Who we are / Qui sommes-nous?

A multidisciplinary group of -mainly- Canadian people interested in the History of humanitarian aid, in academia, archives and NGOs.  This site is maintained by Dominique Marshall and Will Tait, from the Department of History of Carleton University.  The wish to formalize an existing network of collegial exchanges and collaborations came after the workshop to welcome Kevin O’Sullivan  from Ireland early in July 2014.   Three research assistants are joining us for the Spring and Summer of 2015: Francesca Taucer and Victoria Hawkins, from Carleton University, and Uriel Contreras, from ITESM Campus Puebla, Mexico. The network benefits from the financial support of Carleton University Research Office and MITACS Global links.

On this site you will find/Contenu du site

 2. Events and announcements/ Annonces & événement

• July 2015 – Geneva–  Global Humanitarianism Research Academy (GHRA) Call for paper to come soon [posted on October 6, 2014]
• June 2015, University of Ottawa – Canadian Historical Association Congress

-25 April 2015, Ottawa.  Sarah Glassford, “What More is There to Say About Socks? Lessons from Women’s WW1 War Work for the Canadian Red Cross and Women’s Institutes,” Women and The First World War, Annual Meeting of the Ontario’s Women’s Network, Canadian Museum of War.

-April 2015, Paris.  “The Influence and Role of NGOs in Global Governance: From Grassroots to Global“, American Graduate School in Paris, Annual Graduate Students Conference [posted 5 January 2015] Submissions will be accepted from senior level undergraduate students, graduate and doctoral level students, academics, and professionals in the fields related to the theme of the conference. Attendees are not restricted to those that submit papers. All are welcome to attend the conference. Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 January 2015 Final Paper Submission Deadline: 27 March 2015

– Date limite 31 mars 2015, Appel à communications – Montréal – Colloque Canada-Québec-Caraïbe Connexions transaméricaines. Le colloque aura lieu du 8 au 10 october 2015.  “Ces connexions transaméricaines, bien que souvent méconnues, s’inscrivent dans le temps long, comme en témoignent les précoces allées et venues des missions jésuites puis des universitaires, ou encore la création d’un Centre de recherche sur la Caraïbe à l’Université de
Montréal dès 1967. Plus récemment, c’est dans les secteurs de la préservation de l’environnement, de la participation aux projets régionaux de développement, des migrations transnationales et de l’étude des mémoires partagées que ces relations transcontinentales opèrent leurs mutations afin de se présenter comme de éléments essentielsà la compréhension
de « notre Amérique ».”

– March 2015, Africa, location TBA – “History of Humanitarianism in Africa” Overseas Development Institute (UK), to be held in March 2015 in Africa. [posted by Stephen Brown, July 2014]

–9-10 March 2015, Ottawa – “Representing HIV/AIDS-Affected Children in South Africa: Public Health Interventions & Cultural Texts” – Dr Jenny Doubt (Open University)* : talk on March 9, 12:00 to 13:30 in DT 2203) and film “Yesterday” and discussion, March 10, 17:30-19:30, location TBA.  More information: Monica Patterson, Child Studies, Carleton University.   *Project Manager of Sinovuyo Teens and Postdoctoral Research Officer at Oxford University where she is currently working to develop, implement, and evaluate a culturally-adaptable child-abuse prevention program for HIV/AIDS-affected families living in rural South Africa. The project operates in partnership with the Universities of Oxford and Cape Town, the South African government, NGO Clowns Without Borders South Africa, UNICEF and WHO

-Deadline Feb. 23, 2015 , Montreal – 2015-17 Post-Doctoral Fellowships in Global Governance – Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University  [Sent by ML Ermisch]

-Octobre 2014 au 10 février 2015 , Ottawa –  “Avec les victimes de guerre” Exposition de photographies humanistes du délégué du CICR Jean Mohr en l’honneur du 150e anniversaire de la Croix-Rouge – Université d’Ottawa & Ambassade de Suisse- Evénement de clôture sur le “genre et violence sexuelles dans les zones de conflit “, le 10 février.

