Canadian Historical Association 2009 Conference

26 05 2009

I’m about to begin the second day of the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association. A few quick observations about the conference. First, the social life of the conference would have been better had it been held at University of Ottawa instead of Carleton. University of Ottawa is located in Ottawa’s CBD, which is where most of the delegates head after 5pm. Carleton, in contrast, is a bleak and rather inaccessible suburban campus.

Second, I’m pleased to see a large number of the grad students at the conference are interested in 19th century topics. This is a big change from previous years and a hopeful sign. For too long, the Canadian historical profession was dominated by specialists of the post-war period.

Third, the political history group (see my earlier post) was formed yesterday.





My Presentation to the Canadian Historical Association

8 05 2009

I will be presenting on Wednesday, 27 May  between 1530 to 1700 as part of the panel “Constructing Confederation and Constructing the Nation” .  Location: Tory 206
The title of my paper is: “Which Inventions Contributed to the Most to Canadian Confederation.”  My fellow panellists are Bradley John Miller, University of Toronto, who will be presenting a paper called “From Colony to Member State: Copyright and the Canadian Constitutional Order 1867-1886” and Ruth Frost, University of British Columbia, “Canadian Authorities and Immigration Policy, 1870s 1890s” I’m looking forward to hearing two really interesting papers. I’m also hoping to get valuable feedback on my research from the audience.