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15-0622 Dept of History Newsletter.qxp 11/12/15 3:13 PM Page 1 ChroniclesNEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY Fall 2015. Vol. VI In one of the leaders’ debates, Mr. perhaps we might consider doing what Trudeau advocated for going into debt any entrepreneur does – borrow capital to leverage the funds necessary to in- to finance the hiring of the new faculty vest in future growth and prosperity. who will underwrite the future’s growth. Interest rates have never been lower, Such, anyway, are the idle musings that he declared. It has never been cheaper preoccupy so many of us as we seek to to borrow for the capital we need to cope with the new budget world we compete tomorrow. As you may know, inhabit and the future it portends. the university adopted recently a The second thing that emerged from budget model premised on the elimina- the campaign was that I cannot recall tion of deficits and the binding of de- the word “university” ever being said partmental funding to departmental by any of the candidates except in enrolments. At present the Department conjunction with a Liberal promise for has to close a gap of almost $800,000 first nations’ scholarships. To be sure, between what past budgets once pro- Ontario’s universities lie not within the vided to us and what the new budget purview of Ottawa but rather within will give based on our enrolment pro- that of Queen’s Park. But unlike in file. The new model seeks to liberate Australia or New Zealand where within faculty-members entrepreneurial universities are considered corner- energy to make-up for diminishing gov- stones of economic development, ernment funding by raising enrolments, From the Chair universities in Ontario, and perhaps creating new programs, cutting where Professor James Carson in Canada too, have fallen off the we can cut, and, for the time being, not public map. The pages that follow re- replacing retirements. Such an ap- flect what we have been doing to teach, proach recognizes the global lack of to create, and to contribute to the soci- hatever you might have revenue, shrinking provincial supports, ety we serve, all done while ensuring thought about the recent fed- and the perils of debt but, at the same that we prepare students for everything Weral election, it nonetheless time, the incredibly low costs of pur- life might throw at them. We work to has set a new tone in public discourse. chasing capital to fund a renaissance critique ideas of race and of freedom; Whether or not the Liberals’ pledges to at Queen’s never comes up. govern on hope, to lead our collective we reconsider how we understand the aspirations to be better, and to foster an Perhaps it is time for a change, one that wars of the past in hopes of guarding attitude of tolerance, respect, and solici- flows in parallel to the broader political ourselves within those of the present. tude go pop as political promises so convulsion that just seized our society We work to become better writers and often do once the ballots have been and that also might poise us to capital- thinkers. And we aspire to become the counted remains to be seen. Or perhaps ize not only on low market interest best students of the past we can be, their pledges will prove to be the rates but on a cultural moment when thanks in large part to the ongoing durable foundations of a new kind of confidence in the future might be support that our past students and Canada. Whatever the case may be two replacing the wariness of the present. graduates provide. things jumped out from the campaign Opportunities pass those who wait, Contact: [email protected] that speak to our work here in the and in a university that has embraced Department of History. an entrepreneurial budget model, 15-0622 Dept of History Newsletter.qxp 11/12/15 3:13 PM Page 2 New Book: Global Indios Prof. Nancy van reveal the difficulties of determining only be adequately comprehended in Deusen’s book Global who was an indio and who was not – the context of the movement of peoples Indios is attracting especially since it was an all-encompass- and the clash of empires.” Historian great acclaim. The ing identity connoting subservience and Kathryn Burns further noted that the book explores the political personhood and at times could book shows us “how the legal struggles hundreds of thou- refer to people from Mexico, Peru, or of those held in slavery contributed to sands of indios – even South or East Asia. The categories the winding down of decades of indigenous peoples of free and slave were also often no bet- unchecked enslavement of hundreds of from the territories ter defined, and the book forces a re- thousands of indigenous peoples in the of the Spanish em- thinking of the meaning