Features
2022
November
Celebrating student research
The Department of History congratulates Andrew Ballam for being awarded the David and Ethel Evans Scholarship in History. This award recognizes each year the outstanding work of a student enrolled in the History Honours program.
Find out what Andrew Ballam is studying.
2021
May
The Sourtoe Cocktail
The Sourtoe Cocktail, Tourism, and Cultural Boundaries in the North.
2020
September
Graduate Student Research Diary: Stewart Lawrence in Gothenburg and Stockholm
Memorial University History doctoral candidate Stewart Lawrence conducts research on the social history of Stockholm in the nineteenth century. He investigates what police protocols might reveal about the lives of vagrants and prostitutes.
He traveled to Sweden in February and describes his experience.
August
Graduate Student Research Diary: Mariah Cooper investigates medieval rolls
In March 2020, doctoral candidate Mariah Cooper traveled to England to consult medieval documents in various depositories.
Read about her experience and discoveries.
July
Jeff Webb and the MUN Art Gallery
In the most recent episode of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences' State of the Arts program, Lisa Moore interviews historian Jeff Webb about his research and upcoming book on the MUN Art Gallery.
May
Ship technology and historical change
Dr. Phillip Reid, maritime historian and Memorial University graduate, just published his first book, The Merchant Ship in the British Atlantic, 1600-1800: Continuity and Innovation in a Key Technology (Leiden: Brill, 2020).
Read about his experience writing his book.
April
Prestigious nomination
The Department of History is incredibly proud to learn that Robert Sweeny's book, Why Did We Choose to Industrialize? Montreal, 1819-1849, has been nominated for the François-Xavier Garneau Medal of the Canadian Historical Association / Société historique du Canada.
March
Graduate Student Research: Mick Stevens studies the origins of the Newfoundland railway
Mick Stevens examines the clash between railway fever and anti-modernism in late nineteenth-century Newfoundland. His research leads him to reflect on the intentions of industrialists, elites, and those in the tourism industry.
Learn about his research, which was awarded a prestigious scholarship of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
January
Graduate Student Research: Kaitlyn Little studies Indigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest
Kaitlyn Little unveils little-known parts of the history of North America and non-North American Indigenous groups in the nineteenth century. She describes her MA research project, for which she received a scholarship of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
2019
December
Graduate Student Research Diary: Norman Potter in Calgary
Norman Potter traveled to Calgary to conduct archival research for his doctoral dissertation on the history of the Stampede.
Read about what he found.
October
Graduate Student Research Diary: Cynthia Power " signing on " at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London
Cynthia Power, who just completed her MA in the Department of History at Memorial, reflects on her research project and her trip to the UK.
September
Graduate Student Research Diary: Anna Grzybowski in a medieval city
MA candidate Anna Grzybowski spent two months in Lübeck thanks to grants from DAAD and from Scholarship in the Arts.
August
" We ourselves became witnesses "
Two MUN History students, Hailey Burden and Rebecca Howie, took part in the March of Remembrance and Hope Canada, an event organized to promote tolerance and understanding between people of diverse backgrounds through the study of twentieth-century history.
Read Rebecca Howie’s reflections on her experience.
July
Graduate Student Research Diary: Elsa Simms studies Viking-Age material culture from Birka
History MA candidate Elsa Simms traveled to Sweden in the summer of 2019 to examine artefacts from the Viking Age. She describes her discoveries.
June
Graduate Student Travel Diary: Corinne Graffin experiences medieval watermills
Corinne Graffin describes what she learned about medieval mills by visiting archeological and historical sites in Ireland.
May
Graduate Student Research Diary: Caroline Kennedy goes to Los Angeles
History MA candidate Caroline Kennedy, doing innovative research on television history, describes her experience discovering primary sources in libraries and archives in Los Angeles.
Graduate Student of the Month: Elsa Simms
Learn more about Elsa Simms, graduate student in medieval history and archaeology.
March
Graduate Student Research Diary: Stewart Lawrence goes to Sweden
History MA candidate Stewart Lawrence describes his experience traveling to Stockholm for archival research.
February
Special Event: Indigenous History in Sweden
On Friday, 1 March 2019, Dr. Per Axelsson (Umeå University) will give a lecture on his current research about health and history among the Indigenous populations of Sweden, followed by a discussion on approaches to Indigenous research by non-Indigenous researchers.
