Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Uncovering Black History in Waterloo Region

Following best practices for preservation, Professor Jennifer Harris cleaned the Susand family gravestones in Kitchener's Mount Hope Cemetery to determine which verses of Peter Susand's prose were inscribed on them.

By Professor Jennifer Harris. This article, "Local Black History and a Fishing Expedition," was originally published in the English Language and Literature department's Words in Place blog.

I don’t generally use the department blog to promote my own work—but in this instance, there’s good reason. Last week my essay “Peter Susand, Lost Texts, and Black Canadian Literary Culture of the 1850s” was published in Canadian Literature. I first encountered Susand in Linda Brown-Kubisch’s The Queen’s Bush Settlement: Black Pioneers 1839-1865. In 1856, twenty-five years after arriving in Canada as a fugitive from slavery, Susand published a book of poetry in Kitchener, The Prose and Poetical Works of Peter Edward Susand. To date, no copy of the volume has been found.

We do have accounts of speeches by Susand, as well as other evidence of engagement with literary culture. I have located hundreds of primary source documents related to his family: an interview with one of his children; patents filed by others; advertisements related to their businesses; accounts of their participation in horticulture competitions. But the book remains elusive—hence the fishing expedition.

While the essay makes the argument that we shouldn’t wait around for the book to emerge before discussing Susand’s place in the literary landscape of the era, the truth is, for all kinds of reasons, it would be very nice if a copy were to be found. So for anyone cleaning out an attic, emptying a trunk, wriggling through a crawl space, or perusing used books at a sale: please keep this hunt in mind.

And if you come across other such materials by nineteenth-century Black Canadian authors: please, don’t discard them. I’m one of many scholars who would be happy to talk to you about preservation.

President's Accolades: going above and beyond

Each month, the Office of the President recognizes students, faculty, staff and alumni who go above and beyond. The President’s Accolades celebrate stories of dedication, passion and contribution from our University community.

Congratulations to the University of Waterloo community members currently being recognized from January:

• University of Waterloo Athletics and other campus groups and community partners collected 381 toys for under privileged children during the Stuff the Warriors Van Toy Drive.
• Hilary Bergsieker was recently named as a Rising Star in her field by the Association for Psychological Sciences.
• The Department of Athletics and Recreation’s Think Pink campaign raised an impressive $15,782 for the Breast Cancer Cause at the Canadian Cancer Society.
• IST staff member Linda Zhang, once an international student herself, has been volunteering her time to organize Saturday Breakfast Seminars for international students to discuss their struggles and explore coping strategies and how to build resilience.
• The Women’s Volleyball team continue their historic season and remaining undefeated with a perfect 13-0 record through to the end of January, leading all OUA teams.
• The 89 volunteer trainers facilitating the LGBTQ+ Making Spaces Program have helped close to 300 students, faculty and staff across campus learn more about gender identity/expression, sexual identity, homophobia and how these intersect with other identities.
• Day in and day out, Kathy Schiekoff goes above and beyond to make the Tim Horton’s location at Modern Languages an exceptional place to visit.

Do you know of a member of the University of Waterloo community who stands out? Submit their story and it could be featured in a future edition of the President’s Accolades.

Nominations for next month’s edition are due by February 26.

CTE offers intensive course design workshop

A message from the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE).

The annual Teaching Excellence Academy (TEA) will be held this year on April 24, 25, 26, and 29.  The TEA is aimed primarily at experienced faculty members who want the opportunity to rejuvenate their teaching. 

At the TEA, attendees will thoroughly revise one of their courses (face-to-face, fully online, or face-to-face courses with significant online components) with the assistance of their peers and experts from the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) and the Centre for Extended Learning (CEL). 

Past attendees have reported that the TEA helped them to design more effective courses and make their design choices more transparent for their students.  The TEA ends with a showcase event at which TEA participants share their revised course outlines. 

Interested faculty members should contact their department Chair/Director or faculty Teaching Fellow/Associate Dean, Teaching, for more information.

Quantum entanglement film series and other notes

The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) will be hosting a festival for quantum-inspired films tonight in Kitchener. QUANTUM + Film: A screening of 10 Quantum Shorts is a screening of submissions from the global Quantum Shorts festival, which called for short films inspired by quantum physics.

The top ten shortlisted films will be played at the Apollo Cinema with discussion moderated by John Donohue, manager, scientific outreach at the Institute for Quantum Computing. Don't forget to vote for your favourite in the People's Choice Award category.

Yesterday's campus closure and the continuing poor weather have resulted in a number of event cancellations today, notably the lecture by Senator Murray Sinclair on Reconciliation and the University, and the Indigenous Speaker Series event featuring Maria Campbell that was to take place in the Theatre of Arts. Stay tuned for rescheduling information about these events.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

On Friday, February 15, The Writing & Communication Centre’s main office will be closed all day, according to a note from the WCC. "Drop-ins at Dana Porter and PAS, and the Grad Writing Café in SCH will remain open during this time," says the note. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."