Impact de balles sur la façade d’un immeuble, 1974. Crédit photo : Jean Mohr .

Voir aussi le beau  petit film sur Mohr fait à l’occasion de l’exposition, pour le Musée de l’Elysée, 2014, 5 mn.

-January 24, 25 2015, Montreal – International Forum, organized by the World University Service of Canada (WUSC)  in cooperation with the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation.

-January 22, 2015, Ottawa – Uganda NGO Forum
Learn about Canadian NGOs in Uganda. This is a collaborative initiative of the Uganda Association of Ottawa, CanUgan Disability Support and the Institute of African Studies. Seven Ottawa-based NGOs working in Uganda will share their history, mandates, challenges and perspectives. Their talks will be followed by a roundtable to identify issues of common concern and to explore options for networking. This will be an excellent opportunity to connect with these NGOs, to learn about their issues and to exchange ideas.
Room 2017, Dunton Tower (The Arts Lounge) between 6:45 and 9:30 p.m

-January 15, 2015, Ottawa – “Not the Only String in Our Bow: Bureaucrats, Activists and Canadian International Development Policy 1960-1975,” by Dr. Kevin Brushett, Assistant Professor of History and Chair of the Military and Strategic Studies Programme at Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario-  from 12:00-13:00, Room A2-217, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa (Please contact Greg Donaghy if you intend to attend at Greg.Donaghy@international.gc.ca )

-January 7 2015, Ottawa – “Constellations of Humanity’: Canairelief and the Biafran War,1968-1971,” Will Tait, PhD Candidate (History), Carleton University, 1:00- 2:30 pm, 433 Paterson Hall.

  3. Past Activities of the Network/ Activités passées du Réseau

– Images of the workshop to welcome Kevin O’Sullivan – Carleton, 9 July 2014,   by W.Tait

For an account of the event, click HERE

For  the announcement of the event, click HERE

For a program of the event of July 9 2014, click HERE

 -May 2014 : Canadian Historical Association Two Panels on the History of Humanitarian Aid, Brock University

1. Canada and the United States – Approaches to Humanitarianism and Development in East Asia, 1946-1974/ Le Canada et les États-Unis – Formules de l’humanitaire et du développement en Asie de l’Est, 1946-1974

Greg Donaghy (Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada): ‘Sound, Practicable, and Realistic:’ Canada and the UN Korean Relief Agency, 1950-54

Andrew Gawthorpe (King’s College, London): Samuel Huntington on Order and Change in Wartime South Vietnam

Will Tait (Carleton University): Rebuilding a Mission: the Canadian United Church in South Korea 1946-1958

2. Canada, the Global South, and International Development, 1957-2013 / Le Canada, le Sud global et le développement international, 1957-2013

Animator / Animateur : Kevin Brushett (Royal Military College of Canada)

Jill Campbell-Miller (University of Waterloo): The Entrenchment of Aid: The Diefenbaker Government and Aid to India, 1957-1963

Ted Cogan (University of Guelph): Selling Foreign Aid in the 1960s: Public Opinion, Civil Society and the Demise of SHARE/CANADA

Ruth Compton Brouwer (King’s University College, University of Western Ontario): ‘Canada’s Peace Corps’? CUSO’s Ambivalent Relationship with its US ‘Cousin,’ 1961-1971

Dominique Marshall (Carleton University): Local and Global Humanitarianism: The History of Oxfam in Newfoundland, 1965-2013

– June 2013 – CHA – Victoria One panel on Cold War Humanitariansim and Development

Kevin Brushett (RMC): “words into Ploughshares: Robert McNamara, Lester Pearsonand Canadian International Development Assistance to the Global South, 1966 to 1976”

Laura Madokoro(Columbia): “Humanitarianism and Cold War Politics in Hong Kong”

Jill Campbell-Miller(Waterloo):“I find this aid field becoming all the time more complicated”: Canadian Aid in India, 1952-195

