The Graduate History Society Review - University of Toronto ...

The Graduate History Society Review
2006-2007
EDITOR’S MESSAGE
My dear fellow historians,
Welcome to this year’s edition of the GHS
Review, a publication initiated three years
ago, in celebration of the U of T graduate
history students and their many exciting
adventures and accomplishments. This
year’s Review features several exciting stories
written by current graduate students,
sharing their experiences from as far away
as the distant climes of Israel and Siberia,
to as close by as the interiority of their own
minds, in self-contemplation of themselves
as growing scholars. To newly accepted
students, this publication serves as a welcome
to a lively and intellectually stimulating
new world. To the veterans, I hope
that it will introduce you to something
new and gratifying: perhaps the secret ‘location
of culture’ where you can find the
60 cent sweet potato bun, featured in our
GHS PRESIDENTS’ REPORT
Welcome to this year’s GHS Review.
Whether you are an existing student or
an incoming student to the program, the
GHS Review is an awesome vehicle for
staying in touch with other graduate students
in the History De-
partment, not to mention
learning about the many
activities and opportunities
that exist both within
academic life and outside
of the hallowed halls of
the Ivory Tower. This year’s
GHS Review is filled with
the many accomplishments
of students in our department.
I, Nancy, would like
to congratulate everyone on
another successful year!
The GHS is an executive
council intended to represent and enhance
the history graduate community.
The “exec” is elected every September by
Our subcommittees
have produced
innovative and
influential initiatives
such as the
Detached Study
Proposal and the
Michael Marrus
Research Grant
food review? Or valuable
tips on the process of creating
and teaching your own
brand new course? Or an
insider’s guide to the beguiling
tastes of the Danforth?
All of this and more can be
found within the pages of
the Review.
Thank you to all contributors
to the Review! Special
thanks go out to Alexandra
Guerson for her work
on layout, and to Jennifer
Polk, David Stiles and Ariel
Beaujot for editing blurbs and copy! Also,
thank you to the History Department for
funding this newsletter, and in particular
to Jennifer Francisco for all of her support
in this initiative.
senior and incoming students. The GHS
has a modest budget and an office with
some first-rate resources, as well as some
strange artifacts from the early days of
word processing. We are also granted
important seats, often with
voting privileges, on history
department committees.
The GHS offers a number
of ways to get involved in
academic affairs at the History
Department, at the
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
and at the University-wide
level. I, Auri, have been involved
with the GHS for
three years: as a representative
to the Graduate Student
Union my first year, as
a conference organizer the
second year, and as president this spring.
It’s been a very rewarding experience,
mostly consisting of attending one hour
This year’s Review
features several
exciting stories
written by current
graduate students,
sharing their experiences
from as
far away as Israel
and Siberia
G
H
To all historians, I wish you
a good summer, the best of
luck in the upcoming academic
year, and the greatest
of leisure as you peruse this
year’s edition of the GHS
Review.
and thirty minute meetings, monthly.
Our subcommittees have produced innovative
and influential initiatives such
as the Detached Study Proposal and the
Michael Marrus Research Grant. The social
committee keeps numerous popular
traditions going: Tuesday coffee socials,
Thursday Pub Nights, the holiday wine
and cheese, the Graduate History Symposium,
the end-of-the-year barbecue and
the GHS awards.
Please consider getting involved in the
2007-08 GHS Executive, as new voices
are definitely welcome. So it’s time now to
sit back with an iced moccacino and enjoy
some good reading!
AURI BERG
NANCY CATTON
S
KRISTINA PAUKSENS
Newsletter Editor
GHS Distinguished Service Awards
Jennifer DeSilva
Prof. Carol Chin
Dana Wessell Lightfoot Award
Amy Milne-Smith & Michael Pettit.
GHS Co-Presidents

2
TEACHING INITIATIVES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Ariel Beaujot
For many years now, the University of Toronto
at Mississauga has run an important
program for upper year graduate students
who are trying to get teaching experience
and improve their teaching dossiers. More
specifically, the Department of Historical
Studies connects graduate student instructors
with a number of advanced history
courses in American, European and
Global history. The courses are listed with
CUPE Unit 1, which makes the competition
exclusive to graduate students who
have yet to convocate. This important initiative
allows upper year PhD students to
submit courses of their own design and to
teach topics that are particularly relevant
to their research.
Under the auspices of this program, I
taught an Advanced Topics in European
History course at UTM in the Spring
term of 2007. The course that I developed,
“Re-Vision: Ways of Seeing in European
Culture,” looked at how the ‘ways of seeing’
have changed over time and how these
alter our concepts of the individual. I approached
this interdisciplinary subject by
reviewing theory and applying it to popular
media such as movies, science fiction,
novels, photographs and paintings. It was
THE METH LAB
Lisa Helps
The Meth Lab – short for Methodology
Lab – is an exploratory space to address
the public responsibility of contemporary
historians, as well as to foster individual
and collective projects for audiences beyond
the field. Brian Beaton, a Ph.D. candidate
in History, created the Meth Lab
series to provide a space for practitioners
who demonstrate a commitment to public
engagement and inventiveness to frame
a conversation on the incorporation of
broader publics and creative technologies
into historians’ own knowledge production
practices.
