What can history teach us about how specific actors cultivate emotions in citizens?

Commentators from across the political spectrum as well as ordinary citizens have remarked what could appear as contradictory trends:  on the one hand, feelings seem to be at an historic intensity鈥攅veryone is very angry or very enthusiastic or very disappointed or very supportive or very worried or very optimistic–and on the other, it seems as if many folks can no longer feel anything at all. Both trends seem to suppress compassion for fellow citizens who do not hold one鈥檚 own political views or belong to one鈥檚 social or ethnic group.

This Humanities for Humans conversation, featuring聽Jennifer Evans聽(Professor of History at 杏吧原创 University),聽Suzanne Keen聽(author of聽Empathy and the Novel), and moderated by聽Irene Kacandes,聽asked: How can traditional alliances navigate negative political rhetoric on both sides of the Atlantic? Terms like 鈥渁ffect鈥� 鈥渃onviviality鈥�, 鈥渃ruelty鈥�, 鈥渆mpathy鈥�, 鈥渒indness鈥�, 鈥渟olidarity鈥�, and 鈥渟uffering鈥� were defined and discussed, shedding light on how feelings get generated by and mobilized through political speech.

Furthermore, the conversation explored if empathy can be taught; What can history teach us about how specific actors cultivate emotions in citizens? What can literature and the arts teach us? What strategies can enhance progress toward solutions that improve life for most people?

The event was sponsored by (NYC), an independent U.S. not-for-profit organization founded in 2017 upon the initiative of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut, and the (Berlin), a not-for-profit organization that promotes research and scholarship with a focus on the humanities.

The post Humanities for Humans conversation in NYC, featuring Jennifer Evans (Professor of History at 杏吧原创 University), Suzanne Keen (author of Empathy and the Novel), and moderated by Irene Kacandes appeared first on Department of History.

On Friday, members of the History Department came out to proudly watch our undergraduate and graduate students cross the stage for convocation.

It was an especially exciting time for one of our graduates, Mary Gunn! Not only did she win the University Medal, but she also crossed the stage that morning with her youngest son!

Congratulations to Mary, Vicente, and all their fellow graduates!

The post Two Generations of Graduates Celebrating Together appeared first on Department of History.

Congratulations to History Professor Jennifer Evans for winning the 2024-2025 Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship! The title of her upcoming lecture will be “How Photography Shaped the Sexual Revolution”.

This is our Faculty鈥檚 leading award for research excellence. It was an exceptionally strong field this year with more applicants than usual. So, many congratulations to Jen on this richly deserved recognition of her research and its importance.

杏吧原创 the fellowship

Each year, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences awards the Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship to one of its outstanding faculty members, in order to facilitate the completion of a major research project that requires significant release time. Once the year has completed, the Fellowship winner delivers a lecture on the research they were able to accomplish during their time as the Marston LaFrance Fellow.

The Fellowship was established in 1979 by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in memory of Marston LaFrance, former Professor of English and Dean of Arts at 杏吧原创 University. Each year, the recipient presents a seminar or public lecture on some aspect of the research conducted while on the LaFrance Fellowship.

The post Jennifer Evans Wins Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship appeared first on Department of History.

Krenare Recaj, PhD Candidate, and History Professors Norman Hillmer and Laura Madokoro have been awarded a for an upcoming conference titled “Memory, Politics, and Precedent: Canada and the Kosovar Refugee Diaspora 25 Years On”. The conference will be held on 2 November 2024 at the University of Toronto and is being organized in conjunction with colleagues from the Munk Centre, Pier 21, the Canadian Immigration Historical Society as well as numerous Kosovar Albanian community associations. Stay tuned for details!

The post Krenare Recaj, Norman Hillmer, and Laura Madokoro Awarded a SSHRC Connection Grant appeared first on Department of History.

Congratulations to History Professor Chinnaiah Jangam for winning the ! The  AAS 2024 Awards Ceremony will take place at the Sheraton Grand Seattle Hotel, Grand Ballroom, Second Floor on Saturday, March 16 at 10:15am Pacific Time.

杏吧原创 , translated by Chinnaiah Jangam (Yoda Press):

Gurram Jashuva is considered the father of Dalit literature in Telugu. He wrote using the Sanskrit meter in classical Telugu to prove himself an equal to Brahmin pandits.

In Gabbilam, Jashuva challenges the dominant Sanskrit and Telugu literary sphere by choosing the bat, known as Gabbilam in Telugu and believed to be a bad omen, as it is considered neither a bird nor an animal, to reflect the existential status of untouchables. He subverts the classic Meghaduta, and instead of using swans, parrots, peacocks, and
clouds as messengers like the Savarnas, he uses the stigmatized bat, that hangs upside down in temple towers, to send his message of suffering to the god Shiva.

Gabbilam presents a Dalit man as the hero and protagonist perhaps for the first time in the classical verse-epic tradition of Indian poetry, and is the earliest text to highlight the oppression, exclusion, and dehumanization of untouchables in casteist Hindu society. It occupies a pre-eminent position in the Telugu literary sphere, not just for the depiction of Dalit suffering but also for bringing the language of ordinary people into the classical medium. In its English translation for the first time, this Dalit epic can now be read and relished by a global audience.

The post Chinnaiah Jangam Wins A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation (South Asia) appeared first on Department of History.

Congratulations to PhD Candidate Krenare Recaj on the publication of her children鈥檚 book, 鈥溾�� based in part on her doctoral research, which explores the history of the Kosovar Albanian refugee movement and diaspora. The book has garnered a great deal of and been toasted by the Kosovar Consulate in Canada. Congratulations Krenare!

The post Krenare Recaj Publishes Book Based on Doctoral Research appeared first on Department of History.

