By: Emily Putnam

A brand-new history course called From Walkmans to West Edmonton Mall: The material culture of the 1980s in Canada offers a hands-on exploration of object-based research, shedding light on the cultural shifts and iconic artifacts that defined a generation.

The upcoming full-year, fourth-year course (2024-2025) on the eccentric 1980s was created as part of the Students as Partners Program (SaPP) and in collaboration with . It will offer an immersive experience to students, allowing them to explore, observe, and even use authentic items from a national museum’s collection of signature objects from ‘the decade of decadence.’

But as History Professor James Opp, co-creator of the course, explains, the cultural world of the 80s was a lot more complex than how it is often caricatured in contemporary media.

Notably, the course will allow students to tell new stories about the objects in creative ways, working in multi-media formats that link the object to the sounds and sights of the decade.

While Opp will encourage students to use new media and technology for their work in the course, they will be prompted to venture beyond nostalgia and deeply consider the impact of new technologies in a pre-digital world. 

He notes that the 1980s were the last decade of the Cold War, when nuclear threats were still very real, the purges of gay and lesbian civil servants and military personnel were ongoing, the unequal impacts of deindustrialization were starting to be felt, and the AIDS crisis created new moral panics. 

Angela Mortimer, a final-year history student who helped Opp develop the course through SaPP, shares Opp’s fascination with the decade and believes one way to better comprehend the multifarious juncture of time is to explore its hallmark tangible artifacts.

“Material culture and object-based research are a great way to feel more of a personal connection to history. There is an opportunity to use more of your senses; it is not just looking and reading; it is touching, smelling, and listening to the object.”

Moreover, Mortimer underscores the power of material culture to connect with history when a personal link endures.

Professor Opp is thrilled to have Ingenium as a partner for this course, as it will provide students with an extraordinary opportunity to experience the object firsthand and gain insight into how museum mandates govern what and how is collected and the deep research that goes into these collections.    

Mortimer also expresses her excitement: “Students will be writing, researching, and creating their final projects about their chosen tangible objects that Professor Opp and I have requested, and Ingenium will so kindly set aside. This means real hands-on experience working with artifacts.”

Notably, the course will allow students to tell new stories about the objects in creative ways, working in multi-media formats that link the object to the sounds and sights of the decade.

While Opp and Mortimer will encourage students to use new media and technology for their work in the course, they will urge them to venture beyond nostalgia and deeply consider the impact of new technologies in a pre-digital world.

“Looking back at the 1980s puts this digital revolution into relief and allows us to rethink how we interact with material objects and how our current relationship to material media has been altered and reshaped,” says Opp. 

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By Emily Putnam

Save the date for the on Saturday, June 1 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the .

The exhibit, called , features prints, paintings, kinetic sculptures and woven pieces from several artists and explores the beauty and complexity of visual patterns as an art-making practice that transcends both cultural boundaries and time.

Fara Abn, a PhD candidate studying in Cultural Mediations at 杏吧原创, curated the exhibition and structured its theme around visual patterns in life and art.

She says the double meaning invites the viewer to analyze the patterns in their own life.

鈥淭here are so many acts and habits in our daily routines that we repeat over and over to a point that they lose their meanings. Just having a fresh perspective and being able to review those actions in a different way would be my hope.鈥�

In explaining this shift of perspective, Abn nods to 鈥檚 work, an Anishnabe (Ojibwa) artist .

Attendees can also take part in related on-site workshops to create their own visual patterns and discover how they can evolve and be amplified, aiming to disrupt the ways that our perceptions are shaped and reshaped.

Both the exhibit and workshops are free and open to the public.

Fara, who鈥檚 stay has now been extended at Canada Council beyond her practicum, says the experience she鈥檚 gaining is instrumental insight into her field of study.

鈥淭he fact that it has become a continuous and sustainable relationship with the team is the biggest rewarding part. I’m learning so much about Canadian institutions and working at the Art Bank has been a great opportunity to learn about their collection.鈥�

She says her studies at 杏吧原创 have helped prepare her for this position.

Those who are unable to attend the in-person viewing on June 1 or looking to amplify their visit will be able to download the Art Bank鈥檚 new app that allows even more access to the collection.

Fara was a main writer on the project and says it will also include the upcoming exhibit, Madwey脿shk脿 (Like a Wave) at on June 18.

