• The Carleton University Disability Research Group is preparing a series of webinar entitled Access, Inclusion, and Disability: Connecting disability studies scholars with accessibility practitioners pairing scholars and NGOs, starting late fall, and funded by a SSHRC Connection Grant.
• The CUDRG is finishing its project on Oral Histories of the Disability Rights Movement, 1970-2020 this Fall, with a new website and series of archived interviews.
• We are preparing an article on “Creating, Archiving and Exhibiting Disability History: The Oral Histories of Disability Activists of the Carleton University Disability Research Group”, for t a special issue of the Journal First Monday, entitled: This Feature Has Been Disabled.

• The Shannon Lectures in History of the Spring 2022, on “The Management of Natural Resources and the Environment in Canada: Historical and Transnational Perspectives”, was convened by Stephen Osei Owusu with my collaboration. The Network in Canadian History & Environment (NICHE) published a blog about the series. The recording of the four lectures are posted on the Shannons’ website.
• I am preparing a history of Canada’s engagement with the International Refugee Regime, for a collection on this theme edited by the team of the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN).
• A new grant from LERRN will allow me to work on the theme of archives, disability and refugees, in collaboration with Carleton’s Archives and Special Collections.
• The Canadian Network on Humanitarian History saw the two doctoral internships it sponsored with the support of MITACS finish this past year. The results are described in two blogs: “The History, and Future, of Transnational Humanitarian Work – Report from Two Years of Co-Creation of Knowledge, Policy, and Education Materials” by Helen Kennedy (August 2022) and “Preserving the Legacy of Influential Canadian Humanitarian Lewis Perinbam (1925-2007)“, for the work done by Anna Kozlova (April 2022)

October 2020: For three years, the Carleton University Research Group (CUDRG) has documented and promoted the accessibility of the Paterson Hall elevator. This is now done. “Carleton Collaboration Creates Automated Access to Elevators“.

September 2020. The Gendered Design in STEAM program, which I co-direct with Design colleague Bjarki Hallgrimsson, annnounced 20 awards: “Carleton Program Awards 20 Grants Across the Global South to Support Gendered Design in STEAM“.

September 2020: The Oral Histories of Disability Activists research project started, in collaboration with Socail Work colleague Therese Jennissen, under the auspices of the CUDRG, : “Announcing the launch of “Oral histories of activists in the disability rights movement between 1970 and 2020”

Fall 2020. The “Disability Futurity” virtual seminar series continues, in collaboration with the Liverpool Hope University Centre for Culture & Disability Studies (CCDS) in Liverpool, UK. Ryan Patterson coordinates the series, under the auspices of the CUDRG. There will be two seminars in the Fall. See the list here.

Fall 2020. Five Shannon Lectures in History on “Human Rights in Canadian History” have been launched. see the fiver recordigs here. I convened the series this year, in conjunction with one MA Seminar on the same theme. See the news “Carleton’s Shannon Lectures Series Explores Historical Themes that are Resurging in Current Political Atmosphere“. and “Carleton’s Final Shannon Lecture of 2020 to Focus on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.”

Fall 2020. Our Archives, Living Histories and Heritage Working Group , under the umbrella of the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network is finishing a report on oral histories of refugees digital depositories. Last Fall 2019, we welcomed Lebanese partner Hicham Kayed. “Archive and Display: Five conversations on Lebanese forced migrations“

2020-21. The Annual program of the Ottawa Historical Association four virtual lectures is posted here. I am coordinating the series, together with the OHA Executive Committee.

2020-21. The annual program of the Brown Bag virtual lecture series in African Studies is here. I am coordinating the series this year, in collaboration with the IAS office.

Summer 2020. the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History is conducting two research projects with MITACS Accelerate funding: “Microhistories of humanitarian aid”, with doctoral candidate Helen Kennedy as lead researcher, WUSC, the Disability Network of the Centre of Lebanese Studies, the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan and the Latin America Working Group as partners (see her blog announcing the project HERE); and “Two case studies in the public history of international development policies in Canada: the Lebanese Special Measures Program (1975-1990) and the Life of Lewis Perinbam (1825-2008)”, with doctoral student Anna Lozlova as lead researcher, WUSC and the Canadian Immigration History Society as partners.

