated by Rebecca Friend, Department of History (PhD Candidate, Public History)
  • Emily Lonie,
  • Krenare Recaj,
  • Valerie Kaiyang Wood,

Event Location / Time & Date:

Please join us Wednesday, April 3rd starting at 6:30 p.m. ET in the MacOdrum Library Room 252 – 杏吧原创 University 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON. Click for a map of the library.

Event Registration:

Our event is free to attend but we kindly ask that you RSVP by March 29th 听

Click HERE to view and download a poster promoting the event

The Public History Partnership Network (PHPN) connects Ottawa-area professionals, graduate students, and university faculty with an interest in public history. Besides nurturing a wide range of public history work both on- and off-campus, PHPN members include institutional partners who employ 杏吧原创’s history undergraduate and graduate students in practicum and internship courses.

The annual reception celebrates these relationships, provides updates on the 杏吧原创 Centre for Public History (CCPH), and highlights recent student work in public history. Most of all, the reception is an opportunity for conversation with both old and new friends. With the generous support of 杏吧原创’s Department of History and the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, we are pleased to be able to offer a range of refreshments and appetizers to all attendees.

This year we鈥檒l be holding our event on campus – exact location, program details, and event registration to be announced soon!

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“Enghelab Shod”: Remembering the 1979 Iranian Revolution – An Oral History Archive

Archive launch February 2, 2023

鈥淓nghelab Shod” [Farsi for 鈥淭he Revolution Happened鈥漖 is a virtual oral history archive on memories of the 1979 Iranian revolution. As a significant moment in the history of contemporary Iran, a close and intimate view of the 1979 revolution reveals much about the hopes, the fears and the aspirations of Iranian people in their more than a century-long and ongoing struggle for freedom, independence and equality. Join us February 2, 2023 for an evening of engaging with some memories from 1979 as we strive to better understand what it means to live through a revolution.

Event Details – in-person: No registration required to attend in person; please join us Thursday, February 2nd at 5:30 p.m. EST in Dunton Tower Room 2017 – 杏吧原创 University (Ottawa, Canada)

Event Details – virtual: Registration required (below) to join us virtually for the launch

Click HERE to view and download a poster promoting the event

Register to Attend Event Virtually:

Convenor: Professor听Joanna Dean, Department of History, 杏吧原创 University.

Climate Histories

A series of Monday night lectures on the history of weather and climate, held at 7 PM 杏吧原创 Dominion-Chalmers Centre, 355 Cooper St., Ottawa, or online. Sponsored by the Shannon Endowment through the Department of History, 杏吧原创 University. Co-presented with the support of the听Department of Geography and Environmental Studies.

Registration is recommended.

January 9:听Climate in the Age of Empire: Three Centuries of Canadian Weather Observations

7 PM 杏吧原创 Dominion-Chalmers Centre, 355 Cooper St., Ottawa

Victoria Slonosky, McGill University

Canada has a long听scientific heritage in weather and climate observations. Letters, diaries and weather records from the 18th and 19th centuries tell us not only about the weather, but about the people, 听relationships and networks that existed in North America and Europe. They reveal the history of theories听about听weather and climate change in Canada as far back as the 1740s.

These records are not only interesting for the history of science: they鈥檙e also used in current scientific research. Millions听of weather observations have been transcribed thanks to citizen science during the 2010s: analysis of these observations for the St-Lawrence Valley region reveals some surprising results for climatic change and variability, extreme events and hazardous weather.

Biography:

Victoria Slonosky is an historical climatologist. She is currently leading McGill鈥檚 Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW) interdisciplinary citizen science project and is an affiliated member of McGill鈥檚 Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Montreal. Her book,听Climate in the Age of Empire: Weather Observers in Colonial Canada, tells the story of Canada鈥檚 scientific heritage in the field of climatology.

January 16:听Observation Nation

7 PM 杏吧原创 Dominion-Chalmers Centre, 355 Cooper St., Ottawa

Alan MacEachern, Western University

When the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) was founded in 1871, it saw its principal duty as enlisting an army of ordinary Canadians in daily weather听observation, with the long-term goal of a steadily improved understanding of the nation鈥檚 weather and climate. But the government and public were so enticed by the possibilities of weather听prediction听that the MSC was soon drawn into that. Meanwhile, the observers continued jotting down both quantitative data (temperature, precipitation, etc.) and qualitative remarks (about the changing seasons, extreme weather, etc.) 鈥� but the MSC never found a way, or the time, to use the qualitative ones. With the Environment Canada meteorological collection now at Western University,听Alan MacEachern听is studying what these records can tell us about Canada鈥檚 weather, climate, and people.