鈥淚t’s all part of an attempt and also mandate of the Art Bank to reach as many people as possible and in a more democratic way, be able to talk about the collection and talk about their activities and the artworks that they look after.鈥�

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The History Department regrets to inform the university community that our colleague Deborah (Debby) Gorham passed away on the 17^th of April 2023 in Canmore, Alberta.  Debby Gorham was a professor emerita with a long and distinguished career.  Born in New York City in 1937, she grew up in a household of ideas and political engagement.  She obtained an undergraduate degree in philosophy at McGill, began graduate studies in philosophy at Harvard, then switched to the study of British labour history at the University of Wisconsin (Madison).  She earned her Ph.D. in History at the University of Ottawa.  Her road to that doctorate was not straight or straightforward, but in 1971, she began to teach at what was then St. Patrick鈥檚 College (now part of 杏吧原创 University), where she pioneered the study of women鈥檚 history and women鈥檚 studies in Canada.

Her first book, The Victorian Girl and the Feminine Ideal, published in 1982, opened pathways for the examination of gender and youth; it was an international influence in the emerging field of women鈥檚 history.  She continued to write about women with a study of British writer and pacifist Vera Brittain (1996) and an award-winning biography of Ottawa politician and activist Marion Dewar (2016).  In recent years, she had been working on a study of the life of American writer Ursula Le Guin.

Throughout, she also maintained an active interest in the peace movement and progressive education and was a generous mentor to many of her younger colleagues.  Besides her work in the wider Ottawa community, she was active in building intellectual communities with her role in the founding of 杏吧原创鈥檚 Feminist Institute for Social Transformation (now the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies) and Joint Chair in Women鈥檚 History.

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The Management of Natural Resources and the Environment in Canada: Historical and Transnational Perspectives

Although pandemic restrictions delayed the 2021 autumn series, the Shannon Lectures in History are just around the corner with a spring 2022 edition.

杏吧原创 the Series

The Shannon Lectures in History are a series of thematically linked public lectures offered at 杏吧原创 University and made possible through a major gift from a long-time friend of the Department of History.

The spring 2022 lectures will explore historical and transnational perspectives on the management of natural resources and the environment in Canada.

The lecture series involve a predominantly Canada-oriented range of environmental experiences, and feature corresponding transnational perspectives, in conversations with African environmental/resource management experiences/practices from Ghana. Proceedings are aimed at generating historical knowledge of our collective transnational experience of the environment and its resources, which, hopefully, should add to existing knowledge in history, government policy formulation, environmental protection efforts, legal frameworks on the environment, resource management, among others.

Spring 2022 Shannon Lectures

Mr. Stephen Osei-Owusu (Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D. Candidate, History) will convene the virtual lectures with support by Professor Dominique Marshall (Chair, the Shannon Endowment Committee, History).

These sessions will be recorded and uploaded to the 2022 Spring Shannon Lectures webpage.

Orcas, Pipelines, and the Politics of Science on the West Coast

Friday, May 27th, 2022 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Speaker: Dr. Jason Colby (Professor and Chair, Department of History, University of Victoria)

Small-Scale Fisheries in Ghana:
Historical and Transnational

Friday, June 10th, 2022 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Speaker: Dr. Joseph Aggrey-Fynn (Associate Professor, Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Cape Coast)

Grass in the Cracks: Gender, Social Reproduction and Climate Justice in the Xolobeni Struggle

Friday, June 24th, 2022 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Speaker: Dr. Shireen Hassim (Canada 150 Research Chair in Gender and African Politics, Institute of African Studies, 杏吧原创 University)

What is Nature?: The Rise and Fall of Moncton鈥檚 Petitcodiac Causeway

Friday, July 8th, 2022 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Speaker: Dr. Ronald Rudin (Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Concordia University

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As a mentor in the Enriched Support Program (ESP) at 杏吧原创, Taylor Reid is now giving back to the program that she credits for helping her get accepted at 杏吧原创 and flourish in her BA degree.

As a second-year combined Anthropology and History student with a minor in Archaeology, Taylor is excelling in her courses.

鈥淚 love learning,鈥� she admits with a smile. Yet, getting to this point was a challenge and ESP provided the pathway.

