Accomplishment

UFV History Instructor, Dr. Ian Rocksborough-Smith, featured at Illinois Press Book Exhibit

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Dr. Rocksborough-Smith, a sessional faculty member in UFV’s History department, holds his newly published book Black Public History in Chicago at the University of Illinois Press book exhibit on April 12, 2018.

What did you do?

“This is my first book. It represents nearly ten years of archival and oral history research from my PhD studies through my early years as a history instructor at UFV (2013-present). It focuses on how black Americans, many of them school teachers in Chicago, used public history projects to engage with struggles for civil rights and citizenship over the middle decades of the 20th Century. These projects included things like curriculum reforms for public schools, local history organizations and societies, and efforts to build museums and institutions, like the DuSable Museum of African American History – which is alive and well today. For my research, I was very fortunate to interview the now deceased founder of the DuSable Museum, Dr. Margaret T.G. Burroughs, who is considered an artistic and cultural icon of 20th Century Chicago and especially its African American community. I am thankful for all the support I received from UFV History Department colleagues and associates over the years as well as colleagues at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, where I have also taught.”

What’s next?

“My primary research interests include the study of late 19th and 20th Century United States history, urban studies, and histories of race, religion, and empire in the Atlantic world. In particular, my future work will continue to look at how local and public history methods can help to uncover these aspects of the past, particularly in cities like Chicago which became almost “laboratories” for how the “modern” North American city evolved. Currently, I am working on a new project about how white Catholic liberals engaged in anti-racism in the 1950s in northern U.S. cities like Chicago. Indeed, many North American cities became the site of successive immigration of Catholic Europeans over the early decades of the 20th Century and I am fascinated with how these groups on the one hand experienced discrimination themselves but came to in turn discriminate against black Americans and other people of color who moved to the city.”

“I am excited to be returning to teach as a LTA history instructor with UFV. In the courses I have been privileged to teach here, I have learned a lot from my students who are deeply engaged in local issues in the Fraser Valley community as well as global issues of significance, such as the forces that have given rise historically to developments like Brexit or the current presidency of Donald Trump. I’m particularly excited to be teaching a new course on Populism in America (History 396Q), which looks at the ways populism has informed American political culture from the administration of Andrew Jackson through the present.”

Dr. Rocksborough-Smith sits on a panel at the Organization of American Historians in Sacramento.

Faculty Accomplishment: Dr. Lenore Newman

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Dr. Lenore Newman gives a keynote speech to 240 attendees at The 2018 Urban Agriculture Forum in Melbourne, Australia on February 23 and 24, 2018.

What Did She Do?

The College of Arts’ Dr. Lenore Newman, a Canada Research Chair in Food Security and the Environment and faculty member in the Department of Geography and the Environment, embarked on a speaking tour of Australia (February 2018) to discuss the subject of farmland’s role in food security.

While in Australia, Dr. Newman spoke at a variety of events and toured several innovative farms and not-for-profit organizations, which included:

  • A keynote speech at the Blueprint for future food systems in regional Victoria in Bendigo, Australia on February 20, 2018 (organized by the City of Greater Bendigo).
  • A keynote speech at the Grampians Food Forum: strengthening food security in the Grampians Pyrenees region in Ararat, Australia on February 21, 2018 (organized by Sustain and the Grampians Food Alliance).
  • A keynote speech and panel discussion at The 2018 Urban Agriculture Forum in Melbourne, Austrailia on February 23 and 24, 2018 (organized by Sustain).
  • A presentation at the Urban Farming: Feeding the Future in Sydney, Australia on February 26, 2018 (organized by the Sydney Environmental Institute at the University of Sydney).
  • A half-day workshop presentation for graduate students and policy members at the Urban Agriculture Workshop in Sydney, Australia on February 27, 2018.
  • A panel presentation at the Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities: Pathways for regeneration from farm to fork in Perth, Australia on March 1, 2018 (organized by Edith Cowan University and the Heart Foundation).

She also made guest appearances on several radio and podcast interviews:

  • An Interview with Steven Martin from ABC Radio Ballarat on February 21, 2018.
  • The Conversation Hour with John Faine from ABC Radio Melbourne on February 22, 2018.
  • Greening the Apocalypse (podcast recording) with Adam Grubb on February 23, 2018.
  • Late Night Live with Phillip Adams from ABC Radio Sydney on February 27, 2018.
  • A radio interview with Tara De Landgrafft from ABC Radio Perth on March 1, 2018.

What’s Next?

Dr. Newman made a number of connections on the Australian tour, which could result in the following future collaborations: sharing data, co-writing a paper, developing a case study in Melbourne with a role for students, and working with the City of Greater Bendigo.