Click here to read Historians’ Corner in PDF format.
NEWS
Alexander Hill (University of Calgary) edited and contributed several essays to The Routledge Handbook of Soviet and Russian Military Studies, due out in February 2025.
Benjamin Deruelle (Université du Québec à Montréal) edited and published the first issue of BELLICA : Guerre, histoire et sociétés, a new French-language history journal concerning military themes.
Bridging the Gap Initiative Moves Forward: On January 13th 2025, historical societies from across Canada met again. The following societies participated: Société historique du Canada / Canadian Historical Association (SHC / CHA); Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française (IHAF); Fédération Histoire Québec (FHQ); British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF); Newfoundland & Labrador Historical Society (NFLHS); Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society (RNSHS); Ontario Historical Society (OHS); Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society (SHKS); Historical Society of Alberta (HSA); Yukon Historical & Museums Association (YHMA); New Brunswick Historical Society (NBHS); and Réseau du patrimoine et de l’histoire francophones et acadiens du Canada (RPHFAC). Histoire Canada / Canada’s History sent its regrets.
The group discussed their plans for the upcoming year, including potential meetings and the importance of promoting diversity and inclusion within their organizations as well as in historical narratives. They shared their efforts to increase diversity, such as publishing special editions of publications or collaborating with other organizations. The conversation ended with a proposal of two main actions to continue their contribution to the national conversation on diversity: a panel discussion and a shared report presenting their different initiatives.
David Wilson (University of Toronto and General Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography | Dictionnaire biographique du Canada) has been awarded the Peter M. Toner Research Publication Award for his book Canadian Spy Story: Irish Revolutionaries and the Secret Police (MQUP, 2022). The Toner Award supports the publication of scholarly works in Irish Canadian history by scholars worldwide.
Gilberto Fernandes (York University) shares that the Portuguese Canadian History Project has received $500,000 to bolster its goal of increasing public knowledge of Canada’s Portuguese community through the preservation and distribution of historical materials.
Greg Marchildon (University of Toronto) launched his new book, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada, in January 2025 at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History and again at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Marchildon’s book examines the origins and shaping of Canadian Medicare through the life and times of Tommy Douglas.
Greg Marquis (UNB Saint John) and Mark Allan Greene have started a biweekly podcast on the history of Saint John, New Brunswick, entitled “Saint John: Nothing Happened Here”.
Joseph F. Patrouch (University of Alberta) delivered a presentation entitled “Queen Anna of Spain’s visit to the Lower Rhine, August-September, 1570: The Habsburgs’ Empires as Performed Networks of Kinship Relations” at the Sixteenth Century Society’s November 2024 conference in Toronto.
Karen Robert (St. Thomas University) is looking forward to the release of her new book, Driving Terror: Labour, Violence, and Justice in Cold War Argentina. The book will be released by the University of New Mexico Press in March 2025.
Kristina R. Llewellyn has recently been appointed Full Professor with the Department of History at McMaster University. Her appointment comes with her position as the first faculty member for the new Wilson College of Leadership and Civic Engagement at McMaster University. Dr. Llewellyn will still be an adjunct faculty member with the Department of History at the University of Waterloo.
Lyns-Virginie Belony has joined Université de Montréal’s history department as an assistant professor. She is now teaching a course on Caribbean history and will soon teach a Haitian history course.
The University of Calgary is pleased to welcome Marica Cassis to its Department of History as a tenured associate professor. Dr. Cassis is a specialist in Byzantine and Syriac History and Archaeology and her research program focuses on the medieval excavations at Çadır Höyük on the Anatolian Plateau.
Matthew Hayday (University of Guelph) delivered a public lecture at the Calgary Central Library in January 2025 as part of the University of Calgary’s History Matters lecture series. His talk was on the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark, Canada’s only Alberta-born prime minister.
Nicholas Cotton, Celeste E. Orr, Deanna Reder, Pascal Riendeau, and Stephanie Rutherford are the 2024 winners of the Canada Prizes, the national book awards of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The University of Alberta launched its “Ski Like a Girl” podcast in January 2025. This podcast combines archival exploration with vivid storytelling about the lives and legacy of women in Canadian Nordic skiing history.
The University of Manitoba Press reports that one of its publications, A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer, has been selected for the 2025 Canada Reads competition. This marks both the first time that a Manitoba-published book and a book published by a university press is a contender in the competition.
OPPORTUNITIES
Concordia University is hiring an Assistant Professor in Histories of Black Montreal. Applications are due February 15, 2025.
Queen’s University is hiring a Global Indigeneity Postdoctoral Fellow. Applications are due February 28, 2025.
The Tom and Christine Symons Archival Fellowship at Trent University assists both graduate students and established researchers who need to travel to and establish temporary residence in Peterborough. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.
The University of Guelph is hiring an Assistant Professor in Rural North American History. Review of the submitted applications will begin on February 25, 2025.
The University of Manitoba is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Comparative Politics in Eastern Europe (with emphasis on Ukraine and Russia). Review of the submitted applications will begin on February 26, 2025.
The University of Toronto is hiring an Associate Professor or Professor in Indigenous Histories of Environmental Justice. Applications are due February 18, 2025.
The Prix Gérard-Parizeau Committee is pleased to announce the launch of its 2025 competition, which is open to all researchers whose work focuses on the history of Québec. The prize is worth $30,000 and applications are due February 28, 2025.
The Canadian Committee on Labour History’s next conference, Why Does Labour Matter? The Past, Present, and Future of Labour Studies, will be held at the Université du Québec à Montréal on November 14-15, 2025. Paper proposals are due on March 14, 2025.
The 13th Colloquium on Québec Studies will be held at Bishop’s University on March 28-29, 2025. The title and theme of the conference is Québec Past and Present. Paper proposals are due on February 15, 2025.
The Professional Division of the American Historical Association is seeking to collect and collate information about the working conditions of historians employed as contingent/sessional faculty. Faculty and chairs at Canadian institutions are encouraged to respond to its survey before May 1, 2025.
The University of Oslo has launched the Great Viking Survey, a wide-ranging study to explore how people across the world perceive and engage with the Vikings as history and heritage. The survey remains open until mid-May 2025.
NEW PUBLICATIONS
David Bercuson, Canada’s Air Force: The Royal Canadian Air Force at 100. University of Toronto Press, 2024.
Eric W. Sager, The Thinking Historian: A Search for History as Understanding. De Gruyter, 2025.
Greg Marchildon, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada. University of Toronto Press, 2024.
Joseph F. Patrouch, “Central Europe? Eastern Europe? Habsburg Europe? Where are we Today?” in Volodymyr Kravchenko and Marko Robert Stech, eds, The Unpredictable Past? Reshaping Russian, Ukrainian, and East European Studies (Edmonton & Toronto, CIUS Press, 2024).
Mahir Khalifa-Zadeh, “Sasanian Imperial Policy and King Xusrō I Anōšīrvān’s Reform: The Case of Ādurbādagān and Arrān (Caucasian Albania)” in Research Trends in History, Vol. 1 (Helmand Books, New Delhi, 2025).
Marica Cassis, Medieval Archaeology in the East Roman World. ARC Humanities Press, 2024.
Ross Fair, Improving Upper Canada: Agricultural Societies, and State Formation, 1791-1852. University of Toronto Press, 2024.
Yolande Cohen, Migrations postcoloniales des Juifs du Maroc : vers le Canada et la France. Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, à venir en 2025.