Building New Bridges Batir de nouveaux ponts This page intentionally left blank Building New Bridges Batir de nouveaux ponts Sources, Methods, and Interdisciplinarity Sources, methodes et interdisciplinarite Edited by Sous la direction de Jeff Keshen Sylvie Perrier University of Ottawa Press Les Presses de l'Universite d'Ottawa This book has been published with the help of financial contributions from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the University of Ottawa Faculty of Arts. University of Ottawa Press gratefully acknowledges the support extended to its publishing program by the Canada Council for the Arts and the University of Ottawa. We also acknowledge the Government of Canada for its financial support of our publishing activities through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Building New Bridges: Sources, Methods, and Interdisciplinarity / edited by Jeff Keshen, Sylvie Perrier = Batir de nouveaux ponts : sources, methodes et interdisciplinarite / sous la direction de Jeff Keshen, Sylvie Perrier. Papers presented at a conference held at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont., May 8-9, 2004. (Actexpress) Text in English and French. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-7766-0593-3. ISSN1480-4743 1. Social sciences-Methodology-Congresses. 2.Humanities~Methodology- Congresses. I. Keshen, Jeff, 1962- II. Perrier, Sylvie, 1966- III. Title: Building New Bridges. H61.B855 2005 300'.1 C2005-902204-3E University of Ottawa Press / Les Presses de l'Universite d'Ottawa Books in the ACTEXPRESS series are published without the University of Ottawa Press's usual editorial intervention. The editorial process for Building New Bridges I Batir de nouveaux ponts has been ensured by the editors and their contributors. All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright clearance available from Access Copyright, 1 Yonge St., Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1E5. 416.868.1620 / 1.800.893.5777 / www.accesscopyright.ca Cover: Brady Typesetting & Design (Laura Brady) Proofreading: Lyne's Word (Lyne St-Hilaire-Tardif) ISBN 0-7766-0593-3. ISSN 1480-4743. © University of Ottawa Press, 2005 542 King Edward Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario KIN 6N5 Canada [email protected] / www.uopress.uottawa.ca Printed and bound in Canada Contents Table des matieres Introduction 1 Jeff Keshen/Sylvie Perrier 1 Vellum and Vaccinium: Documentary and Archaeological Evidence in the Study of Medieval Produce 5 Charlotte Masemann 2 Talking Numbers: Deconstructing Engineering Discourse 17 James Hull 3 Model Behaviour: A Material Culture Approach to the History of Anatomy Models 29 Susan Lamb 4 Re-disciplining the Body 49 Lisa Helps 5 The Uncooperative Primary Source: Literary Recovery versus Historical Fact in the Strange Production of Cogewea 63 Robert Strong 6 Reading Books/Reading Lives: Culture, Language, and Power in Nineteenth-Century School Readers 73 Barbara Lorenzkowski 1 Rigueur et sensibilite dans un parcours historien 91 Hubert Watelet 8 Inside Out: The Use and Inadvertent Misuse of Oral Histories 103 Laura E. Ettinger 9 Les sources juridiques au service de l'histoire socio-culturelle de la France medievale et moderne 113 Kouky Fianu/Sylvie Perrier 10 Revisiting Quantitative Methods in Immigration History: Immigrant Files in the Archives of the Russian Consulates in Canada 125 Vadim Kukushkin 11 Reflexions sur la question identitaire d'apres les recense- ments informatises : l'exemple des « Suisses » en Ontario (1871-1881) 143 Samy Khalid 12 The Politics of Sources and Definitions 159 Cristina Bradatan 13 Reporting the People's War: Ottawa (1914-1918) 171 Jeff Keshen 14 Documents in Bronze and Stone: Memorials and Monu- ments as Historical Sources 185 Jonathan F. Vance 15 The Evidence of Omission in Art History's Texts 197 Katherine Romba 16 Images : mode(s) d'emploi 207 Melanie De Groote 17 What do the Radio Program Schedules Reveal? Content Analysis versus Accidental Sampling in Early Canadian Radio History 225 Anne F. MacLennan 18 Television as Historical Source: Using Images in Cultural History 239 Caroline-Isabelle Caron 19 "Wie es eigentlich gewesen? " Early Film as Historical Source? 249 Michel S. Beaulieu 20 Evidence of What? Changing Answers to the Question of Historical Sources as Illustrated by Research Using the Census 265 Chad Gaffield Contributors/Collaborateurs 275 Keshen and Perrier, Introduction Introduction Jeff Keshen/Sylvie Perrier Interdisciplinarity, a term scarcely known as recently as a decade ago, today seems all the rage within academe. Cutting edge research is now often perceived as synonymous with interdisciplinarity. