UNews - Department of History

Inspiring and motivating instructor, Dr. Kristine Alexander, recognized with Graduate Mentorship Award

trevor.kenney — Wed, 22 May 2024 16:06:55 +0000

An instructor and mentor with a unique ability to recognize the talent and potential of her students, Dr. Kristine Alexander inspires and motivates her graduate trainees by providing unwavering support and encouraging them to break boundaries and embrace risk in their learning journeys.

Alexander will be recognized with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge School of Graduate Studies Graduate Mentorship Award at 2024 Spring Convocation, Ceremony II on Thursday, May 30, 2024, 2:30 p.m. in the 1st Choice Savings Centre gymnasium.

Kristine Alexander held the Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Studies and was co-director of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s interdisciplinary Institute for Child and Youth Studies.

“As a fellow graduate mentor, I have learned tremendously from Dr. Alexander about how to set students up for success in academia and professionally after the degree,” says Dr. Gideon Fujiwara, who nominated Alexander for the honour. “Dr. Alexander prioritizes connecting students’ experiences at the U of L to their longer-term personal and professional goals while building a supportive and collegial intellectual community.”

Kristine Alexander

Inspired by the mentors who supported her along the way, Dr. Kristine Alexander is paying it forward by supporting her own graduate students on their academic and professional journeys.

Alexander is an Associate Professor in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Department of History. From 2013-2023 she held the Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Studies and was co-director of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s interdisciplinary Institute for Child and Youth Studies. She has supervised numerous graduate students in history and cultural, social and political thought (CSPT), served on supervisory committees in anthropology, CSPT, history and sociology, and (with Dr. Jan Newberry) recruited and supervised the first postdoctoral fellow in the humanities at ULethbridge.

Alexander encourages her graduate trainees to produce high-quality original research, to challenge and believe in themselves, and to connect their studies to their lives and aspirations beyond the university. Her students praise her unique ability to recognize and nurture their potential, and her approach combines intellectual rigour with encouragement, collaboration and support.

Over the past decade, Alexander’s graduate students have studied topics ranging from the Black Death in medieval Italy to the history of the American Hotel in Fort Macleod. Their research projects are historical as well as interdisciplinary, and Alexander encourages her trainees to share their findings with both academic and popular audiences. In addition to giving public talks, speaking to the media, and presenting at conferences across North America and Europe, Alexander’s students have curated exhibits at the Galt Museum and produced historical board games about the First World War and the Great Depression based on original archival research. Alexander involves her graduate students in community-engaged research projects, collaborates with them on publications, and supports them in their applications for scholarships and highly competitive national grants.

Trust, respect and community-building are cornerstones of Alexander’s mentorship style. While motivating each of them individually, she also fosters genuine and long-lasting connections between her graduate students. Alexander intentionally creates a lively and supportive intellectual community within which her students can share ideas, strategize together and celebrate each other’s successes.

Described by her students as insightful, patient, enthusiastic, supportive, kind, generous and empathetic, Alexander’s influence extends far beyond graduation. With her guidance, graduate trainees develop competencies and confidence that serve them well as they transition into professional careers. Her students note that she inspires them “to be kind, to be curious, and to work harder.”

Examining the fallacy of borders and the lies they tell us, focus of upcoming PUBlic Professor Series event

trevor.kenney — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 20:36:41 +0000

Most people today, if they think about borders at all, can be forgiven for believing lines on a map are real things serving useful purposes. Demarcating the edges of nation-states is responsible for everything from shoring up sovereignty, nationalism and colonialism, to drawing the lines between “us” and “them.”

Dr. Sheila McManus says the talk explores why we believe the lies borders tell us, and why we shouldn’t.

Dr. Sheila McManus, professor in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Department of History, sums it up by declaring succinctly, “Borders are stupid.” In fact, it’s the title of their upcoming PUBlic Professor Series talk on Thursday, Nov. 23, 7 p.m., at the Sandman Signature Lodge.

McManus says that by taking a closer look at the long, messy histories of borders, and their even messier contemporary functions, we will discover those invisible lines are, at best, lying to us. This talk explores why we believe the lies borders tell us, and why we shouldn’t.