Guest presenters in the Lab’s first year
included the creators of [mumur], an audio
documentary project that produces
location-specific oral histories (September);
historian Joy Parr, who shared her
latest project around themes of community
transformation and large-scale en-
very exciting for me to teach a
course of my own making and
to see it come together with a
group of interesting and highly
engaged upper year UTM
students. The class was a joy
to teach, as my students were
eager to participate in class
discussions.
I based my course on work that
I had done as a result of another key initiative
by the Department of History: the
development of new, innovative options
for the PhD comprehensive examinations.
During the comprehensive process I took
advantage of the opportunity to create a
teaching dossier on Cultural History in
place of a written examination. This option
helped me to think about teaching at
an early stage of my graduate career and
allowed me to develop syllabi, set exams,
build up assignments and write lectures
with help from my field supervisor, Professor
Elspeth Brown. Coming out of
the comprehensive exams with a tangible
product that could be directly applied to a
classroom setting helped make the experience
more relevant and rewarding. I had
established the basic structure of a course,
gineering works (November); filmmaker
Phillip Daniels, who presented his widely
acclaimed Seeking Salvation, a history
of the black church in Canada (March);
and Heather Baines, who presented and
sought feedback on her project archiving
Toronto’s queer performers (April). As an
enthusiastic participant in all four labs last
year, I eagerly approached Brian after the
last session to see if he wanted to “pass the
torch” so to speak.
As the organizer of the 2006-07 Meth
Lab, I both adhered to and built on Brian’s
efforts in terms of making connections
between the academy and the wider community,
in particular with regard to social
justice issues and marginalized communities.
Topics from this past year included
“Exhibiting Resistance: Preparing Archival
and Photo Exhibits for the Public,
“The Politics of Babies: A Personal/
During the comprehensive
process
I took advantage
of the opportunity
to create a teaching
dossier
and it was ready to be put
into practice when I was
given the opportunity at
Mississauga. Over the
years that followed, I only
had to tweak the syllabus
when I came across interesting
articles that might
help develop the course
themes.
These two important initiatives undertaken
by history departments at the U of
T have greatly enriched my experience as
a Doctoral student. I encourage PhD students
at the beginning of their graduate
careers to take advantage of the alternative
options for comps. In particular, the
teaching dossier option will help develop a
graduate student’s expertise in writing and
teaching. For students who are about to
complete their degrees, the opportunity to
teach Advanced Topics courses at UTM is
not just a chance to shape malleable young
minds. It is also an excellent opportunity
to enhance their CVs and teaching dossiers
before heading out into the academic
job market.
Scholarly Odyssey Through Adoption in
Canada, Cuba and Guatemala,” and “Indigenous
Knowledges, Research Methodologies
and Indigenous History.” All labs
were well attended by graduate students
and faculty members from a number of
departments as well as by non-affiliated
members of the public.
In 2007-08 the Meth Lab will continue.
Second year PhD students Laurie Bertram
and Nadia Lewis are taking over the series
and are planning what will continue to
be a provocative program. Some of their
ideas for panels include public history and
material culture, putting the sex back into
histories of sexuality, food history, and
migration history. Don’t miss this exciting
graduate student initiative. For more
information, contact laurie.bertram@utoronto.ca
or nadia_lewis@yahoo.com.

SURVIVING THE MA
Cynthia De Luca
“If you can survive the MA, you can survive
anything.” Words of wisdom, indeed,
given to me last September by a student
who had just finished her Master’s degree;
she seemed like a soldier who had just
come back from the battlefield, scathed
and tired, but still alive. The war she had
just fought would soon be my own: the
war against time, the battle against the
ever so strong desire to simply give up
when it gets too difficult at the front.
What makes the graduate student’s experience
so different from that of the undergraduate
is not merely a matter of higher
standards and extra work; rather, the challenge
(and the beauty) of graduate studies
owes to the fact that, for the most part,
the dynamic between student and professor
changes considerably: all of a sudden
you are a professor’s research or teaching
assistant, you publish alongside your supervisor
in an academic journal, and you
discuss with confidence at the ‘Wine &
Cheese’ papers that have just been presented
at a conference.
The MA year often entails many sleepless
nights, numerous trips to the library, and
perhaps even some comfort food—it is a
trying experience, but it is also fiercely rewarding.
I will never forget the feeling of
utter joy the moment I received my acceptance
letter to the U of T, and I have not
been disappointed: the graduate program
is exceptional, and there is always something
to do, academic or social, on- or offcampus.
This past year I also got my first taste of
residence life –“surviving the MA,” then,
not only in an academic context, but also
on a personal level. Living away from
home brings on its own set of challenges:
the dirty laundry piles and the yearning for
your mother’s homemade muffins increas-
ADVENTURES ABROAD WITH THE MAIR PROGRAM
Helen Bao
In search of an International History program,
I enrolled in the Collaborative MA
in International Relations (MAIR) and
History at Uof T. One of the biggest surprises
of the year was the opportunity for
many of us in the MAIR to travel to Israel
for an intensive two-week seminar course
on Arab-Israeli conflict management at
Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The sites
and sounds of the ancient land embroiled
in a conflict left a strong impression on
many of us, personally and academically.
For much of these two weeks in mid-December,
we sat in a sun-drenched room
overlooking the Dome of the Rock soaking
in lectures from Professor Yaacov
Bar-Siman-Tov, endearingly referred to
as “Barsi”. He drew on historical context,
economic game theory, political psychology,
and international relations models to
dissect the conflict that highlighted the
value of thematic approaches to academic
study.