Going to Congress

The panel of the Canadian Network on Humanitarian history at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association in Regina, in May 2018, was on “Histories of Humanitarianism and (Visual) Media”.  For my presentation, “‘CIDA Brings you the World! ‘Children’s Reception of Humanitarian Photographs of Children: 1980-2000”, I used the educational collection of the Canadian International Development Agency now at Carleton’s Archives and Research Collections.  Listen to the podcast of the panel is HERE.

The CNHH met for a day of workshop in Regina, to share ideas, projects and local knowledge.  We  brought back Carleton’s Visiting Fellow Valérie Gorin to Ottawa for a week at Carleton, which included a workshop of her own work, and visits to the archives.  The minutes of the meeting are HERE.

I was invited to chair the wonderful round table “So, What Will That Get You? Becoming a Historian in a Changing Job and Academic Market | Qu’est-ce que ça donne ?  Devenir historien ou historienne dans un marché d’emploi en mutation pour les universitaires”, Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, University of Regina, 27 May 2018.  More work will follow to update the publication.

Writing in the works

• “Conclusion”, in Greg Donaghy and David Webster, dir. “A Samaritan State” Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, 1950–2016, University of Calgary Press, 2018.
• “Ten keys to make sense of traditions in the non-profit sector in Canada” Historical Context For Intersections and Innovations: Change for Canada’s Voluntary Nonprofit Sector, edited by Susan Phillips and Bob Wyatt, in preparation.
• Revue du Musée Canadien de l’histoire, Salle d’histoire canadienne, Canadian Historical Review.
• Blogs on simultaneous translation and Canadian NGOs; NGOs and Canada’s centenary; etc.
• Paper on the history of the Ethiopian Red Cross, for 2019

New supervisions

This year, I am glad to start supervising the following projects:

• post-doctoral project of Dr. Jill Campbell Miller on foreign aid through the lens of settler colonialism using two particular hydro-electric dams constructed during the 1950s: “the Whitehorse Rapids hydroelectric project in the Yukon Territory, a long an important fishing site and meeting place for many nations in the area. And the Umtru hydroelectric project, in Meghalaya, in an area populated primarily by the indigenous Bhoi-Khasi people, a constitutionally-defined Scheduled Tribe.”
• doctoral thesis of Helen Kennedy on Médecins sand frontières, in collaboration with Candace Sobers; and of Andriata Chironda, an oral history of the Canadian refugee regime, in collaboration with James Milner.;
• honours supervision of Kyleigh Gault, on the T4 Program in Nazi Germany;
• research assistantship of  Dr. Ryan Patterson, on the Mennonite Central Committee and the history of disability;
• research assistantships of undergraduate students LuiXia Lee, on the history of Canadian nurses in China, together with Sonya Grypma; and Nicholas Leckey and Shannon Pendregast on the history of disability and technology, in collaboration with Beth Robertson.

New research projects and news from ongoing projects

The collaborative project on “Civil society and the global refugee regime: Understanding and enhancing impact through the implementation of global refugee policy” was successful (SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, 2018-2023) As the historian co-applicant, I will devise training, archiving and public history tools.

I now work with an inter-university team on “Power and humanity: contexted notions of human rights and humanitarianism in North America”.  We met in Berlin at the JFK Institute in February.  2018 will bring virtual co-teaching, one workshop, etc.

The CUDRG  is in full operation, with new virtual exhibitions in preparations on its transnational front on the Mennonite Central Committee,  participation at Spring events such as Life Science Day and the Canadian Association of the Refugees and Forces Migrations Studies, and new panels on the history of technology and deaf and blind people; and additions to the wheelchair history of Canada.

Publications

• “Préface”, Artefact. 16ème colloque international étudiant du Département d’histoire de l’UniversitéLaval s’est tenu du 17 au 19 février 2016 à l’Université Laval, 2017, Québec, pp. 15-19.
• Book review of “Lisa Pasolli Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma: A History of British Columbia’s Social Policy Vancouver: UBC Press, 2015. xii, 240 pp.”,  Historical Studies in Education, 29, 2 (Fall 2017), pp. 153-155.
• Seventh bulletin of the CNHH, March 2018.

The Third Newsletter of the CNHH was sent out to the membership and subscribers this morning. The full text of the bulletin can be read below. This update addresses new members and news from the membership, past and future events, publications, and conferences of the Network, and the future research projects and funding.