of indio in ways Americas. This is slavery as many pire – who were enslaved and relocated that emphasize the need to situate readers won’t have imagined it.” throughout the Iberian world in the colonial Spanish American indigenous sixteenth century. Although various subjects in a global context. laws and decrees outlawed indio en- Departure As one of leading historical anthropolo- slavement, several loopholes allowed gist put it, “Global Indios shatters and the practice to continue. By researching resignifies the category of indio, a term more than one hundred lawsuits be- that has provided – along with tween 1530 and 1585 that indio slaves ‘Spaniard’ – the foundations of scholar- living in Castile brought to the Spanish ship on colonial Latin America. It forces courts to secure their freedom, she asks readers to rethink Spanish America as how they proved their indio -ness in a something that extends beyond the Spanish imperial context. The lawsuits Western Hemisphere and that can really Postdoctoral Fellow Teresa Iacobelli Prof. Ian McKay has resigned his appoint- ment in the Department to take up the L.R. Wilson Chair in Canadian History at McMaster University. Prof. McKay began teaching at Queen’s in 1988, and his interests in Canadian cultural history; in the economic and social history of Atlantic Canada; in the history of Canada as a liberal order; and in the history of both Canadian and interna- tional left-wing movements inspired the incredibly diverse writings that have made him one of Canada’s leading historians. In The Province of History: Teresa Iacobelli, who holds a Social Teresa also won the 2015 C.P. Stacey The Making of the Public Past in Twentieth- Sciences and Humanities Research Prize for the best book in Canadian Century Nova Scotia (2010), co-authored Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow- military history for Death or Deliverance: with Robin Bates, won the 2011 Interna- ship, curated an exhibition, “On the Canadian Courts Martial in the Great War tional Council for Canadian Studies Line: Intrepid and the Vietnam War,” (University of British Columbia Press). Pierre Savard award for the best book that opened at the Intrepid Sea, Air, The Stacey Prize is awarded annually written in Canadian studies in English and Space Museum Complex in Brooklyn, by the Canadian Committee for the or French while his article “The Liberal New York on October 14th. Set on the History of the Second World War and Order Framework: A Prospectus for a U.S. aircraft carrier Intrepid – which the Canadian Committee for Military Reconnaissance of Canadian History” in served three tours of duty in Vietnam History. Postdoctoral fellows typically the Canadian Historical Review was rec- between 1966 and 1969 and now sees stay with us just a few years but their ognized as the best article in the journal action as a history museum – On the contributions in the classroom and in for the year 2000. His supervision of 64 Line examines the history of the the archives are important and enliven graduate theses, including 27 at the doc- Vietnam War from the perspective everything we do. toral level, was remarkable too. We will provided by the ship and through the miss him and wish him every success in memories of sailors who served on it. his new endeavours in Steel Town. 2 Chronicles 15-0622 Dept of History Newsletter.qxp 11/12/15 3:13 PM Page 3 New Doctors! Congratulations to our Graduate Students on the completion of their “Doctor of Philosophy in History” degree! From Left to right: Elliot Hanowski, Josh Cole, Casey Hurrell, Kailey Miller, Christine Elie, Georgia Carley, Dinah Jansen, Mary Caesar, Mary Chaktsiris, Deanne van Tol Dr. Christo Aivalis Dr. Scott deGroot Dr. Kailey Miller Christo’s thesis “Pierre Elliott, Organized Scott’s thesis “Out of the Closet and Kailey’s thesis “‘An Ancillary Weapon’: Labour, and the Canadian Social Demo- Into Print: Gay Liberation across the Cultural Diplomacy and Nation-Build- cratic Left, 1945-2000” was completed Anglo-American World” was completed ing in Cold War Canada” was com- under the supervision of Dr. Ian McKay. under the supervision of Dr. Karen pleted under the supervision of Dubinsky and Dr. Ian McKay. Dr. Ian McKay. Dr. Mary Caesar Mary’s thesis “A ‘New Experiment in Dr. Christine Elie Dr. Rhoubina Shnorhokian Local Government’ The Local Health Christine’s thesis “The City, the Rebels Rhoubina’s thesis “Hayton of Korykos Commission: A Study of Public Health and the Reds: Leftism, the Civic and La Flor des Estoire: Cilician and Local Government in Black Urban Politics of Order, and the Contested Armenian Intermediation in Crusader- Areas in Natal, South Africa, 1930- Modernity in Montreal, 1929-1947” Mongol Politics, c.

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