As a tribute to all that David Dean has meant to our department, especially our students, to the university, and to partners near and far, we are proud to announce the formation of the David Dean Public History Fund ()  As David’s impending retirement coincides with the 20^th anniversary of the first graduating class of the M.A. in Public History Program, we wanted to launch this Fund now as a monument to one of David’s greatest legacies:  the internationalization of public history.  David is a celebrated member of the International Federation of Public History’s Steering Committee, and thanks to his leadership our students have worked for and with the IFPH and several of its international partners, including participation in its annual conference, editing its website, and contributing to its scholarly journal.  This internationalization also includes our regular engagement with the National Council of Public History (NCPH) in the United States, at whose annual conference 杏吧原创 students and staff are regular participants, and David has been a leader in this respect as well. It is for these entwined reasons that The David Dean Fund is intended to support international student travel for research and / or professionalization.  We explain more about the Fund at the website provided in this email.  

Since 2003, our students have made a massive contribution to scholarship and to the profession, but their greatest legacy might be their unwavering commitment to community-engaged and community-based practices.  Even when doing this work in Canada, sharing their work with international audiences and partners has made 杏吧原创’s impact truly global:  for example, new public history programs and student and faculty work in these programs have drawn inspiration directly from our model.  And this impact can be traced directly to our students and to David Dean. 

On Tuesday, November 28, all donations to the David Dean Fund, of any amount, will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the university as part of its annual Giving Tuesday activities.  While this will not be the last or only time that people can contribute to the Fund, next Tuesday, November 28, is a special opportunity to get this Fund off the ground and get us closer to supporting our students.  

Thank you for considering this request and for any contribution you might make on Tuesday or at any point in the future.   And please share this news with any and all!

The post ***NEW*** David Dean Fund for Public History – Giving Tuesday, 28 November appeared first on Department of History.

The following excerpt is from the article by Noah Leafloor, of the Algonquin Times. The full article, “Explorer: War Games museum exhibit prompts you to consider big questions,” can be found online.

杏吧原创 10 years ago, Andrew Burtch, a historian who works at Ottawa鈥檚 Canadian War Museum had an idea about how to offer something that directly appealed to young people.

鈥淎fter observing and approaching groups of youth in our galleries discussing arms cases, it occurred to me their point of entry was because of video games like Call of Duty,鈥� said Burtch.

Burtch is the post-1945 historian at the Canadian War Museum, and an adjunct research professor in 杏吧原创 University鈥檚 history department. He鈥檚 done a number of commemorative exhibitions, including one about the anniversary of the Korean War armistice.

Burtch simmered on the idea for a few years.

Finally, after lots of development 鈥� and pandemic-related delays 鈥� Burtch and co-author Marie-Louise Deruaz saw the  exhibit open on June 9, 2023.

鈥淧eople can play video games at home,鈥� said Burtch. 鈥淲hat we wanted to do was produce an experience where you couldn鈥檛 get on the couch.鈥�

Why should you visit?

The War Games exhibit offers five zones of history and play made possible by dozens of contributions from the CWM and Canadian Museum of History.

The CWM also received a lot of interesting responses on the exhibit.

They had a sizable amount of visitors and it is one of the more popular exhibits in recent years. Approximately 100,000 people came through between the summer and early fall. A fair number of those lie under the young age demographic.

The post Andrew Burtch Talks about the War Games Exhibit appeared first on Department of History.

On November 2nd, on the occasion the virtual talk given by Hollis Peirce and Dominique Marshall on “The Progression of Disability Rights on Ottawa,” for the series # organised by the Bytown Museum, the 杏吧原创 University Disability Research Group launched the virtual exhibit “Oral Histories of Disability Rights Activists.” It can be found here (/disability-research-group/our-exhibits/), on the recently revamped website of the CUDRG.

Hollis Peirce, MA alumnus from the Department of History, acted as consultant for the twelve oral histories, as did Sandy Barron, PhD alumnus. We interviewed Roy Hanes, who is Adjunct Professor in the Department and a long time disability activist, as well Ke Wang, who prototyped the “Contactless” technology on the Paterson Hall elevator, at the invitation of the CUDRG, before it was adopted at Pearson Airport during – and because of – the pandemic. I was co-PI, together with Therese Jennissen from the School of Social Work. We would all be glad to talk to you, if you were interested to write a story.

The making of the project is also described in an article published last Spring, to which three more Department’s allies contributed, Accessibility Institute Research Coordinator Ryan Patterson (CI), Beth Robertson, PhD graduate and Adjunct Professor, and 杏吧原创 archivist Chris Trainor, also Adjunct Professor:

Jennissen, Therese, Dominique Marshall, Chris Trainor, and Beth Robertson. 2023. 鈥溾��.&苍产蝉辫;First Monday 28 (1).

The post New Virtual Exhibit: “Oral Histories of Disability Rights Activist.” appeared first on Department of History.

On October 31st, at the Centre for Global Pluralism in Ottawa, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung hosted a roundtable discussion featuring Jennifer Evans, primary investigator of the SSHRC-supported Populist Publics project on online hate and historical misrepresentation, along with Swen Steinberg (Queens U), Dani Carron (杏吧原创 U, MA ’23) and David Yuzva Clement (杏吧原创 U). Evans and panelists presented their research on settler colonialism and the appeal of Canadian homegrown racism for German far rights in the 20th and 21st centuries. Attendees included representatives of the Canadian Labour Congress, the Rideau Institute, area NGOs, sitting MPs, students, and former diplomats.

The research findings were published this summer in Central European History and are available via open access .

The post Populist Publics Team Presents Research appeared first on Department of History.