Will Tait(Carleton):From Miles for Millions to “If I had a rocket launcher”? Oxfam Canada’s Cold War and the Role of Religious Traditions

Commentator/ Commentatrice :Dominique Marshall (Carleton)

-June 2012 – CHA One panel on International Encounters and the Nation-State: Humanitarian Aid at the Crossroads / Les rencontres internationales et l’État-nation : l’aide humanitaire à la croisée des chemins 

Sarah Glassford, University of Ottawa Wartime Crossroads: Nationalism vs. Internationalism in the Canadian Junior Red Cross, 1939-1945

Ruth Compton Brouwer, King’s College, Western University: ‘Two Years That Last a Lifetime’: Returned CUSO Volunteers and Canadian Society

Dominique Marshall, Carleton University: International engagements: OXFAM employees from Britain and Canada in the 1960s and 1970s

Facilitator / Animatrice : Natalie Gravelle, York University

– June 2009 – CHA Carleton University – One panel on Transnational Histories of Canadian Humanitarian Aid / Histoires transnationales de l’aide humanitaire canadienne

Tarah Brookfield, York University: Canadian Youth, Charity, and Citizenship in the Cold War

Ruth Compton Brouwer, McMaster University: Ironic Interventions: Canadian Missionaries and CUSO Volunteers as Participants in Family Planning Programmes in India, 1930s-1970s

Sarah Glassford, University of Ottawa: “A sanctified name”: Power, Authority and the Canadian Red Cross Society during the Second World War

Dominique Marshall, Carleton University: The Beginning of OXFAM in Canada, from 1942-1971. A Study in the History of the Political Culture of Humanitarianism

  4. Recent publications/Publications récentes

– Kevin O’Sullivan. “The Search for Justice: NGOs in Britain and Ireland and the New International Economic Order, 1968–82,” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development 6.1 (2015): 173-187.

-Emily Baughan’s blog on “Humanitarian impartiality, anti-austerity and the political turn of NGOs“, 12 March 2015, History and Policy.

-Free online access to journals in development from Taylor and Francis  [posted January 27, 2015]

-Anne-Emanuelle Birn (U. of Toronto), “Uruguay’s Infant Social Security”, Video, January 2015, 5 min.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfTPx174to&feature=youtu.be

-Charles Keidan, “Why Philanthropy Merits scholarly Study“, Times Higher Education, 23 October 2014.

– Arua Oko Omaka (McMaster), “Humanitarian Action: The Joint Church Aid and Health Care Intervention in the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970,” Canadian Journal of History/Annales d’histoire canadienne, 49, 3, 2014 and “The Forgotten Victims: Ethnic Minorities in the Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967-1970” Journal of Retracing Africa: Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2014): 25-40.

–Une Histoire d’humanité, 14 vidéos sur l’histoire de la Croix-Rouge, 2014.

– Monde(s). Histoire, espaces, relations, n°5, Diplomaties, sous la direction de Laurence Badel et Stanislas Jeannesson.  Voir le sommaire sur le lien : site de la revue Monde(s)

-Yves Denéchère, 2013, « Babylift (avril 1975) : une opération militaro-humanitaire américaine pour finir la guerre du Viêtnam », Guerres mondiales et Conflits contemporains, n°252, 2013, pp.131-143.

– Adapt or die: The new NGO funding reality, by Kristen Shane, Embassy, 15 October 2014, on the closing of the North-South Institute –  [Reference from Will Tait]

–Histoire des réfugiés au Canada – Nouveau site web de Radio Canada International, avec la collaboration de Laura Madokoro. [13 Oct. 2014]

-“Humanitarian encounters: Biafra, NGOs and imaginings of the Third World in Britain and Ireland,” Journal of Genocide Research, Volume 16, Issue 2-3, 2014.  Special double issue: The Nigeria-Biafra war, 1967–1970: postcolonial conflict and the question of genocide.

– “Responsibility, legitimacy, morality: Chinese humanitarianism in historical perspective”
Research reports and studies, sept. 2014, ODI.