“Borders are stupid for a few different reasons,” says McManus. “They are not real. They have very real consequences because we think they are real but they’re kind of lying to you and I want people to think differently about what they are and how they function in the world.”

McManus is a member of the Lethbridge Border Studies research group whose research focuses primarily on the history of the borderlands of the North American West. McManus is the author of The Line Which Separates: Race, Gender, and the Making of the Alberta-Montana Borderlands (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Nebraska Press and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta Press, 2005); Choices and Chances: A History of Women in the U.S. West, (Wiley, 2010); and Both Sides Now: Writing the Edges of the North American West (Texas A&M Press, 2022).

This is the third of the six-part PUBlic Professor Series of talks. Initiated in 2014, the monthly lecture series is designed to spark thought-provoking discussions and bring a diverse group of experts and researchers from the ULethbridge campus right into the community.

Check out the PUBlic Professor Series web page for the 2023/24 talk schedule, to register for priority seating or to join the series mailing list.

Reimagined PUBlic Professor Series celebrating its 10th season

trevor.kenney — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 17:44:25 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s popular pub-style talk series, PUBlic Professor, will kick off its 10th season on Sept. 28, 2023. To celebrate a decade of casual, informative and engaging presentations from ULethbridge faculty members, the series has been reimagined to include speakers beyond the Faculty of Arts & Science — giving the public an opportunity to explore the breadth of expertise from across the entire institution.

Fittingly, the opening talk of the series features Dr. Digvir Jayas, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s new president and vice-chancellor. Jayas, a researcher in agricultural studies, will present, Recent Trends in the Food Industry, on September 28, 2023, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge.

As with any other industry, the food industry has been changing over time. These changes are driven by many factors including changes in consumer behaviour, advice to consumers from health practitioners, government regulations, global economy, transportation, climate change, technology including internet-of-things (IoT), research done by academic institutions and industry itself, and most recently the pandemic. Jayas’s talk will provide an overview of recent trends in the food industry and factors driving these changes. Using food quality monitoring as an example, this presentation will highlight what role research has played and is continuing to play towards this area.

The PUBlic Professor Series begins on Sept. 28, with Dr. Digvir Jayas presenting on recent trends in the food industry.

Jayas conducts research related to the drying, handling and storing of grains and oilseeds and digital image processing for grading and processing operations in the agri-food industry. Born in India, he earned a Bachelor of Agricultural Engineering at G.B. Pant ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Agriculture and Technology in Pantnagar, India. He came to Canada for his graduate schooling, first at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba (master of science, agricultural engineering) and then the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan (doctorate in agricultural engineering). He began his professional academic career at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba as an assistant professor in the Agricultural Engineering Department in 1985.

As his career progressed, Jayas’s reputation as an influential researcher and leading voice in agrology grew. He collaborated with researchers in several countries and has had significant impact on the development of efficient grain storage, handling and drying systems in Canada, China, India, Ukraine and the United States.

The PUBlic Professor Series will feature six talks in total and touch on subjects in agriculture, therapeutic recreation, history, aboriginal health and new media, education, and neuroscience. Below is the talk schedule for the 2023/24 season. For more, visit the PUBlic Professor web page.

September 28, 2023 | Recent Trends in the Food Industry

Dr. Digvir Jayas, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge President & Vice-Chancellor (Agricultural Studies)

October 26, 2023 | Person-centred Care from Rhetoric to Reality: Exploring the Role of Knowledge Translation and Mobilization in Health Care

Dr. Sienna Caspar (Therapeutic Recreation)

November 23, 2023 | Borders are Stupid

Dr. Sheila McManus (History)

January 25, 2024 | Weaving World Views: The Web as a Space for Cultural Vitality

Christine Clark (New Media) & Melissa Shouting (Aboriginal Health)

February 29, 2024 | Owning my Voice and Speaking my Truth in Academic Spaces

Dr. Sandra Dixon (Education)

March 28, 2024 | Why is the Brain Important?