Away from the classroom we tirelessly
explored Jerusalem and much of the rest
of Israel. Between floating on the Dead
Sea and walking the beaches in Tel Aviv,
we made a sobering visit to the Golan
Heights. The mine-dappled fields around
Israel’s tri-border with Syria, Lebanon, and
Jordan are heartbreakingly beautiful. The
city of Kiryat Shmona that bore the brunt
of destructions for Israel during last year’s
conflict with Lebanon holds remarkable
resemblance to many little towns in southern
Ontario. It gave me a jolting awareness
of the common humanity that underscores
all of our existences. We were blessed with
the most glorious kosher meal on the second
Sabbath of our stay at the university
over which to ruminate on all of this.
The days leading up to the trip, which
happened on short notice, were frantic,
but characteristic of the program that has
been described as ‘double work and fun.’
I handed in a seminar paper literally five
es, and the size of your wallet decreases
considerably after one-too-many trips to
the local coffee-shop. Granted, my home
city of Montreal is not terribly far away,
but five hours by train is nonetheless far
enough that I go home only on major holidays.
Living in a graduate residence (mine
is Knox) is truly a singular experience: not
only is it supremely convenient to live on
campus, but strong bonds are wrought between
the residents as we all struggle towards
the common goal of completing our
degrees while still enjoying the journey.
Once the 2000 Paper/thesis is completed,
the Masters student is a veteran: the bruises
that the ego may have felt quickly fade
away, and one’s character is strong enough
to either go on to do the PhD or to venture
off into the workforce.
Good luck to all the newly-admitted MA
students –this is your time to shine!
hours before my plane took off. It was a
collaborative effort at times to maintain
sanity, but MAIR is a program that has really
put the “international” in my study of
history.
© Helen Bao - From right to left: Helen Bao,
Mariann Martin, and a programme colleague.
3

4
BEGINNING WRITING AFTER RESEARCH
Heather Dichter
Returning from a year away in the archives
and sitting down to begin the
monstrous task of writing a dissertation
can be a daunting challenge. Even when
your research trip has been of short duration
or has not involved extensive travel,
transitioning to the writing process can be
difficult. If you are fortunate enough to
have an inflexible conference deadline a
month after your research is over, the shift
to writing will be a bit easier. Of course,
writing a full dissertation is an entirely different
matter than writing a ten-page paper.
How is it possible to sort through a
mountain of paper and find a way to begin
writing?
The first step is to establish an organizational
system, preferably before you embark
on your research. You will almost
certainly find it profitable to make use of
a note-taking program. There are many
available options, but all of these programs
make creating a bibliography or footnotes
a simple process. They also help you think
about your project when you are going
through your documents the first time.
By providing subject keywords for each
document within these note-taking programs,
you start developing a list of major
themes or topics, even if you are not fully
conscious of that process while collecting
documents. When you return to Toronto
and your advisor asks you for an outline,
you would already have a list of ideas and
themes that you found during the research
process. Furthermore, when you do start
writing, it would take very little time to
locate a specific document, or all of the
material you collected on a theme.
Of course, being well organized does not
start the actual writing process for you,
and writing a few hundred pages can seem
frightening when you are looking at your
first blank page. Breaking the project into
smaller parts and setting a series of reasonable
goals can make writing the first
draft of your dissertation manageable. For
example, if you wrote two pages on each
weekday (let’s give you weekends off ), you
would be producing ten pages a week. By
RESEARCH TRIPS: A TRAVELLER’S GUIDE
Jennifer Polk
As I write this, it’s been nearly a year
since I flew to Kansas for my first major
conference. As the plane lifted off the
ground at Pearson airport, I realized with
some horror that I hadn’t left the country
in—gasp!—10 years. Since that conference
I’ve done a whole lot of travelling
in North America and elsewhere, including
seven dissertation research trips. I got
some good advice before going, and have
learned a few things on my own along the
way. A few things to consider:
1. Think about staying with a local grad
student if you can. I stayed with other history
PhD students in three US cities for
between 4 and 9 nights. In advance of my
trips I contacted the history departments
at the universities where I was conducting
my research. I offered to pay $20-25US a
night, and made some good friends and research
contacts. For my two weeks in London,
I rented a room in a family house near
the archives. And I lived for a month in
Washington with two undergrads, which
was surprisingly really fun! Archives can
sometimes offer accommodation suggestions,
and remember to check craigslist.
org if you’re headed to a big city.
2. To avoid stress while away from home, I
planned my on-location travelling as much
as I could in advance. Although I may have
been able to wing it, I was happy that I
looked up beforehand how exactly I was
going to get from the airport to my new
home, and from there to the archives the
next morning. Transit services can be very
confusing, and, in addition to feeling more
comfortable being in a strange place, you
can save money by buying weekly transit
passes, or purchasing an Oyster card when
you arrive in London, for example.
3. Ask an archivist before your arrival if
you can use your camera (or other technology);
website information may not be
accurate or up-to-date. Buy a good camera
to take pictures of documents (if and
when you can), but remember that you’ll
still have to read what you snap once you
get back home. I now have tens of thou-
the time one year had passed, you would
have written about 500 pages! If it is possible
for you to write more than two pages
a day, set a reasonable daily limit and stick
with it. You’ll have a finished draft before
you know it!