-Nouveau livre sur les “Enjeux et défis du développement international” dirigé par  Pierre Beaudet & Paul Haslam – Un artile de Françcois Audet sur “L’ordre et le désordre humanitaire” [posted Sept. 21 2014]

–  A Social History of Student Volunteering: Britain and Beyond by Georgina Brewis, 2014 by Palgrave Macmillan.

-Special issue on  Ideas, Practices and Histories of Humanitarianism,  Journal of Modern European History, 2014.

-Julia Irwin, Making the World a Safer Place.  The American Red Cross and a Nation’s Humanitarian Awakening, 2013.

-Special issue on “Humanitarianism in the Era of the First World War,” First World War Studies, April 2014

-Special issue on “Humanitarianism and Empire,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth Studies, April 2012.

-Marshall, Dominique with Julia Sterparn, “Oxfam Aid to Canada’s First Nations, 1962–1975: Eating Lynx, Starving for Jobs, and Flying a Talking Bird,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, Vol. 22, no. 2, 2012, pp. 298-343.

-Tait, Will,  “Bureaucracy Meets Theology: The Canadian United Church in Interwar Korea”, Resilient Japan: Papers presented at the 24th Annual Conference of the Japan Studies Association of Canada, 2013.

 5. Teaching material/Enseignement

• “Critical Thinking: NGOs and the Making of the Twentieth Century,” blog by K.O’Sullivan, February 2015, Teaching Voluntary History.
• “Reflections on a new module: concepts, approaches and boundaries” by Helen McCarthy, February 2015,on on the challenges of introducing a new module for undergraduates, Between the Citizen and the State: The History of Voluntary Action in Modern Britain.
• Blog on “Teaching voluntary Action History” by Dr. Catriona Beaumont, London South Bank University, February 2015
• K. O’Sullivan’s third year course, HI3101, Of Rice and Men: Aid and Humanitarianism since 1945.
  National University of Ireland,  Galway
• S. Glassford’s third year course, HIST 409A, How to Save the World in 12 Easy Steps: 20th c. Humanitarianism. U. Prince Edward Island, Fall 2013
• D. Marshall’s, third year course, HIST 3111, History of Humanitarian Aid, Carleton University, Winter 2014  
• W. Tait’s, third year course, A Transnational History of Humanitarianism. Proposed syllabus, Carleton University, 2013
  
• P.-Y. Saunier, plan de cours de troisième année HST 2603B, Les organisations non gouvernementales internationales XVIIIe XXIe siècle: une histoire européenne ?  Laval, été 2015
• K. O’Sullivan MA seminar,  NGOs and the making of the 20th century world , National University of Ireland,  Galway, Fall 2014
• D. Marshall Ph.D. reading course, Transnational history and humanitarian history, Carleton University, Fall 2014

6. Collective bibliography /Bibliographie collective

– On Canada in particular / Sur le Canada en particulier

• Austin, Alvyn. Saving China : Canadian Missionaries in the Middle Kingdom, 1888-1959 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986) [Madokoro: “I  refer regularly to ..”]
• Compton Brouwer, Ruth. “When missions became development: ironies of ‘NGOization’ in mainstream Canadian churches in the 1960s, “Canadian Historical Review, 12/2010, Volume 91, Issue 4. [Madokoro: “essential read”]
• Ermisch, Marie-Luise, “Report Back:  Voluntary Action History Society Fifth International Conference, University of Huddersfield, 10–12 July 2013,” History Workshop, 77 (Spring 2014) , p. 331-337.
• “On a Mission“, Special Issue of Canada’s History on Canadian International Aid, March 2012. [Marshall]
• Webster, David
  • Fire and the Full Moon: Canada and Indonesia in a  Decolonizing World (UBC Press, 2009);
  • “Development Advisors in a Time of Cold War and Decolonization: The UN Technical Assistance Administration, 1950-1959,” Journal of Global History 6 no. 2 (2011): 249-272;
  • “Modern Missionaries: Canadian Postwar Technical Assistance Advisors in Southeast Asia,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 20 no. 2 (2009): 86-111.