Dr. Rob Sutherland (Neuroscience)

PUBlic Professor Series examines the long and uneasy history between Ukraine and Russia

caroline.zentner — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 18:00:30 +0000

Who is a Russian? Who is a Ukrainian? The answers are complex, problematic and illuminate the fighting in 2022.

On Thursday, Feb. 23, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge history professor Dr. Chris Burton will present Identity and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. The free event runs from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge in Essie’s and is open to the public.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 took nearly everyone, including the experts, by surprise, but is rooted in the long and uneasy history between Ukraine and Russia. Burton will analyze the contemporary and historical causes of the conflict with a focus on questions of identity. Vladimir Putin himself claims to be acting on behalf of the diaspora of ethnic Russians, but cross-border populations have a long and tangled history.

Burton grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland, taking his BA in history at Memorial ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, followed by an MA from Carleton ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. He worked in the Soviet Union during the glasnost years, then studied with Sheila Fitzpatrick in the 1990s at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Chicago for his PhD. He is an associate professor of history at ULethbridge and has been teaching Russian history, and modern European history more generally, for the last 20 years. His research interests include the medical profession under Stalin, social policy in the Soviet Union and the Soviet science of environmental health, including their understanding of air and water pollution.

Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment project highlights community and collaboration

caroline.zentner — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 18:18:01 +0000

When Tanya Pace-Crosschild (BSc ’98), director of the Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society, saw a call for proposals from Women and Gender Equality Canada in 2018, she immediately recognized an opportunity to develop a project to foster the economic empowerment of Indigenous women in southern Alberta.

“Many of our families are living below the poverty line and Blackfoot women don’t have the same opportunities as a lot of other Canadian women,” says Pace-Crosschild. “We wanted to look at what economic prosperity means to Blackfoot women and how to go from economic security to prosperity, keeping in mind many of our women aren’t even at the security level.”

Pace-Crosschild reached out to her network of women, including, from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Drs. Carol Williams (history, women and gender studies) and Jan Newberry (anthropology) and Rhonda Crow (BMgt ’99), coordinator with Indigenous Governance and Business Management at the Dhillon School of Business. They submitted a proposal and succeeded in getting $350,00 in funding for a three-year project called Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment from Security to Prosperity.

From left to right are Crystal Good Rider, Marjie Crop Eared Wolf (BFA ’09), Dr. Carol Williams, Dr. Jan Newberry, Rhonda Crow, Marsha Wolf Collar (BA ’11), Robin Little Bear, Tanya Pace-Crosschild, Coby Royal and Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19), U of L graduate student.

“We’re really excited about Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment because it’s a grassroots initiative,” says Pace-Crosschild. “It acknowledges the voices of women, the strengths of Indigenous women, specifically Blackfoot women, and it gives us a basis to move forward. Our goals and dreams with this project are to empower women.”

Now in their final year of funding, they recently launched the Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment website, a portal for Blackfoot women to access resources to enhance their entrepreneurial skills and learn more about traditional ways of life. In addition, the website highlights two projects the group has funded — the Paahtómahksikimi Cultural Centre online craft store and the Red Woman Talks series.

The online gallery and store showcases the talents of 10 artisans and includes artwork, jewelry, accessories, clothing, moccasins and more available for purchase through the click of a mouse. Red Woman Talks is designed to be a series of seven interviews featuring Indigenous women’s successes in communities within the Blackfoot Confederacy. Still in the planning stages, the goal is to inspire, empower and motivate by having role models talk about the challenges they faced and how they overcame them on their path to success.

This fall, the Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment group partnered with the Dhillon School of Business. Starting in January, Drs. Tanya Drollinger and Katie Lafreniere will lend their expertise in promotion to the two projects.

“We needed help in marketing and developing an online presence,” says Crow. “Hopefully, it will be an ongoing partnership because we’re hoping this project doesn’t end when the government funding ends. We’re looking at sustainability and how we can ensure this becomes a permanent program.”

The project began in 2018 with the formation of an Indigenous women’s council. With the help of Coby (Eagle Bear) Royal (BA ’08), they organized a series of meetings with Blackfoot women, both on and off reserve. Along with meetings in Lethbridge and Calgary, they met with women from the Siksika, Piikani, Kainai and Blackfeet First Nations to ask them how they define economic prosperity and what it means to them.

