August 2022

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

Faculty News

Know Your Profs with Dr. Henry Yu

The Know Your Profs series helps students learn what their professors are all about in their own words. In this instalment, Dr. Henry Yu reminds us that each of us has a connection to history, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. He also points out that learning to interpret our relationships to the past holds the key to untangling our individual and collective futures.

Preserving the Past for the Future: an Interview with Dr. Sara Ann Knutson

Bayt Al Fann

In this interview for Bayt Al Fann, Dr. Sara Ann Knutson speaks about her passion for the history of the Islamic World, access and inclusion of Islamic history in mainstream education, and how understanding the past impacts the development of the future of Islamic art.

Image via the British Library Board: Shelfmark/Page: Add. 42130, f.19v, used with permission. The Memorial Edition of Thomas Bewick's Works, vol III: A General History of Quadrupeds (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bernard Quatich, 1885). Courtesy of Oberlin College Library.

Publication | Using Animal History to Inform Current Debates in Gene Editing Farm Animals: a Systematic Review

Frontiers

Dr. Heidi Tworek (UBC History; School of Public Policy and Global Affairs) and History Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Will Wright co-author a new article with scholars in the UBC Animal Welfare Program. This systematic review examines past biotechnologies in animal agriculture to inform gene editing farm animals.

Mural of Hua Mulan enlisting; in the Dalongdong Baoan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan. Painting by Pan-Li shui. Image via Wikipedia.

Publication | Rewarding Female Commanders in Medieval China: Official Documents, Rhetorical Strategies, and Gender Order

Cambridge University Press

Dr. Shoufu Yin published a new article on women and warfare in medieval China utilizing imperial documents conferring titles and rewards on women who commanded troops. Dr. Yin's article argues that closer dialogue between gender studies and official document studies will lead to a more dynamic picture of how a patriarchal regime actually functioned in premodern China.

Student News

Dr. Benjamin Bryce and MA student Lucy Warrington.

Publication | Citizenship Denied: The Incarceration of Japanese Canadians in the Schreiber-Jackfish Road Camps in Ontario during the Second World War

UBC Centre for Migration Studies Working Paper Series

This paper co-authored by Dr. Benjamin Bryce and MA student Lucy Warrington sheds light on the range of carceral experiences of Japanese Canadians in Canada during WWII. It demonstrates how gender, age, and class shape mobility/immobility, and thereby complicates our understanding of the prisoners' experience. The UBC Centre for Migration Studies Working Paper Series shares research-in-progress and invites scholarly discussion and feedback.

Courses

Bibi-Khanym Mosque, Samarkand, Uzbekistan; Image credit: Yumi Kim on Unsplash. 

2022/2023 History Courses to Take You Across Time and Space

History is a discipline for the curious. Whether you are fascinated by events that changed the world, or want to learn about the ordinary people who made these events happen, the inspiring and award-winning faculty in the UBC Department of History offer incredible courses that will help you form and deepen an understanding of how the world as we know it came to be. Check out some amazing 2022/2023 History courses in this article.

Events and Announcements

2022 History Welcome Back Student Event

September 14, 5:00 - 6:00 pm

Whether you have questions about completing your History program and applying to graduate, course offerings, degree requirements, academic opportunities, student-directed seminars, or other academic challenges, mark your calendars for the 2022 welcome back event for students, hosted Dr. Michael Lanthier, History Majors Advisor.

This in-person event will give returning students an opportunity to meet other History students over a slice of pizza, after more than two years of virtual learning.

Learn More