You should also keep in mind that writing
becomes easier as you spend more time
doing it. You might be tempted to say, “I
need to do more reading on topic X before
I can write anymore.” But the more time
you spend away from writing, the harder
it is to get back into it. Try to divide the
time you spend on your dissertation each
day into two parts. First, fulfill your daily
quota of writing. Then, spend the other
part on translating or on reading secondary
literature. These two processes will reinforce
each other as you work toward the
completion of your dissertation. By following
these suggestions, you will be well
on your way to having a full draft soon after
finishing your research!
sands of images, the vast majority of which
I haven’t read. It doesn’t hurt to have more
than you need and to allow for your topic
to evolve as your research and writing continue.
Just be smart about it so you don’t
waste your time, your money—if you’re
paying to photograph or photocopy—or
strain your muscles.
4. If you order photocopies from afar to be
shipped to you, don’t pay import duties.
Those documents may cost you $600, but
they have no commercial value. Make sure
your archive knows to mark your package
as containing “documents” or “research
materials.”
Despite my many trips, I still find myself
nervous about planning my final excursion—this
time to California—but I
know that when the time comes to leave,
get settled, and get to work in the archives,
everything should be fine!

ORGANIZING THE GRADUATE HISTORY SYMPOSIUM
Jennifer DeSilva
© Jennifer Polk - Symposium screen
This past year I was fortunate to work with
Frances Timbers, Margaret Schotte, and
Janine Rivière, organizing the Third Annual
University of Toronto Graduate History
Symposium. We began meeting sporadically
over the summer to toss around
ideas for themes, and to generally produce
a timeline. With the four of us working on
the symposium, what we thought would
be overwhelming turned into a manageable
project - and we became a productive
team. Quickly, each of us adopted our own
sphere of expertise, and the symposium
began to take shape.
STAY TUNED: CULTURES IN CONTACT
Alexandra Guerson de Oliveira
Globalization, multiculturalism, fusion
cuisine, ethnic tension, immigration, the
Internet - evidence of cultures and ethnic
groups in contact are
all around us, perhaps more
than ever before. When it
came time to choose a theme
for next annual Graduate
History Symposium, “Cultures
in Contact” seemed an
appropriate choice. Immigration,
multiculturalism,
ethnic tension and cultural
fusion are not inventions
of our postmodern world.
For as long as there was
something that could be described
as culture, different cultural groups
have come in contact bringing effects both
positive - enrichment of languages & art,
technological enhancement, exchange of
Start thinking of
that paper you
would like to
share with your
colleagues next
February!
The single “unknown” factor in our plans
proved to be the presenters. We were fearful
that nobody would submit abstracts in
response to our carefully crafted call for
papers. To our delight, a large number of
international scholars from as far away as
British Columbia, California and England
responded. Their excitement and interest
in both the conference and Uof T’s
reputation encouraged us. It was a rare
glimpse of the outside world’s interest in
our department’s students and faculty, and
an important statement in support of the
youthful symposium tradition.
The symposium began on a Thursday
night with a kick-off reception sponsored
by the history department and the Office
of Alumni Affairs. The next morning, we
were excited to hear the plenary lecture
given by alum Dr. Kevin Siena (0T1), who
now teaches at the University of Guelph.
His lecture, entitled “A Dog that Rarely
Barked in the Night: Medical Silence
on same-sex Transmission of the Pox
1660-1760,” was dynamic, topical, and
the perfect start to the symposium. Over
two days, there were 39 papers presented
exploring the theme “After the Fall: Sex,
Gender & Power” in a multitude of ways.
Topics ranged from scientific voyeurism
knowledge - and negative - wars, imperialism,
racism, discrimination. The theme is
broad and allows for topics covering any
historical period and area
- gender, religion, politics,
diplomacy, native history,
society, culture, economy, to
name only a few.
Based in the most multicultural
city in the world, the
University of Toronto is
an exciting place to discuss
these issues. Start thinking
of that paper you would like
to share with your colleagues
next February! The GHS
conference is a relaxed, supportive venue
in which to present your work. Don’t miss
this opportunity! Stay tuned for a Call for
Papers in the Fall.
in 19th century freak shows, to Parisian
prostitutes of the 1960s, and to medieval
gender discourse in the Canterbury Tales
- making for a fascinating event. As well,
there was a screening of Laurence Dunmore’s
film The Libertine (2004), and a
subsequent roundtable discussion on the
gender depictions and modern interpretations
of libertinism in the film.
By the end of the symposium, we were
exhausted. But the happy participation of
dozens of current students and faculty, as
well as visitors, showed us that the symposium
served an important purpose in the
department. Thanks to everyone who volunteered
as a chair, respondent, attendee,
or organizer, and to everyone who submitted
a paper to the symposium, a space was
created in which, collectively, we could
be proud of the graduate history community’s
accomplishments. It was a treat
to share in the inquiries begun by visiting
scholars. We are very grateful for the opportunity
to organize the symposium, and
we encourage all future organizers to enjoy
the experience as much as possible.
© Alexandra Guerson - Cooperation
5

6
THE ROAD TO ACING YOUR COMPREHENSIVE EXAMS
Stuart Parker
My comprehensive exams plan involved a
lot of Chinese dumplings. But this is, perhaps,
to be expected because almost every
plan I concoct involves a lot of Chinese
dumplings. The comps plan, which I put
into place between July and December of
2006, was exceptional, even by my standards,
in the huge number of dumplings
it involved.
