Outstanding New Teacher

Congratulations to Simonne Horwitz who has just received the Provost's Award for Outstanding New Teacher from the Vice-Provost of Teaching and Learning. She will receive the award at a Celebration of Teaching on April 27th at the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Excellence. Simonne was hired as tenure-track faculty in 2008 and has never failed to impress us with her energy, enthusiasm and dedication to her students.

For students interested in taking courses with the Outstanding Professor Horwitz, she will be teaching an exciting line-up of courses in 2011-12: Hist 245 (African History: An Introduction), Hist 303 (Sex, Gender and Sexuality in Africa) and Hist 397 (Approaches to History). And as it turns out, we've just started departmental advising this week...

Congratulations, Simonne, on this much-deserved honour!

A New Red Deer Resident

Congratulations to alumna Jillian Staniec (BA Hons. 2003, M.A. 2007) who leaves Saskatchewan to take up a permanent job at the Red Deer Archives. She reports that her M.A. in history was essential for getting the job.

If she hasn't yet discovered Glenn's Restaurant, I hope that she'll take the time to venture to Gasoline Alley sometime soon -- Red Deer is blessed with one of the few restaurants that knows how to brew a proper cup of tea (and has an excellent selection!).

Good luck in Red Deer, Jillian! We hope that you'll keep us posted on any interesting new collections or exhibitions at your archives.

This just in: Angela Kalinowski
Becomes Media Star

On March 15 (the Ides of March), Angela Kalinowski will be making two media appearances to discuss the Ideas of March. You can see her on the CTV News at Noon with Jeff Rogstadt -- and hear an interview with her on CBC! Her CBC interview will be aired at 4:41 p.m.. Stay tuned...

The death of Caesar: Caesar is lying on the ground, assassinated by a group of senatorial conspirators led by Cassius Longinus and Marcus Iunius Brutus on the ides of March. Etching, J.C. Armytage. Source: Wellcome Library, London

Book Pub and Silent Auction

An eccentric itinerant medicine vendor who collects old books, outside a bookshop. Source: Wellcome Library, London.

The HGSC's annual Book Pub and Silent Auction - our largest and most popular annual event - is just over two weeks away. Open to graduate students, faculty, staff, and guests, it will be held on March 25th in
the Grad Commons from 4:00-6:30. Snacks and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided free of charge and there will be a cash bar operating on a cost-recovery basis.

In addition to a wide array of books and gift certificates from local business (such as restaurants, spas, and theatres), we will also be auctioning off donations from graduate students, staff, and faculty members. In past years, faculty and staff have donated guided canoe trips, home-cooked dinners, knitted items and other crafts, gift certificates, and office supplies that have greatly contributed to the event's success. Proceeds benefit a variety of initiatives including student social events, the Dave DeBrou Memorial Lecture and Scholarship, and student participation in the Keewatin Graduate Student Conference.

If you are able to make a donation or if you have any questions, please contact Liam Haggarty (liam.haggarty@usask.ca) or Matt Todd (mrt585@mail.usask.ca).

We hope to see you on the 25th!

An Honourable Mention

Congratulations to alumnus (and U of S med student) Adam Fowler! His essay, "To Smile in the Face of Grim Death: Methodists and the Good Death in Eighteenth-Century Britain", received an honourable mention for the 2011 Osler Medal, awarded by the American Association for the History of Medicine. The medal is awarded annually to a medical student for the best unpublished essay on a medical history subject.

Keewatin Country Graduate Student History Conference 

Each year the Universities of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Winnipeg sponsor the Keewatin Country Graduate Student History Conference, which offers graduate and top undergraduate students the opportunity to present their research in a collegial and scholarly environment. This year the Keewatin Conference returns to Saskatchewan and brings more than thirty presenters as well as faculty, guests, and supporters to the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa Resort in Moose Jaw from 28-30 April 2011.

Moose Jaw Homestead Rush, c. 1908 (Source: University of Alberta Libraries Flickr Stream)

The name “Keewatin,” a Cree/Ojibway word for the Cold North Wind that blows across the Prairie Provinces and Northern Plains states, was chosen for its powerful local resonance and demonstration of a commitment to inclusivity beyond our individual institutions. As in previous years, this year’s conference is committed to remaining accessible to all students regardless of historical theme, geographic area or region. Organizers are committed to fostering an inclusive and collegial atmosphere welcoming papers on all historical subjects. So successful has this become, in fact, that this year the Keewatin Conference promises to see the widest participation yet as we are set to welcome presenters from no fewer than six provinces, two U.S. states, and Europe!


Our keynote speaker this year will be Professor Sterling Evans, holder of the Louise Welsh Chair in Oklahoma, Southern Plains, and Borderlands History at the University of Oklahoma. His address will be based on his book Bound in Twine, which won the Theodore Saloutos Best Book Prize from the Agricultural
History Society in 2008. Professor Evans’s talk “Nothing New About NAFTA” speaks to issues of particular interest to Saskatchewan, its agricultural history and the borderlands region.

Postcard from Moose Jaw, c. 1913 (Source: University of Alberta Libraries Flickr Stream)

Organizers of year’s Keewatin Conference are also excited to introduce a number of innovations. We now have Facebook and Twitter pages, including a dedicated hashtag (#keewatin2011), in order to maintain informal contact with presenters, as well as provide an opportunity to continue links and connections among presenters even after the conference is over. This year we are also introducing participant commentating, giving PhD candidates the opportunity to comment on panels.

Anyone interested in joining us in Moose Jaw for all or part of Keewatin 2011 can still register. Until 31 March there is also a special conference rate at the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa and Resort for those participating in Keewatin 2011. Contact keewatin2011@gmail.com for registration forms or more info.

Please come support us in Moose Jaw! We look forward to seeing you there.

Mac the Moose in Moose Jaw (Source: "Mac the Moose", Wikipedia, photo by Lisa from Bloomfield Hills)

Voyageur Database Update!

This just in: Robert Englebert's Voyageur database is in the news! Read and listen to the CBC Manitoba news article (in French).

A Budding Scholar

Congratulations to History Postdoctoral Fellow Tolly Bradford and his wife Lesley Harrington (a postdoctoral fellow at the Natural History Museum, London, U.K.) on the recent birth of their son, Ewan.

Pictured here is Proud Papa Tolly reading Ewan his first book!

Timely Topic

Congratulations to soon-to-be-doctored Merle Massie, who recently passed her Ph.D. defense (supervised by Bill Waiser) and is now leaving us to take up a postdoctoral fellowship. The goodbye will not be wrenching, though, as she is only going across campus to the School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS) where she will work with Dr. Maureen Reed.

Dr. Reed is the Canadian investigator of a three-country team (Sweden, Finland, and Canada) that researches environmental disturbances such as flooding, pests, major storm events, and economic restructuring in forest use. Merle's own contribution will look at flooding; given the floods last year in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the forecast for this year, this is a timely topic indeed.

A secondary aspect of her research focuses on UNESCO biosphere reserves, particularly the Mt. Arrowsmith biosphere reserve at Parksville, BC (just outside of Nanaimo). This will build on Merle's doctoral work on Prince Albert National Park and the Prince Albert Model Forest.

Merle reports that she is excited (as she should be!) to be a part of this international and interdisciplinary project. We look forward to the occasional report from the far side of campus and wish Merle the best of luck.