– Other titles/Autres ouvrages

• Le Mouvement Social, Avril 2009, numéro spécial sur “L’humanitaire aux XIXe et XXe siècles”.
• Speaking Out Case Studies by Doctors Without Borders: 11 remarkable studies “to provide the movement with reference documents on “temoignage”/”advocacy”. These documents are designed to be straightforward and accessible to all and to help volunteers understand and adopt the organization’s culture of speaking out on issues.” [thanks to K. O’Sullivan for the reference -Nov. 2014]
• “L’humanitaire: Au delà de l’urgence”, special issue of Vacarme, (France) 1997.  [An early reflection on dilemmas and words very worth reading, With an interview of Rony Brauman, thanks to E. Davey’s Tweet  for the reference].
• Jones, Andrew (supervised by Matthew Hilton, knows Kevin O’Sullivan) – BRITISH HUMANITARIAN NGOs AND THE DISASTER RELIEF INDUSTRY,  1942-1985 (defended July 2014) – [Ermisch]
• Paulmann, Johannes. “Conjunctures in the History of International Humanitarian Aid During the Twentieth Century.” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development 4, no. 2 (2013): 215-38.[Ermisch: A good teaching article”] http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/humanity/v004/4.2.paulmann.pdf
• Rahman, Babu M., ‘Constructing Humanitarianism: An investigation into Oxfam’s  changing humanitarian culture, 1942-1994’ (PhD thesis: University of Wales, 1998) [Ermisch]

  7. Links of interest/ Liens

Hashtags: #aidhistory; #humanitarian; #humanitarianaid;

Aid Watch/Observatoire de l’humanitaire [France]

Canadian Association for the Study of Internaitonal Development/ Association canadienne d’études du développement international

Canadian Committee on Migration, Ethnicity and Transnationalism/ Comité canadien sur la migration, l’éthnicité et le transnationalisme

Canadian Research Institute on Humanitarian Crisis and Aid/Observatoire canadien sur les crises et l’aide humanitaires

Centre de réflexion sur l’action et les savoirs humanitaires/CRASH: Academic gruoups for studies and analysis of MSF: Francais/English

History of International Organizations Network [Geneva]

History of the League of Nations Network

Humanitarianism and Human Rights [UK based]

Humanity Journal and its blog [US based] “dedicated to publishing original research and reflection on human rights, humanitarianism, and development in the modern and contemporary world.”

The McLeod Group [Canada]

Non-state humanitarianism: from colonialism to human rights [UK]

Overseas Development Institute (UK) : Global History of Humanitarian Action [UK]

Society for Historians of American Foriegn Relations [USA]

Voluntary Action History Society, Transnational Network [UK]

 8. Canadian Blogs/Blogues canadiens

-Marie-Luise Ermisch, Oxfam’s Recipes From Many Lands: Tasting the Third World, November 2014, The Historical Cooking Project.

-Christine Chisholm of Transnational histories of thalidomide, Canada and South Africa, October 2014, Active History

-Ann Witteveen, Oxfam Canada,  on what is means to be a humanitarian, August 2014, Oxfam Canada blogs

-Dominique Marshall, Carleton,  on the history of voluntourism, June 2014, Personal blog

-Dominique Marshall, Carleton, on the Humanitarian Coalition Conference on Canada’s emergency aid, November 2013, VAHS Transnational blogs

-Jill Campbell-Miller, Waterloo,  on the Canadian Historical Association panel on the history of Humanitarian Aid, September 2013, VAHS Transnational blogs

-Marie-Luise Ermisch, McGill, on Oxfam UK’s 1960s Project Oasis – VAHS Transnational blog, July 2013

-Jill Campbell-Miller, Waterloo,  on the closing of CIDA – Active History, April 2013

  9. Members/Membres

Click HERE for the list (updated on March 2015)

  10. Questions of humanitarian archives/Questions d’archives humanitaires

– Interview with Andrew Thompson about the uses if the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, by Fabian close, in Humanitarianism and Human Rights, 2 February 2015. [poster 9 February 2015]

– Georgina Brewis, “Eight Reasons Charities Should be Interested int heir Archives,” blog, 20 August 2014.

