June 2021

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

Student News

Congratulations, 2021 graduates!

The pandemic has prompted much improvisation. This year, the History Department held its first-ever online graduation ceremony for History majors. In previous years, professors of the department would join the university-wide ceremony. Dressed in formal robes, they would chat with students and pose for photographs. Since those in-person gatherings remain out of reach yet, the Department decided to hold its own ceremony online. On June 2, graduating students, parents, and faculty attended this virtual gathering organized by Prof. Bradley Miller, Undergraduate Chair. Several students and professors gave speeches. Justice Russell Brown, a distinguished alumnus, spoke about the importance of a historical perspective on the law. The eloquence of the speakers served as a tribute to the hard work of the History majors in earning their degrees. Congratulations to the Class of 2021!

- John Roosa, Associate Professor and Acting Head

Read more about the ceremony and remarks from Dr. Laura Ishiguro here.

Through our eyes, with our voices: How students and faculty are creating space to heal and be proud of their Asian identities
Aydin Quach, Faculty of Arts website

"Being an ally necessitates us to submit ourselves to the state of being a non-expert, unknower, and a foreigner, which is not easy when the field of academics constantly expects us to be otherwise."

UBC History & UBC International Relations undergraduate Aydin Quach interviews four instructors of Asian descent on anti-Asian racism and the classroom.
 

Faculty News

Interview with Shoufu Yin, Assistant Professor of Chinese History

“I excavate the intellectual worlds of many previously under-represented groups- peasant women who fought in wars, Mongol scribes who processed imperial documents, anonymous typesetters behind the production of books…”

Shoufu Yin will be joining UBC History this July as Assistant Professor of Chinese History. Learn more about his research, teaching, and outlook as a scholar.
 

BEYOND DISINFORMATION: Stories, Statistics, and Authenticity in Health Communications
Heidi Tworek in Items

"The historical focus on statistics as the only authentic health data obscured other modes of communicating disease and other ways of understanding disease as a social phenomenon, not just an individual experience."
 

Why does anti-Asian hate exist in Canada? Decades of 'scapegoating, blaming’ has built racism into ’structure of society’, expert says
Henry Yu in Yahoo! News

"There's this commonality with a long history, not just the United States, but also in Canada racial scapegoating, of blaming Chinese or blaming Asians for societal issues."
 

Dūje Pāse Toñ (From the Other Side): Arts Across the Border, From the Two Punjabs, at The Reach gallery

UBC History's Anne Murphy co-curated this exhibit at The Reach Gallery in Abbotsford. This exhibition brings together the work of 22 international artists who all participated in a series of artist residencies on the Indian and Pakistani side of the once-united cultural/linguistic region of Punjab.
 

The Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection offers essential new source for historical research and scholarship at UBC Library

"UBC now has the opportunity to understand the stories of the gold rush era in a tangible way, through materials that have survived over a century."

UBC Library has received an unparalleled rare book and archival collection, dating from the Klondike Gold Rush (1894-1904) from UBC alumnus and Canadian telecommunications icon Philip B. Lind, CM. The gift includes a $2 million gift that will support the collection at the library.

Watch a video introducing the collection from UBC Library. 
Check out some of the donated photos in Vancouver is Awesome. 

Winter 2021 Courses Spotlight