THEN/HiER | Blog

The Toll of War: tensions at the intersection of remembrance and history

Kireland — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 15:08:47 +0000

The Toll of War project, which received $488,155 in federal funding in 2015, was a joint venture between The Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), and the Saint John River society. The aim of the project is to leverage Canadian public and media attention surrounding the First World War centenary and the 75th Anniversary of the Second World War to raise awareness about the nation’s participation in both events. The two-part project consists of a commemorative bannering campaign recognizing Victoria Cross recipients chosen to represent every province and most major Canadian wartime contributions overseas from 1914 to 1945. The second part involved developing education materials so that VC winners featured on the banners might become gateways for students and teachers to dig deeper into Canadian history.

Trench Warfare

aradjenovic — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 14:08:28 +0000

It’s 8:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning and both my students and I know what is coming! Having explained today’s activity in yesterday’s class, the students prepare for the ‘worst experience’ one must endure. As I prepped my rambunctious class for ‘Life in the Trenches’ I hoped this activity would be everything I wished it to be!

What were their tasks and my objectives? To recreate life in the trenches! Trench warfare! All or Nothing! Everything was planned and ready to go!

The desks acted as trenches in which students had to stay low, the lights would flicker to illuminate the environmental conditions that the soldiers faced, and ‘rationed’ Melba toast was provided to mimic food supply. All the while, mock paper bombs were thrown into the trenches and a ‘no-mans-land’ was created out of a makeshift jumble of desks.

Recognizing THEN/HiER

Scott Pollock — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 11:27:56 +0000

By Tom Peace

I first encountered the History Education Network (THEN/HiER) in late 2009, when Jennifer Bonnell, the graduate student coordinator at the time, approached Active History about the potential for coordinating a workshop series in Toronto focused on teaching history. Over the intervening months we worked together towards the first in a series of events that brought together teachers, curators, professors and civil servants known as Approaching the Past. This was the beginning of a six-year partnership between Active History and THEN/HiER. At the end of the month, THEN/HiER’s mandate will draw to a close. I want to use this post to draw attention to our collaboration, some of its key moments, and the influence that Anne Marie Goodfellow, Jennifer Bonnell, Penney Clark and many others have had on ActiveHistory.ca and the Active History project more generally.

Three Cheers for THEN/HiER

Scott Pollock — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 14:43:57 +0000

As I am sure many readers of this blog are aware THEN/HiER’s funding and mandate are coming to an end. The final THEN/HiER board meeting was held last week (March 11th) and as the many tweets from the meeting show, it was an impressive gathering. While I am very hopefully that the initiatives begun by THEN/HiER will continue, I do think that this is an appropriate moment to reflect upon the many achievements of this community.

New Directions in Active History and the Consulting Historian

Scott Pollock — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 14:21:33 +0000

In early October, a group of active historians met in London, Ontario, to discuss the future of their project. Active history seeks to strengthen the connection between the past and the present, often intervening in contemporary policy and cultural debates. This fall’s conference at Huron University College, co-sponsored by the National Council on Public History, was the second in-person meeting of the many practitioners associated with the popular Active History group blog. Delegates came from a variety of historical disciplines, including archivists, actors, artists, civil servants, curators, graduate students, high school teachers, history journalists, and university professors.