Happy Holidays!

Check out our many events that are upcoming after the Holiday break here.

Pictures from the Festive Eve

HGSC Festive Eve December 5th

Greetings, history people!

The HGSC is holding its "we survived the term" celebration this Friday, 5 December, at 8:30pm at 811 8th Ave N. We'll be providing a few finger foods and non-alcoholic refreshments. There will be a limited supply of alcoholic drinks, so BYOB and if you plan to drink please make sure you have a safe way home. (Actually, make sure you've got a safe way home, either way.)

We hope you'll brave the cold and come enjoy a fun evening with friends and colleagues. Family and partners are, of course, welcome!

All the best,
Michelle & Scott
HGSC Social Directors

HGSC Statement Regarding Impaired Process at the GSA

HGSC STATEMENT REGARDING IMPAIRED PROCESS AT THE GSA

In light of the allegations against President Vlahu and general turmoil and dysfunction within the Graduate Students Association (GSA), the History Graduate Student's Committee (HGSC) would like to make a statement:

The conduct of the GSA and its executive reflects poorly upon all graduate students at the University. The current state of the GSA as a representative body is deplorable. While accusations from those students seeking impeachment have been perceived by outside parties as indicating that a "leadership crisis" exists, we propose that this state of affairs actually constitutes a more general "GSA crisis." The current deadlock demonstrates the failure of the GSA to function as intended.

We call on all GSA course councillors to return to decorum and allow the business of student government to continue unobstructed. We seek not to end debate or even disagreement, but desire that our governance process operates in an environment where all councillors feel able to voice without fear the interests of the students they represent. The current mean-spirited discourse mars not only those directly involved, it casts all graduate students in a petty and irresponsible light.

We call on both the "Students for Accountability" and the GSA executive to present detailed evidence to support their respective positions without resorting to inflammatory language and defamations of the opposing viewpoint. Until adequate information to the contrary is provided, we continue to support the current democratically elected president and executive.

We call on all students to recognize that the current GSA Constitution and Policies does not specify the manner in which executive meetings must be recorded and that previous executives have operated with far more autonomy, financial mismanagement, and shoddy record keeping — without complaint. It is in the interests of all students for the GSA to govern within the parameters of the current Constitution and Policies, while the Policy Review Committee completes its work.

The HGSC anticipates a time when reason will prevail and it may be possible to represent the interests of our history colleagues in a student government free of petty politics and personal attacks.

Lecture: "The Day the Wind Carried the Smallpox Sickness Among Them"

"The Day the Wind Carried the Smallpox Sickness Among Them"
Dr. Keith Carlson
Seven Days That Changed the World Lecture Series
Sponsered by the Department of History
Date: Tuesday November 18th 
Time: 6pm 
Location: Hose and Hydrant Brewing Company

Photos from Grant Writing Festival

Thank you to everyone who attended the Grant Writing Festival!  It was a successful event.

Event: Grant Writing Festival

Are you struggling with your SSHRC application?  Postdoc and fellowship deadlines getting you
down?  Join us on Friday October 24th for a grant writing festival!  Bring your questions, proposals, and programs of study for some feedback from your fellow graduate students.  If you are ahead of the game we would you love you to come and help others!

Pizza will be provided.  Please RSVP on our facebook group here or in the comment section below.

Date: Friday Oct 24th
Time: 5:30-8
Where: Grad Commons

Lecture: The Day Malthus Invented a Population Problem

"The Day Malthus Invented a Population Problem" 

Dr. Jim Handy

Seven Days That Changed the World Lecture Series
Sponsered by the Department of History
Date: Tuesday October 28
Time: 6pm
Location: Hose and Hydrant Brewing Company

New and Improved Welcome BBQ Pictures

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the BBQ last week.  Here are some pictures:

New and Improved Welcome BBQ

Hello, History Graduate Students!

The HGSC Welcome Barbeque, much like the phoenix of myth, has risen from the ashes. It has resurrected to provide you the opportunity to celebrate the start of term and meet up with friends and colleagues, both old and new.