Many people join graduate programs in
the humanities because they really enjoy
reading. Not being such a person, the
standard comps study ritual of 200 books
in 200 days did not seem very appealing
to me. In fact, it seemed downright scary.
That is not to say that everybody is not at
least slightly scared of the comps process
as a whole, whether one’s anxiety is focused
on the written exams, oral exam or
gigantic amount of reading. I think that
the fact that we all fear comps should not
obscure the fact that we all fear different
components of the process. You see, that’s
the genius of comps: there is something
for everyone to fear. How could it be an effective
rite of passage if it were not able to
inspire trepidation in virtually everyone?
As someone who has always secretly liked
written exams and positively salivated
over the opportunity to participate in an
oral exam, which is the closest thing to a
talkshow interview your average doctoral
MY FAVE EATS NEAR U OF T
Emily Winerock
Big Fat Burrito
285 Augusta (Kensington market) -- 416-
913-7487
Huge portions, decent prices, and enticing
options for both meat eaters and vegetarians.
Bright Pearl
346 Spadina Ave -- 416-979-1103
Huge and well-appointed for Chinatown,
pick your dim sum from the carts wheeled
by each table. Best to go during their dim
sum happy hours.
Dong Dong Pastries
319 Spadina Ave
For $0.60 each get buns filled with everything
from curry chicken to red bean
paste. A great study snack -- the yam bum
is my favourite.
student can experience, my fear of failure
was intimately bound up with my doubts
as to my ability to keep reading so much
per day. So, I devised a daily routine composed
of enough incentives to keep me
turning pages.
I would begin my day by puttering around
my apartment and smoking a joint. Once
sufficiently hungry, I would be inspired
to load books into my briefcase and hop
on the TTC to the Rol San Restaurant,
purveyor of the finest and Chinese dumplings
in the city limits for a very fair price.
I highly recommend the steamed (not
fried) bean curd skin rolls, peanut-free
chiu chow dumplings, chicken-mushroom
steamed buns, siu mai (topped with fresh
Japanese flying fish roe!), deep fried pork
and dried shrimp dumplings, baked chicken-chive
pastries, beef and preserved vegetable
rice rolls and the dumpling soup,
although everything on the menu is pretty
good. Each item averages $1.50 on weekday
mornings (about $2.25 in the afternoons)
and three will be more than sufficient
to fill you up. Once at the restaurant,
I would ration my dumplings, rewarding
myself with 3-5 dumplings (roughly one
dish on the menu) for every 50-100 pages
I completed.
So, having ingested masses of carbs, I
would then be motivated to head to the
Ein-stein Cafe and Pub
229 College St -- 416-59-STEIN
This hangout of engineers and other university
folks serves Toronto’s best chicken
wings. Try the honey-garlic.
Ethiopian House
4 Irwin Ave (off Yonge) -- 416-923-5438
A little pricey, and extremely leisurely service,
but the moderately priced lunch specials
and amazing coffee make a nice treat.
Ginger
521 Bloor -- 416-536-3131
A Toronto chain of fabulous, inexpensive
Vietnamese and Thai treats. The panini is
a particularly good deal.
Greg’s Ice Cream
750 Spadina at Bloor -- 416-962-4734
Expensive, but excellent, with ever-chang-
gym at Hart House, where I would spend
40 minutes on a stationary bike with a
book carefully positioned over top of the
digital display so I could keep reading.
Calories and guilt burned away, I would
return to Chinatown for the afternoon
and have dumplings.
I would then repeat essentially the same
routine almost every day for six months.
Do I recommend this strategy? Yes and
no. If you like Chinese dumplings as much
as I do, it is a great idea. But the chances
that you do are pretty remote, verging on
zero. What I do recommend is making the
comps process your own. Try to convert
your exam preparation work from a chore
into a privilege (even if you have to gain
10lbs as a result) by building a routine that
keeps you, if not inspired, at least comfortable.
Lots of people would kill for a lifestyle
where they were paid thousands of
dollars to do nothing but sit around, read
and think, especially if they could eat all
the dumplings they wanted as part of the
package.
The Rol San Restaurant is located at 323
Spadina Avenue at Baldwin and serves
dumplings between 9:30am and 4:00pm.
Stuart Parker received a mark of distinction
for his comprehensive exams in January
2007
ing exotic flavours such as honey vanilla,
chocolate cinnamon raisin, and pumpkin,
as well as standards.
Jun Jun
374 College St -- 416-913-2883
There are lots of great sushi places on
Bloor, but this overlooked gem on College
is also worth a visit, despite the sometimes
grouchy waitress. The grilled appetizers
are particularly recommended. Open till
1am.
Pho Hung
350 Spadina Ave -- 416-593-4274
or
200 Bloor St West -- 416-963-5080
Cheap and tasty Vietnamese fare where
a “small” noodle soup is a meal for most.
Two locations near campus.

RESEARCHING IN SIBERIA
Wilson T. Bell
Unlike many disciplines, where research
can be conducted on-line, in laboratories,
or at the university’s research library, historians
have the privilege of travelling to
their places of research. Oral history interviews
and most archival collections are
still inaccessible through the Google Empire.
This may be worth thinking about
when formulating a research topic. Italian
culinary history might get you to Sicily,
Rome, and Milan, for example, sampling
some of the world’s most flavourful food.
The history of the Gulag—Stalin’s vast
network of prison labour camps—gets
you to Siberia, not generally known for its
mouth-watering cuisine.