“The results were similar to what I had expected,” says Pace-Crosschild. “Economic prosperity to Indigenous families is not just based on money. It’s based on relationship — relationship with each other, to the land, and to the resources within the community.”

Following the meetings, the women developed a community plan and were asked to submit proposals to Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment. Crystal Good Rider (Ba/BEd ’04, MEd ’10) was hired as project manager to help implement the successful proposals.

“The website was developed in response to what the women were saying in the community needs assessment,” says Good Rider. “When you empower the women, you empower the whole community. There are so many challenges, but this is one positive. Everything we do has been guided by the Blackfoot women’s voices.”

The women identified needs for including cultural content, showcasing Blackfoot women role models and providing entrepreneurial opportunities for women.

“With the website, we’ve been able to work with the Paahtómahksikimi Cultural Centre to highlight artists within the community,” says Good Rider. “With that project, we were really focused on the collective effect of their proposal.”

Newberry says Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment highlights the many connections between the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and the larger community. Almost all the women involved in the project are either employees, faculty or alumnae of the U of L.

“This is a very exciting project,” she says. “It’s been going on for a while and we’re finally seeing some of the fruits of our labour. We used an assets-based model and the projects we’re supporting definitely build on the strengths that already exist among Blackfoot women.”

Symposium and exhibit focus on local queer history

caroline.zentner — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 19:50:31 +0000

An exhibit devoted to local queer history, set to open on Saturday, Oct. 12 at the Galt Museum & Archives, is the first of its kind in southwestern Alberta.

For the past year, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professors Drs. Kristine Alexander (history) and Suzanne Lenon (women and gender studies) have been working with Aimee Benoit, curator of the Galt Museum, undergraduate students and the teenage members of the Queer Impact Club (QIC) of the Boys & Girls Club of Lethbridge & District on a project that documents the queer histories of Lethbridge and southwestern Alberta.

The Inqueeries: 2SLGBTQ+ Histories of Southwestern Alberta exhibit features a variety of objects from the community, including the first pair of high heels from a local drag queen, a chest binder and costumes created by artist and scholar Shawn Singer to personify two-spirit people in Blackfoot history. Objects will be paired with a quote from the donor describing the object, what it means to them and their relationship to it. The exhibit will also showcase buttons and promotional material from Pride Fest and OUTreach and issues of The Occasion, a queer newsletter.

“Inqueeries is, for me, a great starting point to begin challenging misconceptions about the history of Lethbridge and Alberta as a whole,” says Liam Devitt, a student involved in the project. “Alberta is often thought of as a place of the “severely normal,” which overshadows much of this province’s rich queer history. With this exhibit and the upcoming symposium organized by the U of L’s Institute for Child and Youth Studies, I hope Lethbridge can become a hub for queer history research and we can begin to realize Alberta as a place of the severely queer.”

A week after the exhibit opens, a one-day symposium on Friday, Oct. 18 will allow for further discussions of queer and community-engaged approaches to oral history, museums, and child and youth studies. The symposium features presentations by the QIC youth curators, keynote speakers, paper presentations by the U of L undergrads involved in the project and a roundtable discussion. The speakers are authors and professors with expertise in the history of queer communities in Western Canada, transgender children and youth and queer literature.

“Queer Youth Curating Queer History is an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the historical research and intergenerational collaboration that has resulted in Inqueeries: 2SLGBTQ+ Histories of Southwestern Alberta, an exhibit open to the public until February, 2020,” says Alexander. “Featuring the work of queer youth, U of L undergraduate students and faculty, and invited keynote speakers from across North America, the symposium is going to make important contributions to academic and public discussions about resistance, community and queer histories in Lethbridge.”

U of L students create innovative programming for Galt Museum

caroline.zentner — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 17:51:41 +0000

Two ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students completing Applied Studies courses have developed unique tools to help educate school children about local history.

Ashley Henrickson (MA ’19), museum educator at the Galt Museum & Archives, and Dr. Kristine Alexander, associate professor of history and Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Child and Youth Studies, supervised LaRae Smith and Benjamin Weistra, both Education students, as they completed Applied Studies courses last semester. Their projects involved working with museum staff to research and produce new educational programming for school groups visiting the Galt.