2018
September
John Sandlos joins RSC's College of New Scholars
History professor John Sandlos is among the latest inductees to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. The college is the country’s first national system of multidisciplinary recognition for the emerging generation of Canada’s intellectual leadership.
We are so proud of John! Read more about his accomplishment here.
April
Meet grad student Miranda Burrage-Goodwin
Miranda Burrage-Goodwin is originally from Boston, Massachusetts and is a graduate student in our department studying maritime history. She has always been drawn to the relation history has to storytelling. Find our more about her and her research here.
2017
December
History student receives major scholarship
Congratulations to Rebecca Ford and Lacy Custance, the Heaslip scholars for 2017 - the largest award for undergraduate students available at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Rebecca is a second year student doing a double major in history and classics. Read more about Lacy & Rebecca in the Gazette.
August
Student Travel Diary: Katherine Saunders
MA student, Katherine Saunders, recently travelled to Ottawa to research the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line.
Food, Drink, and Cultural Exchange Around the Baltic
An information session will be held on Wednesday, Nov 22, on the History Department's new intersession program for 2018, 'Food, Drink, and Cultural Exchange Around the Baltic'.
March
MUN Students Take Part in Archaeological Dig in Germany
Five MUN students take part in archaeological dig in northern Germany.
PhD Student Wins SSHRC Fellowship
MUN History PhD candidate, Michael Westcott, has been awarded a coveted SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship.
January
MA Position in the History of Urbanization and the Environment in Medieval Europe.
Dr. Sébastien Rossignol has made available an MA position in the history of urbanization and the environment in medieval Europe.
2016
October
Undergraduate Honours Student Travels to Beaumont Hamel
Undergraduate Honours Student, Katie Cranford, travels to Beaumont Hamel for the centenary commemoration of the Battle of the Somme.
Student Travel Diary: Sally Western
MA student, Sally Western, writes about her incredible trip to the Territorial Archives in Yellowknife, NWT.
July
Urban History in Northern Europe Intersession Programme
The Department of History is offering an exciting programme in intersession 2017 devoted to urban history from the Viking Age to the late 20th century.
Students will travel for 3 weeks through northern Germany and Sweden and then by ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki experiencing the sites and sounds of numerous towns and cities as they explore what urban life entailed for past populations and how modern cities are responding to the pressures of today.
May
Student Travel Diary
Scholarship in the Arts funding sends Honours BA student Quentin Holbert to the Imperial War Museum in London.
Student Travel Diary: Quentin Holbert
Scholarship in the Arts funding sends Honours BA student Quentin Holbert to the Imperial War Museum in London.
April
Student Travel Diary: Andy Post
MA student Andy Post writes about how he used Scholarship in the Arts funding for an exciting research trip to London, England.
Student Travel Diary
MA student Andy Post writes about how he used Scholarship in the Arts funding for an exciting research to London, England
Professor Jerry Bannister to Give Keynote
Professor Jerry Bannister will be the keynote speaker at the 2016 History Department Graduate history conference.
March
Student Travel Diary
Learn how Gladdale Matthews used funds from Memorial's Scholarship in the Arts Program to pursue research at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.
February
New Book Sheds Light on Contemporary Westerns
History Professor Dominique Brégent-Heald talks about her The Revenant and how it echoes themes discussed in her book, Borderland Films
January
New Book Published
Jeff Webb’s most recent book has just been published by the University of Toronto Press!
History Student Studies in Iceland
History student Charles Merritt reports on his study trip to Iceland, funded through the Scholarship in the Arts Program.
2015
December
The final results book from the Abandoned Mines in Northern Canada project is here!
The final results book from the Abandoned Mines in Northern Canada project is here!
November
History MA Student Wins Aboriginal Scholarship
Stefanie Comeau has won a Terra Nova Aboriginal Masters Scholarship
New course on the global Middle Ages
In this course, students will reflect on global encounters in the Middle Ages. A special focus will be put on the Vinland sagas and on the account of William of Rubruck’s travel to the court of the Mongol Khan.
Mining History Doc to Screen at MUN!