Siberia has a bad reputation. At best, when
most people in the West hear the word
“Siberia,” they think of vast stretches of
wasteland and frozen arctic tundra. Indeed,
“Do they have cities there?” is possibly
the most frequently asked question I
get about Siberia. At worst, the image conjured
is one of exile, concentration camps,
and suffering.
Yet research in Siberia is a lot of fun—yes,
FUN (take that you Italian culinary historians!).
For one, of course there are cities.
Novosibirsk has 2 million people, its own
THE DANFORTH: A STUDENT HAVEN AMIDST THE YUPPIES
Alexandra Kaempffer
I will admit that the thought of coming
to Toronto after growing up in a smallish
Ontario town made me a bit nervous.
However, after I found an apartment just
off the Danforth and lived there while
studying at the U of T, I can safely say that
my fears of the big city were totally unjustified.
The Danforth, located between
Broadview and Donlands subway stations,
is a 10-minute subway ride away from
campus and the downtown, but has the
feel of a neighbourhood. Two huge parks,
Riverdale and Withrow, offer quiet places
to relax, picnic or play sports, and both
have free skating on municipal rinks in the
winter. My understanding is that the Riverdale
Park also has an outdoor swimming
pool, complete with slide, in the summer
as well. In addition, the Don Valley trails
are very close.
subway system, and a cosmopolitan flare
as Siberia’s main transit hub (this despite
its admittedly drab Soviet architecture).
Glittering glass oil and bank towers are
starting to pop up, and condo/apartment
development outstrips that of Toronto.
Tomsk, a university town of some half
million people, has more than six universities,
numerous beautiful parks, and many
great restaurants and cafes, as well as some
stunning nineteenth century wooden architecture.
Free wi-fi access is widespread,
and one can even find a good cappuccino.
Even the archives are hardly the drab,
dreary places of legend. In Tomsk, both
archives I’ve worked at have recently renovated
their bathrooms (a blessing, as those
of you who have visited Russia will know),
and archival reading rooms all over western
Siberia have lovely large plants and
large windows (to let what little light there
is in during the winter, and to keep everyone
connected to the bright and very long
days during the summer). In some ways,
too, the periphery is kinder and gentler
than the metropolis in Moscow. Invitations
for tea, homemade mors (a common
berry drink), and lengthy discussions
about the differences between Canada
and Russia are very common. Although, as
The Danforth itself is Toronto’s Greektown,
so culinary offerings are definitely
on the souvlaki/gyro side of the spectrum.
The best ones can be found at Louis’ Meat
Market, where a paltry four dollars will
get you a gyro in a warm pita, topped with
veggies and fries. If you’re not into loads
of meat and bread, other choices include
Thai, Indian, Japanese, and a plethora
of little cafes as well. If a sweet snack is
what you need to get you through an essay,
the Sweet Tooth Bakery is a personal
favourite. Their rugelach and butter tarts
can make even the worst academic panic
feel completely manageable. And if you’ve
been indulging too much, the organic
food haven The Big Carrot is also smack
in the middle of the neighbourhood. It is
especially popular with yuppie mums who
travel in packs with their SUV strollers.
one caveat, I should mention that I managed
to have a whole archival collection
re-classified, right under my nose—a talent
most historians should not envy. This
is the price one pays for studying what is
unfortunately still a sensitive subject.
In short, research in Siberia is probably
not that much different from research in
other archives around the world. And the
pelmeni (Siberian dumplings) aren’t that
bad, either.
© Wilson T. Bell - Downtown Tomsk, Siberia
As far as grocery stores are concerned,
you have to go pretty far to find a Price
Chopper or No Frills, but there are two
fruit and vegetable markets that offer reasonably
priced produce year-round. For
those wishing to leave the computer and
actually go out in the evening, there are
several cozy pubs, and a few more upscale
cocktail bars. Plus, the subway is so close
that going downtown is a breeze. For
shoppers and window-shoppers alike, the
Danforth is also a great place for a stroll
through the boutiques and stores that offer
everything from designer clothes to
teapots. All told, my area is an ideal place
for those who like the combination of big
city bustle, neighbourhood charm, and really
good baklava.
7

8
GRAD STUDENTS ON THE GO
This year Sarah Amato taught a course titled “Introduction to
Material Culture” at Victoria College, University of Toronto.
She presented papers at the Third Annual Graduate History Symposium,
the Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars
at the University of Delaware, and to the Women, Gender and
Sexuality Reading Group. She organized a session for the Teaching
History Workshop and co-organized a talk on the creation of
radio documentaries.
Ashleigh Androsoff presented “Assimilate and Become Canadians!:
The ABCs of the New Denver Residential School for Sons
of Freedom Children, 1953–1959” at the BC Inner and Outer
Worlds Conference in Harrison Hot Springs, BC (April 2007)
and “From the Private Sphere to the Public Eye: ‘Redressing’
the Image of Doukhobor-Canadian Women in the Twentieth
Century” at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association
in Saskatoon, SK (May 2007). She is currently writing
the first draft of her dissertation, which uses the Doukhobors in
twentieth-century Canada as a case study of how collective memory
and assimilative pressure impact group identity formation.
Ashleigh anticipates completing her dissertation by June 2008.