When: Friday, 26 September, 5:30PM

Where: 811 8th Ave N

What: Barbeque and Potluck. The HGSC will provide meat and veggie burgers, as well as some non-alcoholic beverages. We are asking everyone to please pitch in and bring a salad, a side, a dessert, or some extra beverages. BYOB

**Every year we try to guess the amount of veg burgers to buy and every year we get it wrong, so if you're a vegetarian/prefer veg and are thinking of attending, please email michelle[dot]desveaux [at]gmail.com so we can try to get the number right for once.**

How to get there: Route 4 Mayfair (provided it is running) stops a block away on 7th Ave N. It is also a relatively short walk from downtown. Please plan ahead to get home safe; if you will be drinking arrange for a sober ride home.

Partners and families are, of course, welcome, and we hope to see you all there!

~Michelle Desveaux

Pictures from 2014-2015 Welcome Event

New 2014-2015 Executive

Congratulations to the new HGSC executive for 2014-2015

President: Erin Spinney
Vice President: Colin Osmond
Secretary/Treasurer: Dustin McNichol
Communications: Frances Reilly
Social Media Editor: Jessica DeWitt
Faculty Liaison: Jennifer Hanson
PhD Workshop Coordinator: Glenn Iceton
Social Directors: Michelle Desveaux, Scott Berthelette
GSA Representatives: Anne Janhunen, Dallas Posavad, Tyler Reimer, Cynthia Bottomley, Bronwyn Craig

Joan Mitchell Travel Award Applications Due Nov. 28

Do you have research to do in the Laurier archives?  Apply for the Joan Mitchell Travel Award.  Applications are due November 28, 2014.

GSA Workshop: From Grad Studies to Employment

Date: September 12, 2014
Where: Grad Commons
When: 10-11:30
Register here: https://careerlink.usask.ca/home.htm

Are you wondering what to do once you have completed graduate studies? Unsure about career options?

Meet with Student Employment and Career Centre (SECC) staff to learn more about SECC programs and services that are available to you, find out about career possibilities for graduate students, and learn how to effectively market your skills and expertise to potential employers.  This panel session will include answers to some common questions that graduate students ask, followed by the opportunity to network with SECC staff and ask your specific questions either in a group setting or one-on-one.

Be sure to register early as spots will fill quickly!

We look forward to meeting you!

Photos from Riverboat Cruise

It was a great afternoon for our cruise on the Prairie Lily.

2014 Welcome Prairie Lilly Riverboat Cruise

Due to lack of interest and scheduling difficulties our Welcome BBQ for this year has been postponed.

Those interested are still welcome to join us for the Prairie Lilly Riverboat Cruise which boards at 3:30pm (please book your own ticket here)

Date: September 1, 2014
Where: Prairie Lilly Dock
When: 3:30-5:30

Canadians Heading to Guimarães

Good luck to the HGSC students and faculty heading to Portugal for World Congress of Environmental History July 8 to 12.  See faculty member Dr. Jim Clifford's post on the upcoming conference here.  Full programme is available here.

H. N. Segall Prize Winner

Congratulations to PhD Candidate Frances Reilly the winner of this year's H. N. Segall Prize!  The Segall Prize is awarded for the best graduate student paper presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine.  Frances' paper "Sexual Psychiatry and Cold War Paradigms" was presented at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at Brock University on May 25th.

CALACS Outstanding Dissertation Award

 

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Kirkpatrick, winner of this year's Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Outstanding Dissertation Award!

 

 

 

Press release:

2014 CALACS Outstanding Dissertation Award Winner

 

The purpose of the CALACS Outstanding Dissertation Prize is to 

provide recognition to a young scholar who has significantly advanced our understanding of Latin America or the Caribbean.

 

The 2014 competition received 14 nominations, which were evaluated by three members of CALACS’ Boards of Directors. The selection committee and the CALACS Board of Directors would like to congratulate all of the nominees for the outstanding quality of their dissertations, and thank them and their nominators for participating in the competition.

 

It is with great pleasure that CALACS announces the recipient of the 2014 CALACS Outstanding Dissertation Award:

 

Michael D. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D.

Optics and the Culture of Modernity in Guatemala City since the Liberal Reforms

 

2013

History

University of Saskatchewan*

 

Supervisor: Dr. Jim Handy

 

Please join us in celebrating the award winner at special Awards Ceremony at the CALACS Congress’ Opening Reception on Friday, May 16th, 2014 at Laval University, in Quebec City. The award will be presented by Dr. Luc Mougeot, of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), which financed this year’s award.

