History News

History Professor explores our fascination with the unknown.   - by Teresa Pitman
From the mid-19th to the early 20th century, there was great interest in séances and other supernatural occurrences. Inevitably, there were also many people attempting to understand and explain these puzzling phenomena. U of G history Prof. Sofie Lachapelle’s new book Investigating the Supernatural (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011 and noted in Vanity Fair magazine's "Hot Type" column this past June) provides a fascinating look at the various attempts made to explain séances and other such events with a focus on events in France.         Read more in @Guelph

U of G history professor Matthew Hayday says Ottawa’s Canada Day celebration is a great way to celebrate being Canadian. But it’s also a party designed and orchestrated by federal politicians to send their own messages to citizens. With the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attending this year’s event on Parliament Hill, partygoers may witness the beginning of a new relationship ─ or the new look of an old relationship ─ with Britain’s royal family. ...
          - by Teresa Pitman       (read the story)

The University of British Columbia Press has just released a book edited by our own Norman Smith and James Flath (University of Western Ontario): Beyond Suffering: Recounting War in Modern China.

 Now Available: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/NewsoftheDepartment

The Department is delighted to announce a the new Ruth and Eber Pollard Doctoral Scholarships in History. Ruth (- 2005) and Eber (- 2009) Pollard were great supporters of the study of History in Guelph and at the University. Longtime activists in the Guelph Historical Society, where Ruth served as president and Eber vice-president for many years, and early providers of scholarships recognizing the excellent work of Guelph History undergraduates, the Pollards made provision in their will to found generous graduate scholarships in Canadian History.

Tara Abraham and Sofie Lachapelle are organizing a one-day workshop: "Rethinking the History of Science and Technology in a Global Context" at the University of Guelph on Thursday, May 5th, 2011. The workshop is part of a project funded by the Learning Enhancement Fund to re-envision HIST*1250 “Science and Society Since 1500”.  

Tara Abraham and Sofie Lachapelle are proud to announce that the University of Guelph is hosting the 4th Annual GTA Symposium on History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science, Technology, and Medicine on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 from 10am to 4pm.T he symposium is an effort on the part of scholars in the GTA to foster opportunities for communication and to provide a forum for scholarly exchange, bringing together faculty and graduate students interested in a range of topics and approaches constitutive of HPS/STS.

Desire for Cheap Coffee Still Dominates Global Industry - by Susan Bubak for at Guelph magazine
Do you know where your cup of coffee comes from? More importantly, do you care? If you’re like most coffee drinkers, the answer to both of those questions is probably “no,” says history professor Stuart McCook, who studies the environmental history of coffee.

Just out this month from The Johns Hopkins University Press: From Spiritism and Occultism to Psychical Research and Metapsychics in France, 1853–1931 by Sophie Lachapelle. Séances were wildly popular in France between 1850 and 1930, when members of the general public and scholars alike turned to the wondrous as a means of understanding and explaining the world.