Biography:

Alan MacEachern听teaches history at Western University. He is the author of听The Miramichi Fire: A History听(McGill-Queen鈥檚, 2020) and co-author of听The Summer Trade: A History of Tourism on Prince Edward Island听(McGill-Queen鈥檚, 2022). He is writing a book about the first century of the MSC鈥檚 observation program.

January 23:听Resilience and Adaptation in the History of Climate and Society

Online lecture

Dagomar Degroot, Georgetown University

The cause and likely magnitude of today鈥檚 global warming have no parallel in human history. Yet Earth鈥檚 climate has changed repeatedly over the 300,000-year history of our species. This talk will explain how and when it has changed 鈥� and how researchers know it has. It will then introduce the History of Climate and Society (HCS), an interdisciplinary field that considers how human populations responded to past climate changes. It will describe popular case studies in the field that identify vulnerability to climate change in past populations and focus on examples of crisis and collapse. It will then introduce new research in the disciplines of archaeology and history that uncovers examples of resilience to climate change in past populations. It will describe a series of strategies that these populations used to endure, adapt to, and even exploit past climate changes, and it will consider the extent to which we can learn from them.

Biography:

Dagomar Degroot is an associate professor of environmental history at Georgetown University. His first book,听The Frigid Golden Age, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018 and named by the听Financial Times听as one of the ten best history books of that year. His next book,听Ripples in the Cosmic Ocean, is under contract with Harvard University Press and Viking. He publishes equally in historical and scientific journals, including听Nature听and the听American Historical Review, and writes for a popular audience in, for example, the听Washington Post,听Aeon Magazine, and听The Conversation. He maintains popular online resources on the history of climate change, including the podcast Climate History. He has shared the unique perspectives of the past with policymakers, corporate leaders, and journalists in many countries, from Wuhan to Washington, DC.

February 6:听Climate Diplomacy and its Histories: Inside the IPCC

7 PM 杏吧原创 Dominion-Chalmers Centre, 355 Cooper St., Ottawa

Ruth Morgan, Australian National University

A planetary challenge such as climate change suggests the logic of an international collaborative response. The climate diplomacy that emerged at Fukuyama鈥檚 鈥榚nd of history鈥� was founded on the notion that its technocratic internationalism, underpinned by climate expertise, offered a politically neutral alternative to liberalism. These origins encouraged the expectation that climate diplomacy would neatly follow scientific advances, and produce multilateral solutions to the climate problem. That this process has proven to be more complicated warrants further inspection. In the wake of the conclusion of the IPCC鈥檚 Sixth Assessment cycle, this paper reflects on this organisation鈥檚 turn towards the humanities and social sciences in its efforts to inform the climate diplomacy of the early twenty-first century.

Biography:

Ruth Morgan is the Director of the听听at the Australian National University. She has published widely on the climate and water histories of Australia and the British Empire, including her award-winning book,听Running Out? Water in Western Australia听(2015). Her current project, on environmental exchanges between British India and the Australian colonies, has been generously supported by the Australian Research Council and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She was a Lead Author on the Water chapter in Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change鈥檚 Assessment Report 6, and co-author of Cities in a Sunburnt Country: Water and the Making of Urban Australia (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Her next book听Climate Change and International History听is under contract with Bloomsbury.

Follow the IFPH (cc: ), the University of Luxembourg (cc: ) and the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (cc: ) for more details has they are announced.

IFPH: https://ifph.hypotheses.org/

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Please join us Thursday February 2, 2023 at 5:30pm ET virtually and in-person as we launch the “Enghelab Shod” Oral History Archive

(CMW) was created to explore questions of cultural memory and exchange ideas around the subject. Cultural memory engages with the presence of the past in contemporary culture, and all of the sessions have been open to the public.

These events have been held locally in Ottawa from 2017-2018. Workshops were run by the following team of faculty and student members: David Dean,听听Tonya Davidson, and听.