News

Creating and Contesting “Universal” Penal Norms: The United Nations, Decolonization, and Global Visions of the Prison. Published in Critical Criminology, this article brings together global history of crime and punishment, including critical prison studies and the trajectory and impact of the UN Congress meetings over a 40 years timeline. 

The Canadian Historical Association's recent webinar, “Generative AI and the Practice of History,” hosted two Tri-U professors as speakers (Ian Milligan from the University of Waterloo and Mark Humphries from Wilfrid Laurier University) for exploring tools and tips for using generative artificial intelligence in the historical profession on February 27, 2026.

Deyohahá:ge Indigenous Knowledge Centre at Six Nations Polytechnic has launched a new research partnership with the University of Waterloo to strengthen Hodinohsó:ni archival research, improve access to cultural heritage materials, and support rematriation efforts grounded in community priorities.

Supported through a Partnership Engage Grant, this collaboration brings together community leadership and academic research expertise to identify, document, and build ethical pathways to access Hodinohsó:ni materials held in museum and archival collections internationally. The initiative is guided by principles of respect, relationship-building, and community-driven knowledge stewardship.

News of the passing of alumna Danielle Terbenche, who graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2011.

In "Teenage Feminists: High School Students and the Women's Movement in Ontario, 1968-1980," Dr. Megan Blair explored the ways in which teenagers engaged in feminism during the upsurge of feminist activism during the late 1960s and 1970s. Her dissertation argues that girls participated in feminism in a multitude of ways such as challenging their exclusion on sports teams, wearing pants to school, or taking industrial arts classes. Girls also engaged in more explicit forms of feminism such as advocating for reproductive rights or joining women's liberation groups.

Congratulations to History faculty member Matthew Wiseman for being shortlisted for this year’s Canadian Historical Association's Best (English-Language) Scholarly Book in Canadian History prize along with the following other authors.

• Crystal Gail Fraser, By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. University of Manitoba Press, 2024.
• Gregory M.W. Kennedy, Lost in the Crowd: Acadian Soldiers of Canada’s First World War. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024.
• Mark G. McGowan, Finding Molly Johnson: Irish Famine Orphans in Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024.
• Shannon Stunden Bower, Transforming the Prairies: Agricultural Rehabilitation and Modern Canada. University of British Columbia Press, 2024.
• Matthew S.Wiseman, Frontier Science: Northern Canada, Military Research, and the Cold War, 1945-1970. University of Toronto Press, 2024.

Congratulations to all the authors! The winning book will be announced at the CHA’s prize ceremony on June 3^rd, 2025.

The Awards of Excellence, inaugurated in 1983, are intended to recognise outstanding contributions by individuals, institutions and organizations to heritage preservation in Waterloo Region, in such areas as archaeology, archives, culture, education, genealogy, history, literature, media, natural history and others.

The Government of Canada has just announced that Dr. Talena Atfield has been named a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Tentewatenikonhra'khánion (We Will Put Our Minds Together). Dr. Atfield is of Kanien'kehá:ka of the Grand River and mixed settler backgrounds and is an assistant professor in the Department of History.

We are saddened to announce that Dr. Patrick Harrigan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and former two-term chair in the Department of History, passed away on 13 May 2023.