“Recent scholarship about teaching and learning in higher education has shown that the opportunity to work on community-engaged research projects produces enormous gains in terms of student engagement and retention,” says Alexander. “The U of L’s Applied Studies program is a model in this respect, and it has been a real pleasure to be able to watch Ashley, LaRae and Ben work together to connect historical research, cutting-edge technologies and museum education.”

From left to right are Dr. Kristine Alexander, Ashley Henrickson, LaRae Smith and Benjamin Weistra.

Smith’s project, sponsored by Farm Credit Canada, was about the Great Depression in southern Alberta. Smith, with guidance from Henrickson, developed a simulation that’s like a board game.

“The game, which is designed for Grade 5, is played in a number of rounds and, in each round, students choose what crops to plant and which agricultural techniques to implement,” says Henrickson. “The students analyze newspaper articles and photographs from the 1930s to help inform their choices. Their farms are then hit by a number of travesties which affected Alberta farmers, including drought, grasshoppers and low market prices. Finally, the emotional reality of life in the Great Depression is driven home by sharing the stories of local families who lived through the period. LaRae collected these stories through oral history interviews.”

“As the ideas for this simulation started flowing and it began to take shape, I couldn’t help but get increasingly excited for the launch of this program,” says Smith. “I can’t wait for students to be able to come and experience firsthand what it was like as a farmer in southern Alberta during the Great Depression. It was a very rare opportunity to get to spend so much time on a single lesson plan and dive right into the fine details. I feel lucky to have been able to partner with the Galt Museum on this project and I am excited to see how students react to the program.”

Smith’s Great Depression simulation is still in the building stages but is expected to launch in September.

“LaRae’s work has been amazing,” says Henrickson. “I had envisioned the Applied Study being a jumping-off point for the research and the game, but she was so effective that it was nearly a finished product at the end. She’s also a very talented teacher.”

Weistra’s project focused on Ukrainian-Canadian internment in the First World War, a topic that’s part of the Grade 3 curriculum.

“There was an internment camp here in Lethbridge, although many people don’t know a lot about it,” says Henrickson. “Ben researched the camp in Lethbridge, located where Exhibition Park is now, and the camps in Banff because people from Lethbridge went there.”

Several prisoners escaped from the Lethbridge camp in 1916 using shovels, an auger and a fan to dig a tunnel under the fence. These tools are now held in the Glenbow Archives and therefore cannot be easily accessed by Grade 3 classes in Lethbridge. Ben examined how technologies like augmented reality, photogrammetry and 3D printing can be used to bring replicas of these objects to local students.

“This project not only made me realize the potential of using 3D/AR/VR technology in my future teaching adventures and other history projects, but also led to great connections at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, the Galt and Agility,” says Weistra. “It also led to other great experiences like taking part in the Agility pitch competition. As a student with Ukrainian heritage, it also makes me proud to be able to take part in a project like this which helps bring light to a darker and lesser-known part of Ukrainian-Canadian history.”

U of L Agility, a student-centred program that focuses on innovation, provided valuable support for Weistra’s project by sharing knowledge about virtual reality and 3D printing. He also won the Agility Pitch Competition with his idea and now the Galt is waiting for the outcome of a grant application to help with the costs of digitizing the objects.

As part of their learning, Weistra and Smith presented their projects during the recent Institute for Child and Youth Studies symposium and have each won scholarships as a result.

“LaRae and Ben were spectacular students and they made significant contributions to the museum,” says Henrickson. “We are very excited that both of them are working with us again during the summer. I am also very thankful to Dr. Alexander and the U of L for supporting these projects.”

New U of L series to highlight research in social sciences and humanities

caroline.zentner — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 15:48:24 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, thanks to funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), is launching a new series called Celebrating Connection: A SSHRC Exchange Series.

The series is designed to help disseminate research findings and provide opportunities for networking and collaborating in the humanities, social sciences, arts, education and management through events such as conferences, presentations and workshops.

