African Caribbean Student Association (AFCASA) & The Department of History presents

 Black History at Lakehead

February 16th, 7 to 9 pm. 
Lakehead University - AGORA

Speakers include: Dr. Asiru Abu-Bakare, Prof. Walid Chahal, Prof Taina Chahal, and Dreeni Geer

Featuring: Dance & Performances by Elsa Beleke and Mateo Garcia

Film Screening of “Hard Time” presented by Dr. Ronald Harpelle

Lots of food and refreshments will be served! 

The event is sponsored by AFCASA, Lakehead University Department of History, Lakehead University Office of Human Rights and Equity, Lakehead International, and Lakehead University Student Union

On 21 February at 8 pm in Lakehead University's International Centre (Ground Floor, Chancellor Paterson Library), Dr. Brian Dunn will discuss "Can the Sacred be Secular?" using India as a focus.

India is both a millennia-old Subcontinent and a 70-year-young Republic. As ancient and modern traditions negotiate for space in the world's largest democracy, a uniquely Indian form of secularism has been emerging. Although not without its myriad challenges and voices, Indian secularism comes with an unseen tensile strength - a wisdom for plurality and dialogue that knows that it can and, indeed, must make space for both religious and non-religious communities. This presentation introduces some of this and considers how Canadian and Indian models of secularism might learn from one another.

Free and open to the public! Everyone is welcome!

About the presenter: Dr. Brian Dunn is an internationally travelled researcher, writer and teacher. In addition to a childhood spent in Zambia, Canada and India, Brian returned to North India along with his wife and four children, where he served for eight years as the head of Religious Education at an international school in the foothills of the Himalayas. Upon completing his doctorate in religious studies from Oxford University, he has returned to his hometown of Thunder Bay where he now works as an Adjunct Professor at Lakehead University and researcher for a First Nations Tribal Council.

This event is made possible by The Thunder Bay Branch of the Canadian International Council, Lakehead University’s Department of History, and Lakehead International.

On 27 February at 7:30 pm, Dr. Tory Tonrud, Adjunct Professor of History and Director of the Thunder Bay Museum, will present “History of Museums from the Renaissance to Catherine the Great.”

This presentation is part of the 2017-18 Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society's Lecture Series sponsored by the Department of History. Since 1908, the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society has been regularly holding talks on a wide range of topics on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Thunder Bay Museum (425 Donald Street East) from September to April.

Free and open to the public.

Over the past few decades, many Northern communities have experienced little sustained economic growth and now find themselves at a crossroads where the uncertain future of their extractive resource-based economies is combining with changes in global markets and undermining their social and economic prosperity. The recent global economic turmoil has exacerbated this trend by tying the fiscal hands of government, accelerating the decline in business investments, increasing unemployment dramatically and by stripping away markets and opportunities elsewhere.

The Impact of Development is a workshop that seeks to understand how single industry communities looking to the future can ensure that they will not repeat the mistakes of the past. The workshop offers both a regional and international focus on the various impacts of development on communities that depend on a single industry. A major consideration of the workshop is the place of northern economies in a changing world where competition comes in new forms and from many directions.

The goal of the workshop is to better understand the development of resource dependent communities in Canada in a comparative perspective. In particular, the workshop will examine how communities have attempted to remain resilient and what lessons can be learned from the evolving development of extractive industries in Canada and abroad. The workshop will bring presenters together to discuss future research that will assist northern communities in better understanding the challenges they face in the context of the global economic shifts currently taking place.

Click here for the full program.

Cannot make our free public two-day workshop? Watch it live at http://trinitytvca.businesscatalyst.com/mining.html 

History for Lunch in March will feature a short presentation and discussion by recent MA alumna Anna England exploring "From History to Museum Studies."

Anna England completed her MA in History at Lakehead University in 2017. Her Major Research Project, "In Search of Freedom, Equality and Opportunity: African American Sojourners to the Soviet Union, 1920- 1940," focused on the experiences of African Americans whole the US during the interwar period in search of improved social, political, and economic prospects in the USSR. She began the Masters of Museum Studies program at the University of Toronto in Fall 2017 and has recently been accepted to complete an internship at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans this summer.

Anna will speak on her research as an MA student at Lakehead University and will reflect on her transition on to Museum Studies, and her current training at the University of Toronto. 
History for Lunch is an opportunity to put a bit of History in your diet and for members of the community and the Department of History to showcase their current research.

More information about the sessions can be found on the Department of History website (history.lakeheadu.ca) and on our Facebook page (facebook.com/lakeheadhistory)

On 9 May, the Department of History at Lakehead University is pleased to host Colonel (Ret’d) Patrick M. Dennis, OMM, CD, who will speak on "Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the Great War."

During the “Hundred Days” of the First World War, over 30 percent of conscripts who served in the Canadian Corps became casualties. Yet, they were generally considered slackers, shirkers, or malingerers for not having volunteered to fight of their own accord. Challenging long-standing myths about conscripts, Patrick Dennis examines whether these men arrived at the right moment, and in sufficient numbers, to make any significant difference to the success of the Canadian Corps. Apart from chronicling the seminal events that created the need for compulsory military service, he also focuses on the commanders who employed these conscripts and how their decision making was affected by a steady flow of reinforcements.

The presentation is based on his recent book and serves as the Thunder Bay launch of Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the Great War, published by UBC Press is association with the Canadian War Museum.

Speakers Bio: Colonel (Ret’d) Patrick M. Dennis, OMM, CD, is a retired Canadian Air Force colonel and fighter controller who served abroad for over twenty-two years, including tours as Canada’s deputy military representative to the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium, and as the Canadian defence attaché to Israel. He is a graduate of the United States Armed Forces Staff College, the NATO Defence College, and Canada’s National Security Studies Course, and hold’s a master’s degree in Leadership and Communication from the University of Northern Colorado. After leaving the military, he lectured on global political-military issues at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and was a part-time instructor with the Canadian Forces College, Toronto, specializing in command and management and the law of armed conflict. He has written articles for Canada’s History, the Canadian Defence Quarterly, the Canadian Military Journal, the Canadian Military History journal, Air Power History, and Esprit de Corps magazine.

The Lakehead University Historical Society (LUHS) will be holding an Archive Crawl on Saturday, 20 October. It is a great opportunity to connect with fellow history students and get a behind the scenes look at the collections held in many of the museums and archives in the City of Thunder Bay. 

We will be meeting at the Lakehead University Archives (5th Floor of the Chancellor Paterson Library) at 1 pm and will be going to the Thunder Bay Archives, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, and the Thunder Bay Museum.

For more information please contact Christine Green, LUHS President, at cagreen1@lakeheadu.ca

On 27 March, Tim Irish will be giving a talk on The Alexander Henry: the journey to bring home the former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker and lighthouse tender built in Thunder Bay

This presentation is part of the 2017-18 Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society's Lecture Series sponsored by the Department of History. Since 1908, the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society has been regularly holding talks on a wide range of topics on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Thunder Bay Museum (425 Donald Street East) from September to April.

Free and open to the public.