a new article by dr. pallavi das proposing a new approach to doing history, a people's history of climate change, appears in the most recent issue of the journal history compass.

while social scientific studies have provided useful insights into the phenomenon of climate change, they, however, do not take a historical approach to the impacts of climate change, and people's perception of it.

historians have studied climate and its impact on the whole society but have neglected the everyday experiences and perceptions of climate change within a society such as ordinary people versus the elite perceptions, men versus women's experiences of climate change. moreover, historians of climate have largely dealt with natural climate change in the distant past, but not with climate change caused by human activities.

since climate change that the world is witnessing in the past century is largely anthropogenic, historians therefore cannot neglect present‐day climate change and its impact on society. furthermore, although climate change is a global environmental phenomenon, the poor and the marginalized social groups are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change more than others. hence, climate change and the history of climate change needs to be understood from the perspective of these vulnerable groups in a society.

"people's history of climate change" proposes a new approach to doing history: people's history of climate change.

the article appears in history compass 16, no. 10 (october 2018). https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12497

17 september - thunder bay

“behind the lens: early photography at the lakehead” is a new exhibit as part of an ongoing partnership between the department of history and the thunder bay historical museum society to bring museum exhibits to the thunder bay campus. 

photographs provide a valuable window into the lakehead’s early years, but less attention is paid to the photographers themselves. learn more about jennie leach, fryer’s studio, j.f. cooke, george ryerson evans, and fred creech.

to see the new display, go to the third floor of the ryan building. it is located in the main hallway directly across from room 3025.

assistant professor steven jobbitt’s latest publication explores the role that geographical knowledge production played in the post-world war i “discovery” of austrian burgenland. co-written with ferenc jankó of the university of west-hungary, sopron, "making burgenland from western hungary: geography and the politics of identity in interwar austria" appears in the current issue of hungarian cultural studies.

abstract: this study explores the role that geographical knowledge production played in the post-world war i “discovery” of austrian burgenland, focusing in particular on the relationship between geographical discourse and the politics of identity formation in the 1920s and 1930s. the primary task is to offer insight into this knowledge-making process by highlighting the discursive strategies employed in a variety of scholarly and popular texts, and by shedding critical light on the various actors and epistemic communities responsible for the imagining of burgenland from its annexation to austria in 1921 to the dissolution of the region and its subsequent re-invention as a greater german border zone after the nazi anschluss of 1938. as jankó and jobbitt argue, burgenland’s discovery between the wars was both figurative and literal. whether the “discoverers” were austrian or german, national or local, burgenland was as much a discursive concept as it was a physical reality. its emergent identity as a region, therefore, much like its actual borders, was fluid and often contested.

reference: ferenc jankó and steven jobbitt. "making burgenland from western hungary: geography and the politics of identity in interwar austria." hungarian cultural studies 10 (2017): 14-40. doi: 10.5195/ahea.2017.313

25 october 2014 - thunder bay

the department of history is pleased to announce that our alumni and faculty have received 8 nominations for the thunder bay historical museum society’s 2015 publications awards.

adjudicated by an independent panel of jurors, the awards are given out every two years for the best publications dealing with the history of northwestern ontario. awards are given in four categories: the m. elizabeth arthur award (full-length scholarly works); the j.p. bertrand award (scholarly articles); the gertrude h. dyke award (full-length popular works); and the george b. macgillivray award (popular articles).

congratulations to michel s. beaulieu, mark chochla, c. nathan hatton , roy piovesana, john potestio, and beverly soloway.

recipients of the awards will be announced at the thunder bay historical museum society's president's reception held on sunday, 4 january 2015 between 1:30 and 3:30 pm. at the thunder bay museum (425 donald street east).

information about the awards and past winners can be found at http://www.thunderbaymuseum.com/publications/awards/