“U of L researchers in the social sciences and humanities are conducting leading-edge research and a series like Celebrating Connection allows them to share their results and further involve their students in learning opportunities,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, associate vice-president (research). “This series will be of interest to the broader academic community, as well as the public at large.”

Eight proposals have been accepted and topics include a variety of disciplines, from art history and music to archaeology and philosophy. Most of the sessions will occur during the 2019-2020 academic year but the first is scheduled for June 14 and 15.

The first instalment of the series, titled The Line Crossed Us: New Directions in Critical Border Studies, brings together emerging scholars working on aspects of border studies. Organized by the Border Studies Group at the U of L — which includes Drs. Julie Young (Geography), Tier II Canada Research Chair; Sheila McManus (History) and Paul McKenzie-Jones (Indigenous Studies) — the conference will examine Indigenous and migration politics and also put contemporary border issues and crises into historical perspective.

“We’re excited about the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of this conference,” say Young, McManus and McKenzie-Jones. “Border studies often takes place siloed in three distinct disciplines—history, geography and political science—which is what makes our conference unique and important, especially in an era when nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise amidst calls for stronger borders.”

The conference includes a screening of the film El Muro: The Wall (2017), a documentary that focuses on the ancestral lands of the Lipan Apache in Texas and governmental efforts to dispossess them. Anyone interested in attending is asked to register for a free ticket through Eventbrite.

The conference schedule can be found online at Border Studies.

Kaitlynn Weaver found her niche in Child & Youth Studies

caroline.zentner — Wed, 29 May 2019 21:53:55 +0000

When Kaitlynn Weaver (BA ’16) walks across the stage to receive her Master of Arts, she’ll do so knowing she took every opportunity available to learn and develop as a person and as a scholar.

“What has made my master’s experience so great are the people I’ve met here and elsewhere and the opportunities I’ve been given,” she says. “My supervisor, Dr. Kristine Alexander, and my committee (Drs. Caroline Hodes, Jan Newberry and Amy von Heyking) actively sought opportunities for me in places I wouldn’t even have thought to look. The level of investment they had in me, my experiences, my ability to network, to gain confidence in myself, my research and my public speaking skills has been so valuable. The last three years have been so formative for me in ways that I can’t even explain.”

Originally from Rocky Mountain House, Weaver followed in her older sister, Sarah’s, footsteps in continuing her education at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Right from the start, Weaver felt at home at the U of L.

“I was able to shadow Sarah as a university student over my spring break in high school,” says Weaver. “I sat in on a philosophy and a sociology class. I was excited and engaged and the philosophy professor asked me questions in class and had me participate like I was a university student. That was really impactful and being here has been awesome.”

When she first arrived in 2012, Weaver studied New Media. As part of the U of L’s liberal education requirements, she also took a class in sociology.

“I really liked it and I liked the way they were talking about people’s identities and power structures, and I wanted to pursue it further,” she says. “I decided to switch my major to sociology and do a minor in Women & Gender Studies, which was a huge part of my university experience.”

As she was nearing the completion of her bachelor’s, Dr. Carol Williams (Women & Gender Studies) asked her if she was considering graduate school and told her that Alexander, who’s also a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Child and Youth Studies and director of the U of L’s Institute for Child and Youth Studies (I-CYS), was looking for graduate students.

Weaver knew she wanted to focus on youth during graduate school, as she had been a volunteer at the Boys & Girls Club of Lethbridge and District and had completed an independent study about youth unemployment with Dr. Muriel Mellow. She obtained a Canada Graduate Scholarship through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), which later led to receiving a Michael Smith Foreign Studies Supplement Award.

“When I started my master’s, I was a graduate assistant for a project called Elders of the Future, which was a 10-year project on Blackfoot child-rearing practices in southern Alberta,” says Weaver. “I was asked to run children and youth programming to create photos and artworks for an eventual exhibit at Casa.”

The project, a collaboration between the Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society and I-CYS, celebrated the resiliency of local Blackfoot communities through their family and child-rearing practices. Weaver worked with children and youth at Opokaa’sin and helped organize events around the exhibit.

“I got to work with Blackfoot youth and children at Opokaa’sin and that’s not something I would have otherwise been able to do,” she says.