 

We are delighted to also announce that Dr. Kirkpatrick accepted to discuss his work at the upcoming CALACS Congress and present the paper “Seeing Red and Black: Hidden Threats to the Liberal Order and Urban Cosmopolitanism in Guatemala City during the 1890s”, in the panel “Urban Space: History, Society, Environment”, on Saturday May 17 at 9:00 a.m.

 

Dr. Kirkpatrick’s dissertation examines the urban experience of modernity for the bourgeoisie in fin-de-siècle Guatemala City, between the Liberal Revolution of 1871 and the Presidency of Jorge Ubico in the 1930s, a period during which, Kirkpatrick argues, the promises of modernity and progress emerged, yet remained forever unattainable. It analyzes the tensions between the bourgeoisie’s visions of liberal utopia and the economic crises that curtail such visions, which results in a unique cultural phenomenon, what Dr. Kirkpatrick calls the  ‘cultura de esperar’ – the culture of expecting, hoping, and waiting. The study explores a wide diversity of topics, from bull fighting in cinema to the arrival of the northern railway to changes in architecture, topics that are woven together under the notion of “optics” of cultural interaction. Kirkpatrick imaginatively and thoughtfully describes how perception was altered with changing experiences of the city, influenced by moving pictures or increasing speed and height. The thesis provides a sophisticated and complex history of modernity, especially of the tensions between its many aspirations and the context of unsustainable economic industrialization.

 

This work is beautifully written, rich, imaginative, well researched, and theoretically ambitious: it draws on a wealth of archival and documentary sources, and links together a wide variety of theoretical approaches, ranging from Marx to Walter Benjamin, and from studies of representation to arts, urban spaces, architecture, economic history, spiritualism, literature, and Guatemalan cultural history.  The result is a unique and original work, which significantly contributes to understanding the tropes and ideals of modernity for an aspirational bourgeoisie haunted by the specter of its rural, indigenous population.  Ultimately, this piece is unlike any other scholarly work on Guatemala, and even on any Latin American city due to the richly textured examination of a neglected time period in Guatemalan historiography. Dr. Kirkpatrick’s dissertation is thus a model of innovative scholarly work that reveals much about the experiences of modernity in turn-of-the-century Guatemala and beyond. Congratulations to Dr. Kirkpatrick for this outstanding, original, complex, innovative work!

 

For more information on the CALACS Outstanding Dissertation Prize and a list of past winners, please visit

 

http://www.can-latam.org/dissertation_prize .

 

For more information on the CALACS Outstanding Dissertation Prize, please contact: calacs@yorku.ca

 

*The original press release read "University of Saskatoon" and has been changed. 

Travel Feature on our Research Blog

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

If you are travelling this summer to conferences or to conduct research we want to hear from you!  Please send us your pictures and stories so that they may be posted on "Thoughts Across Time."

Format: 
Words: 200-300
Details: What, when, where, why

Submit to Erin (erin.spinney@usask) or Frances (f.reilly@usask.ca).  We look forward to your submissions!

Book Pub Thank You

The HGSC would like to thank all who attended our Book Pub!  We would like to especially thank the following business, organizations, and individuals who donated items and services to be auctioned.

Business/Organizations:
The Woods Ale House
The Rook and Raven
Turning the Tide
The Better Good
Broadway Theatre
Saskatchewan Archives
Campus Rec
Rocky Mountain Chocolates
Body Works
Amazing Stories
Attridge Co-op Grocery Store 

Individuals:
Leslie Biggs
Jim Miller
Jessica DeWitt
Dustin McNichol
Erin Spinney
Frank Klaasen
Glenn Iceton
Anne Janhunen
Cynthia Bottomley
Katya MacDonald
France Reilly
Kelly Butler
Jessica Campbell
Bill Waiser
Bronwyn Craig
Jason Underhill

A reminder to those who have yet to pay their outstanding money please contact Michelle michelle.desveaux at gmail.com 

Book Pub Announcement

The HGSC Book Pub is this Friday!  See you there!

HGSC Book Pub

When: Friday, March 28^th, 4-7pm

Where: GSA Commons

-Books, Gift Certificates, and Other Items for Auction

-Food and Non-Alcoholic Drinks Provided

-Alcohol for Purchase

-Funds Raised Secure the Future Activities of the HGSC

Book Donations for the Auction Can Be Placed in the Donation Box in the Mailroom

Other donations, items and services, still sought.

Contact Jessica DeWitt or Michelle Desveaux