Ten years out of high school, Taylor applied to 杏吧原创 University but was initially not accepted. Her high school grades were low and being in the applied 鈥� rather than the academic 鈥� track hurt her application.

Shortly after she learned that her application was rejected, she received a letter in the mail from a program that she had never heard about. The ESP offered her a bridge to 杏吧原创 and Taylor gladly took it.

The ESP is a transition program for students who, like Taylor, face hurdles to being accepted into university. By enrolling in the full-time year-long program, ESP students are able to qualify for admission to 杏吧原创 while simultaneously earning university credits. Students take first-year courses while also attending weekly workshops that provide tips, knowledge, and practices to help them succeed in their studies.

Taylor recalls that when she began the ESP last year, 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have a lot of faith in myself. I was nervous about university classes. I didn鈥檛 know how to do an essay with proper citation, carry out research, etc.鈥�

The ESP workshops and support helped her to 鈥渟ee that I am university material by just showing me the math equation that is university: keeping an agenda, having checklists, having relationships with a tutor or a coach, asking questions, signing up for extra lessons that can help me. All these small things help enormously.鈥�

The program gave her confidence and the skills she needed to do well in her courses.

After successfully completing the program, Taylor was honoured when she was asked to be an ESP mentor. As a mentor, Taylor offers support to ESP students as they learn to navigate the university themselves. She advises ten mentees, meeting with them one-on-one and assisting them when they have questions or need help.

Her aim is to help them utilize the full array of ESP supports, so each of them can individually benefit from their 杏吧原创 experience as much as she has.

Taylor鈥檚 accomplishments have not gone without recognition. She is the inaugural winner of the Chicken and Boots Bursary, a financial award given to assist those who have experienced homelessness or are homeless while pursuing a university education. She also won the Jean and Richard Van Loon Spirit Award for her work in the ESP program.

Today, Taylor is thoroughly enjoying her academic programs and is thinking of pursuing an MA in Anthropology.

She always was fascinated by History, the program she had applied for at the beginning, while Anthropology was entirely new to her.

鈥淚 had no idea what Anthropology was,鈥� she admits.

Her introductory Anthropology course showed her that the discipline offers students approaches that one can also find in Sociology, Psychology, and History, while also providing insights into cultural dynamics and everyday life for differently situated people.

鈥淚 am very street-wise and the ethnographies I read speak to me,鈥� Taylor reflects, explaining that they provide insights into the challenges, struggles, and successes of those in a range of circumstances.

Taylor has had her fair share of challenges, but thanks to the ESP she is thriving at 杏吧原创 and proud to be giving back as a mentor.

You can learn more about the Enriched Support Program at 杏吧原创 by visiting carleton.ca/esp.

Original story courtesy of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology: /socanth/2022/highlighting-taylor-reid-anthropology-and-history-undergrad-and-the-enriched-support-program-esp

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杏吧原创 University History Professor Laura Madokoro has been awarded funding through the Ontario government鈥檚 prestigious Early Researcher Awards Program for her research project titled 鈥�Disaster Migration at Home and Abroad: A Transnational History of Canadian Relief Efforts (1900 – present).鈥�

The  (ERA) provide funding to new researchers working at publicly funded Ontario research institutions to build a research team. Madokoro鈥檚 project is set to receive $140,000, which includes operating costs for a research centre, and is matched with an additional $50,000 from 杏吧原创 University. 

Madokoro鈥檚 research program, The Disaster Lab, explores the history of displacement, disasters and migration. In an innovative turn, the program looks at the history of disaster relief in the Canadian context through a transnational lens, investigating the relationship between domestic relief efforts and the growth of international humanitarianism, beginning with a critical investigation of data from the . 

鈥淚 want very much to contribute, as a historian, to contemporary conversations around climate change and environmental refugees,鈥� says Madokoro.

Alongside her, a team of graduate students will be working through the CDD database, maintained by Public Safety Canada, to identify historic incidents where people were displaced as a result of a disaster or as a result of relief efforts.

鈥淲e know, for instance, that the Halifax Explosion in 1917 caused the displacement of thousands,鈥� says Madokoro. 鈥淲hat we don鈥檛 know for this particular incident, and for many others, is how discussions of relief shaped long-term discussions around displacement, citizenship and relocation.鈥�

Central to the program鈥檚 publicly-oriented research, the ideas and activities of state actors (federal, provincial and municipal authorities), non-state actors such as the Canadian Red Cross as well as communities and victims will be explored in tandem. 