This year Ariel Beaujot taught a course entitled “Re-Vision:
Ways of Seeing in European Culture” for the University of Toronto
at Mississauga. Ariel presented papers at the Third Annual
Graduate History Symposium; the Canadian Historical Association
conference; and to the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Reading
Group. She spoke at the “Teaching as a Graduate Student”
roundtable for the Teaching History Workshop Series and coorganized
a talk in the department entitled “History on the Air:
The Creation of Radio Documentaries.”
Wilson Bell presented papers at two conferences over the last
year: “Was the Gulag an Archipelago?” at the Conference on the
History and Legacy of the Gulag, Harvard University, in November;
and “The Party in the Gulag: Party Activities and Party
Discipline in the Camps of Western Siberia,” at the 2006 annual
convention of the American Association for the Advancement of
Slavic Studies. He served as a GHS representative to the history
department’s Program Committee and conducted a short followup
research trip to Siberia, on a grant from the International Research
and Exchanges Board.
Auri Berg passed his comprehensive exams in November and has
been GHS president since January. He presented at the Graduate
History Symposium and won the 2006 Canadian Association
of Slavists’ Annual Essay Contest for Best Graduate Essay for his
“From Town to City: Urbanization and Social Integration in late
19th Century Nizhnii Novgorod.” Auri is looking forward to carrying
out his archival research in Russia next year with support
from the American Councils for International Education, the
Ontario government, and U of T’s Centre for European, Russian
and Eurasian Studies.
Max Bergholz spent the past year researching and writing his
dissertation in Zagreb, Sarajevo, and Toronto. His work has
been supported by a fellowship from the American Council of
Learned Societies. In November he organized a panel for and presented
a paper at the annual conference of the American Association
for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. An essay based on
his dissertation will be published this summer in the Godišnjak
za društvenu istoriju (The Annual for Social History), which is
Serbia’s premier journal for historical research
Laurie Betram completed her PhD coursework as well as her
first year of Icelandic language lessons. This year she enjoyed
some research-related travel, including a March trip to the Canadian
Museum of Civilization’s beautiful Icelandic collection with
Markus Antonsson, Iceland’s ambassador to Canada, and one to
Winnipeg the following month for the newly formed Icelandic
conference Nuna (Now), which featured Iceland’s president, Olafur
Grimsson. Laurie travelled to Saskatoon for a Congress at the
end of May to present on ethnic material culture and the Canadian
multicultural media. She is currently preparing to go to Iceland
in September, where she will be presenting her research on
Icelandic Canadian female political activism during the 1930s.
She will be busy next year preparing for comps and organizing the
2007–08 Meth Labs with Nadia Lewis.
Jeff Bowersox spent the past year writing the final chapters of his
dissertation in anticipation of submitting in the late summer or
early fall. He has been fortunate enough to have three pieces
commissioned for inclusion in edited collections, and is even
more excited about the arrival of his and Ruth Percy’s first child
this summer.
Nancy Elizabeth Catton organized, along with Paul Lawrie, the
Racial and Ethnic Identities in Transnational Histories (REIT)
graduate student discussion group. She and Paul worked closely
with Professor Russ Kazal in bringing Dr. Gary Gerstle to Toronto
for a public talk at the St. George campus and a meeting
with the REIT group to discuss his latest project. She served as
GHS president in the fall, and helped with orientation in September.
In the community, she volunteers as a T-ball coach with
the Bloordale Baseball League, and is a volunteer reader to a class
of first graders at a local elementary school. Nancy was awarded
an OGS for 2007–08.
Todd Craver spent five months researching at the German Literature
Archive in Marbach, Germany, and at other archives in
Frankfurt am Main and Berlin.
Cynthia De Luca holds a SSHRC Master’s Fellowship. She
worked as a research assistant for Professor Nicholas Terpstra on
his research project concerning charitable aid in sixteenth-century
Bologna. Cynthia successfully passed her Italian language exam
and, having completed the MA coursework, had the opportunity
to conduct research at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence for
her 2000 Paper. Her first publication, a book review, is forthcoming
in Quaderni d’italianistica.
This year Jennifer DeSilva was on the Graduate History Symposium’s
organizing committee. She presented papers to the Renaissance
Society of America in Miami, as well as to the Rome
Research Network in Edinburgh. Jennifer served on the Graduate
Academic Appeals Board, and held an OGS and an Iter Fellowship.
She recently defended her dissertation.
Heather Dichter spent most of the fourth year of her PhD working
on her dissertation and planning social events for us. During
2006–07 she presented papers at the International Olympic
Symposium, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations,
and the International Society for the History of Physical
Education and Sport. Heather received grants from the George
C. Marshall Foundation and the International Society for Olympic
Historians.
Victoria Duroff was on maternity leave for most of 2006–07; her
daughter Anna was born in October. She holds a SSHRC doctoral
fellowship (2006–08). Victoria’s article, “Dualism of Language
in Pico della Mirandola’s 900 Conclusions,” was accepted for
publication in Pascale Hummel’s Metaphilology: Histories and
Languages of Philology, forthcoming in 2009. Having survived
comps (in May 2004), she plans to improve her Latin and Italian
language skills and start work on her dissertation. This summer
she will conduct research in Italy, taking her small family along.

Victoria recently became a Canadian citizen.
Katie Edwards recently returned to Toronto after a nine-month
research trip to France, where she divided her time between Paris
and Aix-en-Provence. She is a junior fellow at Massey College,
and was awarded a fellowship from the New Brunswick-based
O’Brien Foundation for the 2007–08 academic year.