11. Canadian Humanitarian Heritage/Patrimoine humanitaire canadien

Ottawa, Vietnamese Commemorative Monument, 1995.

Corner of Somerset and Preston.

-Ottawa, The White Fathers of Africa, Site of the scholasticate of 1935 – 1977.

Statue of Notre-Dame of Africa at the entrance of the park. Muséoparc Vanier Museopark (1955)

-Sao Tome, Wreck of Canairelief plane, project of Museum [posted by Will Tait]

The rests of two CANAIRELIEF’s Lockheed Constellation aircrafts in the São Tomé international airport, which could be a magnificient monument to the humanitarian aid
(photo: Jakob Ringler, in Connie Survivors)

-St. Anthony, Newfoundland, Grenfell House Museum

St. Anthony, ca. 1920
The Grenfell Mission established a presence on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula when it opened a year-round hospital at St. Anthony in 1901. The community became mission headquarters and Grenfell opened an orphanage and undenominational school there in 1904 and 1909, respectively.
Photographer unknown. Reproduced by the permission of the Maritime History Archive (PF-323.011), Memorial University, St. John’s, NL.

-Quebec City, Château Frontenac, Site of the Birthplace of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 1944

Photo K. O’Sullivan, via Twitter

-Ottawa, Reflection, Monument to Canadian Aid Workers, 2001/ Réflexion, monument commémoratif de l’aide humanitaire

(Read the speech of the Governor General for the unveiling of the monument in 2001)

   12. Members comments/Commentaires des membres

-I’m completing my doctorate in international law at the Faculty of Law at U/Ottawa on the nature of the international legal framework governing official development assistance (IDCL – international law of development co-operation). My research draws from critical and post-colonial perspectives on international law. As part of my research, I aim to demonstrate how the contemporary legal framework on IDCL has its origins in the colonial era. I explore this through an examination of the EU’s legal aid architecture, and specifically in relation to the Cotonou Partnership Agreement. I’d welcome becoming a member of the network and to share insights from my own research, along with learning from others. [Siobhan Airey, Ph.D. candidate in International Law, University of Ottawa, March 2015]

– As a former long time chair of Oxfam Canada ( and now chair emeritus) and Vice Chair of Oxfam international as well as a political economist I have had an extensive experience in the conceptualization of humanitarian aid and its application. I am interested in both humanitarian aid as it and its elements (food, shelter, health etc.)  are normally defined,  but also in a more extensive linkage between this and broader human rights (gender equality, security/protection, sexual orientation, empowerment etc.)  with the latter as an integral element in the content of aid. [Meyer Browstone, March 2015]

-I work as an archivist at Library and Archives Canada and have taken over the social justice portfolio. As such, I am interested in staying current with trends in the history of humanitarian aid. [Zehra Mawani]

– Currently I am writing a book on Canadian development advisors in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Burma) from 1945 to 1965. Related publications: Fire and the Full Moon: Canada and Indonesia ina  Decolonizing World (UBC Press, 2009); “Development Advisors in a Time of Cold War and Decolonization: The UN Technical Assistance Administration, 1950-1959,” Journal of Global History 6 no. 2 (2011): 249-272; “Modern Missionaries: Canadian Postwar Technical Assistance Advisors in Southeast Asia,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 20 no. 2 (2009): 86-111. Upcoming at the 2015 CHA: “The CCF beyond the seas: Canadian social democrats as development advisors in Southeast Asia, 1950-1965.” [David Webster, Bishops University, March 2015]

– The history and nature of Humanitarian aid fundamentally shapes the narrative of Ethiopian history in the latter half of the twentieth century. The study of humanitarian aid isinherently transnational and is reflective of national and global, economic and social developments. I am interested in the dichotomies that are presented in the narrative(s) of benevolence and  beneficiaries, benefactors and recipients. Humanitarian aid embodies a humanistic ethos, at the same time as it is situated in a complex geo-political and cultural  world order. [Nassisse Solomon, PhD candidate, Western University]