The program will investigate how migration, as a temporary or permanent solution, has been part of the response to disasters historically and how notions of responsibility vis-a-vis citizens and non-citizens have changed over time. This includes decisions by victims themselves to move on a temporary or more permanent basis.  

鈥淔or me, this [change over time] is particularly important given the history of settler colonialism in Canada and the manner in which Indigenous peoples have been assisted in times of strife, situations often created or exacerbated by the history of colonialism itself,鈥� she says. 

The research team has already started to meet and Madokoro says the graduate students have begun to shape the project in interesting ways. 

鈥淭heir preliminary, foundational research on the project will shape the questions that the project will ultimately ask of the past and present,鈥� she says.

Madokoro says this project will focus on moving beyond legal definitions of citizenship to understand the substance and lived experience of citizenship and to understand the way that notions of responsibility in times of strife are shaped by a sense of obligation to citizens and non-citizens.  She points out, also, how the sense of responsibility towards Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples has historically been wildly different.

The research team will maintain a public-facing website, which will document the results and also the processes that animate the research on this project. They also plan to work with high school youth on issues of citizenship and responsibility in an era of global climate change, aiming to encourage what Madokoro hopes will be 鈥渟ustained and informed conversations about relief and responsibility rather than reactive dialogues in times of crisis.鈥�

Madokoro says 杏吧原创 University is a wonderful home for this project.

鈥淭he work by scholars in the Department of History on the history of humanitarianism, initiatives in the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies and the interdisciplinary dialogues advanced by the Migration and Diaspora Studies Program and colleagues in Law and Legal Studies, lend themselves to a dynamic exchange about many of the issues connected to this project,鈥� she says.

鈥淚 am hoping that students interested in questions of citizenship and migration, disaster and crisis, who are already attracted by the fabulous work happening at 杏吧原创 University will consider becoming involved in the work of this project as well.鈥�

Madokoro is one of 53 researchers across Ontario receiving this 15^th round of ERA funding. View the full list of funded projects .

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To celebrate , which is from May 30 to June 5, 2021, the  (CUDRG) is launching a new virtual exhibit, .

The series asks how we can change the dominant perceptions of disability in society. Despite the fluctuating, permeable, and time-contingent nature of disability, it is often characterized in medical, social, and even scholarly circles as a binary condition or 鈥渋llness鈥�. Disability is too often viewed as the result of a tragic event, rather than an identity with which the majority of us will come to identify at some point in our lives. As a consequence, disability is marginalized in the present, which is why this series looked ahead with optimism towards disability futurity.

Disability Futurity refers to the disability of the future and envisions a future marked by a very different concept of 鈥渄isability鈥�. In this speaker series, the 杏吧原创 University Disability Research Group (CUDRG) and the (CCDS) seek to re-imagine what disability will mean in the future. Speakers and participants from a range of perspectives explore the growing significance of disability identity outside of the current dominant category of 鈥渘ormativity鈥�.

Through this exhibit, you will find recordings of the speakers’ lectures and the discussions that followed (with closed captions and described video available), English transcripts of the events, some French-translated transcripts, and a range of online resources, further reading, and teaching materials.

Additional Projects

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The annual聽聽are a community-driven event meant to celebrate the diversity of work that happens every year under the banner of 鈥榙igital humanities鈥�. There is a wide variety of work falling under several different categories. This year, we had four MA students and 1 BA student nominated, our聽best showing ever. Well done everyone! Being nominated for an award is a recognition of the innovative work that we do around here.

Yesterday evening, the We are extremely pleased and proud to say that Chantal Brousseau鈥檚 Introduction to Digital Archaeology was nominated in the category of 鈥楤est Exploration of DH Failure/Limitations鈥� and鈥β�it won!

Critically examining what works (or not) and why, along with the implications for what we can know, is a key aspect of what makes digital work in history and the humanities more broadly what it is; extremely strong pieces from faculty in the US and from various journals were also up for consideration in this category this year. Chantal鈥檚 of her own work in the context of the broader historiography was powerful and persuasive. Congratulations Chantal!

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