February 2022

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

Faculty News

From left: Dr. Crystal Lynn Webster (History), Dr. Nalo Hopkinson (Creative Writing), Dr. Dennis Austin Britton (English Language & Literatures), Dr. Alexis McGee (School of Journalism, Writingm and Media).

Meet four Black scholars leading innovative research in the Faculty of Arts

February is Black History Month, but Black excellence shines all twelve months of the year. Learn more about Black scholars leading their respective fields across the UBC Faculty of Arts, including History professor Dr. Crystal Lynn Webster, who is currently involved in two collaborative research projects about Black history and Black girlhood across Canadian universities. 

The Blue Hour: Prof. Tina Loo - On Canadian History

CiTR 101.9 FM

Why are certain people and places vulnerable? Who is responsible for remedying the situation? Why is historical research important? And what is fair? In this episode of The Blue Hour, History professor Dr. Tina Loo explores the contradiction between intention and consequence as resettlement played out among Inuit in the central Arctic, fishing families in Newfoundland’s outports, farmers and loggers in Quebec’s Gaspé region, Black residents of Halifax’s Africville, and Chinese Canadians in Vancouver’s East Side. In the process, she reveals the optimistic belief underpinning postwar relocations: the power of the interventionist state to do good.

Banners placed by the fence of Parliament Hill amid the continuing protests in Ottawa, Ontario, February 5, 2022. Lars Hagberg/REUTERS. Image via CIGI Online.

Prof. Heidi Tworek: Authorities Were Warned about Extremist Fundraising Online but Did Not Seem to Hear

CIGI Online

"...GiveSendGo is positioning itself as an alternative to GoFundMe. Founded as a Christian crowdfunding site, it hosted a fundraiser to help defend the leader of the Proud Boys. Now it is the new fundraiser of choice for the Ottawa convoy and has raised more than $2.4 million. The GoFundMe problem has migrated to another platform. Solving this issue is long overdue. When researchers warn about problems, they definitely would rather not write a piece three years later that sounds like 'I told you so,'" writes Prof. Heidi Tworek.

The cast of Zoom, 1972, courtesy of WGBH Archives. Image via NPR.

Prof. Leslie Paris curates ZOOM (1972-1978): Children’s Community and Public Television in the 1970s

American Archive of Public Broadcasting

Designed for an audience between the ages of seven and twelve, ZOOM  was a children's TV series that premiered in January 1972. It focused on young people making and sharing their own fun, and affirmed the era’s progressive activism as an intergenerational project. Curated by UBC History professor Dr. Leslie Paris, this online exhibition marks the impact the series had on an entire generation of children across the United States and Canada.

Know Your Profs with Dr. Bradley Miller
 

In this instalment, Dr. Bradley Miller shares with us why he pursues collegial disagreement, what it takes to succeed in his classes, and how gaining work experience outside of academia sparked his life-long passion for the history of law.

Student News

Style, Voice and Using Evidence: 7 Tips for Writing a Better History Essay

The academic essay as a genre can feel clunky and counterintuitive for anyone, whether you’re an uninitiated first-year or a seasoned fourth-year. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by an essay, you’re certainly not alone. We collaborated with Elizabeth Elliott, fourth-year History Honours student and History Writing Centre Peer Tutor, to bring you some useful tips to help you ace your next writing assignment.

Upcoming Events

Thinking Europe from the Margins: European Imaginations and Identifications of Polish LGBTQs in the UK

February 15, 11:00 am PT

In this lecture, Dr. Łukasz Szulc (University of Sheffield) draws on thirty interviews from a recent two-year research project, to discuss participants’ European imaginations and identifications by developing the concepts of ‘uncanny Europe’ and ‘protective Europeanness’. The lecture shows how participants tend to view Europe as “diverse,” “open,” and “tolerant,” while attributing those characteristics exclusively to Western Europe. Szulc will demonstrate that they tend to readily identify as European in the context of increasingly hostile national identities, with the growing anti-Polish xenophobia in the UK and increasing anti-LGBTQ discrimination in Poland.

Event Page

Making Markets and Valuing Natures in a Himalayan 'Frontier'

February 16, 6:00 – 7:30 pm PT

Long characterized as economically backward, unproductive, and food-scarce, Nepal's mountainous Jumla district is today celebrated as a site of newfound 'green' value. Jumla's largely chemical-free, biodiverse agroecologies have been reframed as a source of market opportunities, from agrotourism and organic produce to novel "superfoods" and plant genetic resources. Presented by Dr. Elsie Lewiston (UBC SPPGA Postdoctoral Fellow), this talk will explore important tensions between competing agricultural policies and projects in the district. Highlighting limitations in both market-based conservation strategies and depoliticized narratives of environmental stewardship, it will also consider emergent alternative visions for agrarian development and 'food sovereignty' in the region.

Event Page

What is Diaspora? A Possible Dialogue with Hong Kong Studies

February 18, 5:00 – 6:30 pm PT

Recent discussions about a “Hong Kong diaspora” point to a new way to understand the city at a significant moment of transition—one that brings together diaspora studies and Hong Kong studies. What does “diaspora” describe and conceptualize? As a global field of Hong Kong studies begins to coalesce in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., what can “diaspora” teach us about Hong Kong, and what can Hong Kong teach us about “diaspora”? This talk will outline how diaspora has served as a mode of social, cultural, and historical analysis about movements, and how a dialogue may benefit both diaspora studies and Hong Kong studies. Presented by Dr. Shelly Chan (UCLA).

Event Page

I Know We'll Meet Again: Correspondence and the Forced Dispersal of Japanese Canadians

March 1, 1:00 – 2:30 pm PT

UBC Library and the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies program present an online public panel event inspired by the Joan Gillis fonds, a remarkable collection of letters that recount the lives of a group of Japanese Canadian teenagers after their forced dispersal from the coastal regions of British Columbia in 1942. As we acknowledge the 80th anniversary of the grave injustice of internment and dispossession, panel members from the Japanese Canadian community, including History professor Dr. Laura Ishiguro, will provide their responses to these letters. Moderated by History PhD student Nicole Yakashiro.

Event Page

Climate Warnings: The Power of Canadian Environmental Arts, Literature, and Creative Activism

Lecture: March 2, 7:30 pm PT

Panel Discussion: March 17, 7:30 pm PT

As the climate crisis continues, many artists and writers have raised their voices for awareness, change, and justice. In this year's David and Brenda McLean Lecture, UBC English Language & Literatures professor and Faculty of Arts Associate Dean of Students Dr. Laura Moss will concentrate on creative responses to the global environmental emergency in Canadian art and letters. 

This year’s series will be comprised of two evening events. On March 2, Professor Moss will present a public lecture and on March 17 she will be joined by several of the creators whose work she features in the lecture to discuss the relationship between art and activism, the climate emergency, and the limits of art in driving change.

Register for the Event