– I am interested in the history of international development and its relationship with European colonial empires, especially British colonial development policies and practices in the twentieth century. I have written on the role of experts and expertise in the history British colonial development and its legacies: Triumph of the Expert: Agrarian Doctrines of Development and the Legacies of British Colonialism (Ohio UP, 2007). I have also co-edited two related collections: (with Brett Bennett), Science and Empire: Knowledge and Networks of Science across the British Empire, 1800-1970 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); and (with Gerald Hodl and Martine Kopf), Developing Africa: Concepts and Practices in twentieth-century colonialism (Manchester UP, 2014). [Joseph Morgan Hodge, Associate Professor of History, west Virginia University], January 2015

-The history and nature of Humanitarian aid fundamentally shapes the narrative of Ethiopian history in the latter half of the twentieth century. The study of humanitarian aid is inherently transnational and is reflective of national and global, economic and social developments. I am interested in the dichotomies that are presented in the narrative(s) of benevolence and  beneficiaries, benefactors and recipients. Humanitarian aid embodies a humanistic ethos, at the same time as it is situated in a complex geo-political and cultural  world order. [Nacisse Solomon, Doctoral Student, History, Western University, London, Canada], January 2015

-This looks like a fascinating forum and I am excited to engage with the material and its members. My interest in the history of humanitarian aid lies in my personal graduate studies, which includes an exploration of humanitarianism in Haiti, humanitarian transformations over the 19th and 20th centuries, and the inscription of security discourse into the work of contemporary NGOs/humanitarians. [David Meinen, MA student in Legal Studies, Carleton University], November 2014

-Understanding humanitarian history allows us to make more informed humanitarian choices today. [Jim MacKinnon, Oxfam Canada]

– Votre groupe me semble très intéressant et j’aimerais vraiment m’y joindre afin de pouvoir échanger avec d’autres historiens de l’aide humanitaire et pour être tenue au courant des plus récentes publications, conférences, nouvelles et activités, qu’il y a dans mon domaine d’étude au Canada. Je vous remercie beaucoup. [Anne-Andrée Plourde, doctorante, Université Laval], Septembre 2014

-Part of my role at CARE Canada is the coordinator of PAGER, the Policy Action Group for Emergency Response, a 32 member agency which includes all major operational humanitarian organisations with Canada. It would be great to participate in this group, and I will be able to disseminate information to other PAGER members via out listserve. [Brooke Gibbons, Care Canada]

-Very glad you are doing this, Dominique and Will.  Sorry I had to miss the one-day workshop, but I’ve been having good email conversations with Kevin. [Ruth Compton-Brouwer, Professor Emerita, King’s University College] July 2014

– I think this is excellent – I think you have really covered what we discussed in terms of the categories for the site. [Jill-Campbell Miller, PhD candidate, History, Waterloo] July 2014

– It would be great to participate in this group, and I will be able to disseminate information to other PAGER members via out listserve. [Brooke Gibbons, CARE Canada] July 2014

-I would very much like to be a member of the group and to receive news related to it. Thank you. [N. Marion, PhD candidate, Carleton] July 2014

-What an excellent idea, Dominique & Will!  Thank-you for taking this on.  I look forward to being more “in the loop” in future.  I’m glad to hear the workshop was a success. [Sarah Glassford, Department of History, UPEI] July 2014

-This is a great idea. Thanks, Dominique and Will! [Lydia Witenbroek, PhD canadate, York] July 2014

-I’m looking forward to the posts on this site. Thanks for taking this initiative. [Tina Loo, Department of HIstory, University of British Columbia] July 2014

– I look forward to continuing exchange following the excellent July workshop. [John Foster, Ex Director of Oxfam Canada, and Instructor at Carleton University, Public Administration] July 2014