The foreign studies award allowed Weaver to spend three months studying at Rutgers ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Camden in New Jersey, the first American institution to have a childhood studies department. Supervised by Dr. Lauren Silver, Weaver lived in Philadelphia, just across the Delaware River from the university, from January to April, 2018. She attended Silver’s classes and met other faculty members in the department.

“I grew more as a person and as a professional in those three months than I ever have in my life,” she says. “I was completely taken out of my comfort zone and immersed in a different lifestyle. I presented in a class, got to talk to every professor in the department and gained lifelong friendships.”

For her thesis, Weaver spoke to Faculty of Education alums, asking them to focus on their childhood experiences and their experiences being adults. Her thesis, titled “Growing the Finest Teachers Possible”: Theorizing how Young Teachers Challenge, (Re)produce, and are Subject to Discourses of Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood, examined the expectations of new teachers and the reality they found in the classroom.

“These teachers focused a lot on their own experience as educators and expected a lot more freedom and autonomy in their classrooms to “shape” the children they’re working with,” Weaver says. “They found out that actually, just because they’re adults and just because they’re educators, doesn’t give them complete freedom. The expectations of adulthood and the realities didn’t really match up.”

Now setting off on her life as a professional, Weaver continues to be involved with youth. She recently began employment with Family and Community Support Services (Barons-Eureka-Warner) and the Boys & Girls Club of Lethbridge and District.

“It’s a partnership position funded by the Government of Canada. It’s a full-time position and I work in southern Alberta rural communities and get youth from Grades 9 to 12 involved in volunteering and civic engagement in some way.”

PUBlic Professor Series talk explores why Canadians remember some wars and let others fade

trevor.kenney — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 22:12:53 +0000

The first time the new Dominion of Canada sent troops overseas, and the first time it fought in a war against another country, was on the veldts of South Africa. This would seem, among those who associate military firsts with national maturity, to be a significant milestone. But Canadians, by and large, don’t remember their participation in the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).

On Thursday, November 22, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Canadian Studies professor, Dr. Amy Shaw, will present 'A Devil-May-Care Sort of Swagger’, A Case for Remembering Canada in the Boer War.

Why? Why do we remember some wars and let others fade? The Boer War’s relative absence in our national memory is a shame because having it as part of our narrative could help us understand several elements of late-Victorian Canadian society, including ideas about gender roles, perceptions of duty, and how imperialism was understood on an individual level.

On Thursday, November 22, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Canadian Studies professor, Dr. Amy Shaw, will present 'A Devil-May-Care Sort of Swagger’: A Case for Remembering Canada in the Boer War. This is the third talk of the 2018/19 season for the Faculty of Arts & Science’s PUBlic Professor Series. The free event runs from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge and is open to the public.

Shaw is an associate professor in the Department of History at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge where she teaches courses in Canadian history, especially cultural and military history. She grew up in Ontario and earned her PhD from Western ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, in London, Ont. In her teaching and research, Shaw is interested in understandings of citizenship and responsibility, especially in wartime, and how they intersect with ideas about gender.

Some of Shaw’s research on the Boer War has been published in articles on dissent in Canada against the war, and on the public discussion of soldiers’ bodies during the war. Her current book project gathers this all together to look more broadly at Canadian perceptions of the Anglo-Boer War, especially in terms of ideas about imperialism.

The Second Anglo-Boer War was seen by many Canadians as an opportunity to showcase British imperial righteousness and unity, as well as the distinctive national strengths of the young Dominion. Shaw is very interested in how many commentators of the day talked about the bodies of the Canadian soldiers, and the Afrikaners they were fighting. Examining how the soldiers were represented, and what this might mean about normative manliness and the qualities and behaviour of ideal citizens, offers useful insight into the society of the day, and of Canadians’ relationship to imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century.

Further talks scheduled for 2018/19 feature Dr. Alexander Darku (economics), Dr. Tom Johnston (geography) and Dr. Hester Jiskoot (geography). Details on each of their presentations can be found at: ulethbridge.ca/artsci/publicprofessor.

UNews - Department of History

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