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines, often for team-based research, projects are now being tackled by experts from a variety of perspectives and, as often claimed, at a depth beyond the capacity of a single researcher. Melding older, often traditional, disciplinary-based approaches and utilizing sources in novel ways, interdisciplinarity has supposedly taken scholarship to a higher level, yielding fresher, more nuanced, and ultimately more sophisticated analyses. The practitioners of interdisciplinarity are many, and their growing numbers show no signs of abating. Among the plethora of places encouraging this trend is the Washington-based Committee on Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research which "provide[s] findings, conclusions, and recommendations as to how ... interdisciplinary work can be facilitated by funding organizations and academic institutions,"1 and the Interdisciplinary Research Institute in Lille, France, which is "designed to foster interactions between biologists, computer scientists, mathematicians, physicists, chemists and engineers."2 The fruits from such work are now appearing in relatively new publications such as the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of Intercultural Studies, Science Communication, and ProtoSociology, sources dedicated to the dissemination of scholarship crossing the boundaries of a single discipline. Canadian academics and academies have participated with vigour in this trend through new institutes, scholarly programs, and forums for the exchange of ideas, such as the Alberta-based Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Liberal Arts which sponsors an annual colloquium and "provid[es] Internet resources to scholars engaged in interdisciplinary research."3 Granting agencies are also moving in this direction, most notably the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [SSHRC]. In transforming itself - as it began advertising in early 2004 - from a "Granting Council to Knowledge Council," SSHRC announced its intention to promote the interchange of ideas and methods across disciplines to produce results of greater utility, particularly in areas that will challenge Canadians in the years to come like the "new economy," healthcare, sustainable development, the environment, and the maintenance of a "civil society that reflects [Canadian] values and diverse heritages."4 Canadian university calendars point to an expanding corpus of interdisciplinary programs that, advocates contend, will produce graduates with the breadth of knowledge to truly understand and effectively address the 1 http://www7.nationalacademies.org/interdisciplinary/ 2 http://www.drl8.cnrs.fr/iri/ 3 http://www.augustana.ab.ca/cirla/ 4http://www.sshrc.ca/web/whatsnew/initiatives/transformation/consultation_framework_e .pdf 1 Keshen and Perrier, Introduction complexity of issues. Some domains are longer established, but have broadened significantly in recent years such as Canadian Studies (where students now delve into History, Geography, Sociology, English, Lettres fran?aises, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Political Science) and Women's Studies (which now involves Criminology, Education, English, History, Human Kinetics, Law, Lettres fran9aises, Nursing, Pastoral Studies, Political Science, Religious Studies, and Sociology). Newer combinations are further expanding the parameters of inquiry, often to address current issues such as Globalization (the study of which now typically covers Political Science, History, Economics, Geography, Religious Studies, Sociology, and Law), and Population Health (which includes Health Administration, Human Kinetics, Law, Microbiology, Immunology, Nursing, Psychology, and Rehabilitation Science). But not everyone is sold, and from several quarters, cautions have been issued. Often heard is that disciplines have their own internal logic, and that to mix methodologies, perhaps to satisfy the latest fad, will produce work of dubious quality. Many ask who, in fact, is expert enough to determine which disciplines are truly complementary. Others wonder whether new interdisciplinary institutes and the trend toward collaborative research will stunt creativity by forcing artificial connections, creating an extra level of bureaucracy, and defining more rigidly the boundaries of inquiry to respect the team approach. And then there is the matter of what students actually learn, namely, will they truly master any area of study or come away with a superficial smattering of knowledge? Such concerns should be kept in mind when utilizing this collection of papers which are the product of a May 2004 conference held at the University