The Guardians of Eternity, a documentary about the history and long term impacts of arsenic contamination at Giant Mine will screen Thursday November 26th, 7PM in SN 2109
October
New Faculty Profile
Learn about our new professor of Aboriginal History, Jon Clapperton!
Realizing the democratic potential of online sources in the class room
Valerie Burton and Robert Sweeny’s research on the use of crew agreements in teaching has just been published in the inaugural volume of Digital Scholarship in the Humanities.
July
New Course to Study Churchill Park
A new qualitative reasoning course, History 2000: Visualising the Past, explores the history of Churchill Park
Student Research Diary: Emma Lang in Port Union
PhD Student Emma Lang's PhD Research in Port Union is off to a great start!
June
Student Research Diary
Doctoral student Philiip Reid asks -- so what is this archival research business all about?
May
PhD Student Philip Reid Wins Paper Prize!
MUN History PhD Student Philip Reid has won the Clark G. Reynolds Student Paper Award for best student paper presented to the annual North American Society for Oceanic History.
Student Research Diary
MA student Caitlin Piercey tells us about how she used Scholarship in the Arts travel funding to study transgender history in San Francisco's Tenderloin District.
April
Student Spotlight: Ships Don't Fit in Libraries
MUN History doctoral student takes fresh, three-dimensional approach to understanding Atlantic merchant ship technology, 1600-1800.
March
Past Perspectives: Annual Graduate Student Conference
Graduate students in the Department of History will be presenting papers on the "state of the art" in their fields April 7 in Arts AA-1046. Click on the full story for a schedule!
January
History Professor Excavates the Byzantine Past in Central Turkey
Dr. Marica Cassis has been awarded a five-year SSHRC Insight grant ($370,062) for the Byzantine excavations at the site of Çadır Höyük (“Tent” Mound) in Yozgat Province.
Apply for Graduate School!
We are now taking applications for our MA and PhD programs!!
Communicating with the Future
Memorial history professor John Sandlos and geographer Arn Keeling are working with community groups in Yellowknife on how to commemorate the dangers associated with 237,000 tons of underground arsenic trioxide stored under the abandoned Giant Mine.
2014
November
M.A. position available
Towns and Environments in Medieval Europe: A Research Program at Memorial University
Job Opportunities VPA-HIST-2014-001
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Department of History
Position #: VPA-HIST-2014-001
October
Job Opportunities VPA-HIST-2014-003
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Department of History
Position #: VPA-HIST-2014-003
Job Opportunities VPA-HIST-2014-002
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Department of History
Position #: VPA-HIST-2014-002
September
2013
May
Time Talks online!
Did you know that you can now tune in to Time Talks online?
Time Talks - community conversations in history, was a series of public presentations by the Department of History, Memorial University during the winter of 2013.
Dominique Brégent-Heald's new book Northern Getaway: Film, Tourism, and the Canadian Vacation was recently published by McGill-Queen's University Press. Read
For more than a century, posters, adventisements, and brochures have characterized Canada as a desirable tourist destination offering spectacular scenery, wild animals, outdoor recreation, and state-of-the-art accommodations. However, these explicitly commercial displays are not the only marketing tools at the country's disposal; beginning in the 1890s, film also played a role in selling Canada.
In Northern Getaway Dominique Brégent-Heald investigates the connections between film and tourism during the first half of the twentieth century, exploring the economic, pedagogical, geopolitical, and socio-cultural contexts and aspirations of tourism films. From the first moving images of the 1890s through the end of the 1950s, a complex web of public and private stakeholders in Canadian tourism experimented, sometimes in collaboration with Hollywood, with a variety of film forms - 16 mm or 35 mm, feature or short films, fiction or nonfiction, professional or amateur filmmakers - to promote Canada. Spectators, particularly Americans, saw Canada as a tourist destination on screens in motion picture theatres, schools, and fairgrounds. Rooted in settler colonial representations that celebrate the nation's unspoiled but welcoming wilderness landscapes, these films also characterize Canada as a technologically and industrially advanced settler country.
Using evidence from a wide range of archival sources and drawing from current scholarship in film history and tourism studies, Northern Getaway demonstrates how Canada was an innovator in using film to shape and project a recognizable destination brand. More information can be found at the McGill-Queen's University Press website: