March 2023

Now & Then highlights UBC History news and events for students, faculty, staff & alumni

Faculty News

"Punjabi History in BC" Oral History Project Interviews Teachers, Activists, Writers, and Journalists

The “Punjabi in BC” research program documents the history of Punjabi language advocacy and mobilization in the lower mainland, with the aim of interviewing advocates and activists, K-12 teachers, and journalists and writers in the Punjabi language community. This project is a collaboration between Dr. Anne Murphy, UBC History faculty, Sukhwant Hundal, author, editor, and retired UBC Punjabi instructor, and Lovneet Aujla, former Program for Undergraduate Research Experience Program Assistant.

Watch the Interviews

Image via CTV News, BC.

Dr. Henry Yu: Fears that "Foreign Interference" Investigations Could Stoke Anti-Asian Sentiment

Recently, an anonymous source has leaked information to journalists, suggesting China has tried to influence Canadian election outcomes to help elect candidates favourable to the regime. The framing of the issue is crucial as we contend with anti-Asian hate and sinophobia, says Dr. Henry Yu. "...In B.C., there's this long trend of the accusation that China is the ill that's causing all our problems."

Student News

The Diwan-i-Am, or Hall of Audience, a room in the Red Fort of Delhi. Image via Wikipedia.

Opinion: Remaking History at the Cost of India's Heritage

PhD student and journalist Mani Mugdha Sharma writes for the Times of India about the challenges of heritage conservation, which can be a complex topic entangled in conversations about colonialism and cultural legacy.

Events

2023 MEICON-BC Student Conference

March 25, 2023 | 9:15 am | Allard Hall

The Middle East & Islamic Consortium Conference (MEICON) provides a supportive environment for graduate and undergraduate students to present their work, receive critical feedback, and grow as scholars. The collaborative initiative is also vital to growing Middle East and Muslim/Islamic Studies in BC by fostering community and important connections between researchers. This conference is organized by UBC Middle East Studies and co-sponsored by UBC History.

Book Talk | Ghost Citizens: Jewish Return to a Postwar City by Dr. Lukasz Krzyanowski

March 29, 2023 | 4:00 pm | BuTo 1112

In Ghost Citizens: Jewish Return to a Postwar City, Dr. Lukasz Krzyzanowski (University of Warsaw) recounts the story of Holocaust survivors who had survived the Nazi genocide and returned to their hometowns and tried to start their lives anew. Focusing on Radom, an industrial city about sixty miles south of Warsaw, he tells the story of what happened throughout provincial Poland as returnees faced new struggles along with massive political, social, and legal change.

Broad Brush Strokes and Fine Lines: Courtroom Drawing and the Visual History of the 20th Century

April 5, 2023 | 12:00 pm | BuTo 1112 & online

In courtroom sketches, broad brush strokes capture the general atmosphere of a case while fine lines point to details and pivotal moments. The combination of both creates the image we get of a trial. Because of their individual character, these drawings make exceptional historical documents that not only reveal something particular about the past, but symbolically represent the very process of how we construct historical understanding. Join Dr. Charlotte Lerg (Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany) in this upcoming History Colloquium, hosted by UBC History and co-sponsored by the Public Humanities Hub.

Moche Non-Human Persons: Archaeological Insights into Human-Animal Interactions on Peru’s North Coast During the 1st Millennium CE

April 14, 2023 | 12:30 pm | Buchanan Tower 1112

Animals shape the way we eat, how we move, and what we think. This Global Premodern Research Cluster talk by Dr. Aleksa Alaica (UBC Anthropology) explores the way animals were perceived as other-than-human beings, possibly even persons, among Peru’s Moche culture during the 1^st millennium CE.

The UBC History Global Premodern Research Cluster was established to bring together a multidisciplinary community with shared and varied interests in global premodern studies.