Events

Dr. Yasmin Saikia is the Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies and Professor of History at the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University. Her recent book Women, War and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971 (2011) has won numerous awards and been the subject of an international speaking tour.

Beginning in the thirteenth century, natural forces cooled Earth’s climate in a “Little Ice Age” that reached its chilliest point in the seventeenth century and, according to many scholars, destabilized societies around the world. Yet the precocious economy, unusual environment, and dynamic intellectual culture of the Dutch Republic in its seventeenth-century Golden Age allowed it to thrive as neighbouring societies unravelled.

History Speaker Series 2021-22

Austerity, Experimentation and Opposition: The Global and Local Politics of Biomedical Contraception in Uganda

Dr Doreen Kembabazi

Postdoctoral researcher, Ghent University, Belgium

; PhD, African History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Friday 26 November, 10:00am Eastern time via Zoom

White Riot: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver is based on 360 Riot Walk, a 360 video walking tour that traces the history and route of the mob that attacked the Chinese Canadian and Japanese Canadian communities following the demonstration and parade organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League in Vancouver. Participants are led into the social and political environment of the time, where racialized communities were targeted  through legislated acts, as well as physical acts of exclusion and violence. 360 Riot Walk is a documentary, a mapping project, and an artwork.

About The Speaker

Henry Tsang is a visual and media artist based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples that is also known as Vancouver. His projects explore the spatial politics of history, language, community, food and cultural translation in relationship to place, taking the form of gallery exhibitions, pop-up street food offerings, 360 video walking tours, curated dinners, ephemeral and permanent public art, by employing video, photography, language, interactive media and convivial events.

In this talk, Idah Mukuka Nambeya – an internationally-recognized HIV/AIDS activist from Zambia – reflects on the history of African HIV/AIDS activism and the current challenges facing community organizations due to the recent USAID freeze. During the 2000s, many grassroots organizations relied heavily on USAID to fund their programs and initiatives aimed at combating the AIDS epidemic. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), launched in 2004, was a major source of funding and support for these organizations.

However, the recent freeze on USAID has created a challenging environment for these organizations. Many have had to halt their activities and programs due to a lack of funding. This has had a direct impact on the communities they serve, as access to essential services such as HIV testing, treatment, and prevention has been disrupted.

In Zambia, grassroots organizations have played a crucial role in raising awareness about HIV/AIDS, providing education and support to affected individuals, and advocating for policy changes. The USAID freeze has put these efforts at risk, making it more difficult for these organizations to continue their work and support the communities that rely on them.

Named in honour of the late Dr. Hugh MacKinnon ("Father Hugh"), the MacKinnon Dinner is an annual event organized by the History Society, and a primary social event for all members of the department.

This year's event will be held on March 14, 2025, in the SJ2 Academic Center Atrium at St Jerome's University - 290 Westmount Rd N, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G3. Doors open at 5 PM with opening remarks starting at 5:45 PM. Dr. Rebecca MacAlpine, a History Department alumna, will be this year’s guest speaker. Dr. Rebecca MacAlpine's talk is titled: Shaming and Blaming: The Process of Proving Paternity in Seventeenth Century Somerset.

Over the course of the seventeenth century, 1298 women came before the Somerset Quarter Sessions to secure financial resources for the upkeep of their unborn children. In these records, we find marginalized voices of women silenced first by their experiences with the alleged fathers of their children and then by the courts whose objective was to avoid economic responsibility under the new Poor Laws of 1576. As a result, this process ensured that women’s voices were present but ultimately silenced. This talk will explore how we can use Quarter Session records to uncover the lived experiences of unwed mothers in early modern Somerset. It will highlight how the procedural mechanisms embedded in the Sessions further victimized unwed mothers and represents a form of institutionalized gender-based violence.

Tickets for students are priced at $25 and non-student tickets are $35.