Last summer Victoria Freeman taught HIS369H5F, Aboriginal
Peoples of the Great Lakes, 1500–1815, at UTM. Over the past
year she was on the national planning committee for the conference—“Re-Envisioning
Relationships: Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal
Alliances and Coalitions for Indigenous Rights, Social
and Environmental Justice”—at Trent University in November.
She gave two presentations at that conference. This past spring
she joined and attended the second meeting of the Great Lakes
Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Culture
in Ottawa and presented papers at the Indigeneities and Cosmopolitanisms
anthropology conference at U of T and at the Canadian
Historical Association conference in Saskatoon. She was
awarded a graduate fellowship from U of T’s Centre for Ethics
for 2007–08, which will help her complete her dissertation on
the historical memory of the indigenous and colonial past in Toronto.
Sveta Frunchak passed her comps early last September and gave
birth to her daughter shortly thereafter. She plans to return from
maternity leave in January.
Alexandra Guerson de Oliveira is back to Toronto after thirteen
months perusing fourteenth-century documents at the archives
in Barcelona, Spain. She is a junior fellow at Massey College looking
forward to a year devoted to writing and teaching, as well as
reconnecting with her Toronto friends. She has been accepted to
present a paper at the Rennaissance Society of America’s conference
in Chicago, next April.
In June 2006 Valerie Hébert defended her dissertation, “The
Nuremberg High Command Case: Context and Legacy, 1947–
1958,” which is nominated for the Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize.
The following month she and husband Glen Cordner welcomed
their first child, Olivia Simone. Valerie’s article entitled “The Politics
of Punishment: War Criminals and the Struggle for German
Reintegration with the West, 1948–1958” is forthcoming from
Manchester University Press. In September Valerie will be taking
up a SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship at York University’s
Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and
Security at Osgoode Hall Law School. She plans to revise her dissertation
for publication during the tenure of her fellowship.
Lisa Helps spent most of her time this year studying for comprehensive
exams, which she passed in late April. She co-ordinated
the Meth Lab speakers series in the department, presented a paper
entitled “Letting Die: Settler Colonialism, State Racism, and Biopower’s
Shadow History” in the Biopolitics and Technoscience
Roundtable series in the Women and Gender Studies Institute,
and organized a panel on “Women’s History as Public History”
for the Canadian Historical Association conference in late May.
This year also saw the publication of Lisa’s first peer-reviewed article,
“Body, Power, Desire: Mapping Canadian Body History,” in
the winter 2007 issue of the Journal of Canadian Studies. While
preparing for research trips and teaching in the fall, Lisa is dividing
her time this summer between her tent and her surfboard.
Erin Hochman spent the fall of 2006 and the summer of 2007
conducting research in Germany and Austria with financial support
from the Joint Initiative for German and European Studies,
an SGS Travel Grant, a Craig Brown Travelling Fellowship, and a
Sir Val Duncan Grant. Next year she will hold an OGS. Erin will
present a paper at the German Studies Association in San Diego
this fall.
Alexandra Kaempffer held a Master’s-level CGS during the
2006–07 academic year. She presented “Women in Wartime
Nazi Film: Fears and Fantasies of the Fascist Male” at the Graduate
History Symposium in February.
This summer Michael Kogan is taking Russian language courses
for heritage speakers at the University of Pittsburgh and will then
be doing research in Moscow. These activities are being funded by
money from Fulbright-Hays.
Mark Laszlo-Herbert spent the last year writing, TAing, RAing,
and working as a Residence Advisor at Graduate House. He is a
recipient of a 2006–07 Thomas and Beverley Simpson/OGS, and
has won an OGS for 2007–08.
Jean-François Lozier spent the past year in Montreal, where he
has been researching and drafting a dissertation dealing with colonial
warfare, cultures, and societies. It is provisionally entitled
“In Each Other’s Arms: The St. Lawrence Mission Villages and
France at War, 1630–1760.” Jean-François presented papers at
conferences in Knoxville, Grand Rapids, and Minneapolis in the
fall, and at Pittsburgh in the spring. He is co-chair of the Graduate
Students’ Committee of the Canadian Historical Association,
having been elected to that position in June 2006.
After one last bout of research travel in the spring of 2006, Mairi
MacDonald spent the rest of the summer and fall putting together
and teaching HIS389, Topics in History: Africa in 19th
and 20th Century International Relations. She found the process
exciting, rewarding, and absolutely exhausting, and managed to
get very little writing done. She is now a couple of chapters into
the writing process. Mairi presented a paper at the Society for
Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting in
Washington, DC, in June, and is attending the National History
Center’s Decolonization Seminar in that city during July. After
that she will resume the balancing act that is teaching and writing
for the rest of 2007.
Steve Maddox presented two papers this past year on memory
and Leningrad’s postwar restoration, first in Washington at the
annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement
of Slavic Studies, and then in Toronto to a group of Russian
history scholars from universities in New York State and Ontario.
In September he will participate in an international conference in
St. Petersburg, Russia, on the topic of the blockade of Leningrad
during WWII. He recently returned from a 40-day research trip
in Russia. He is teaching Soviet History (HIS351) this summer
at the St. George campus.
Meaghan Marian survived the first year of her PhD in modern
Chinese history. She was a teaching assistant for courses at St.
George, UTM, and UTSC on the histories and religions of East,
South, and Southeast Asia. She gave a paper on mathematical
logic and Chinese modernity at the U of T East Asian Studies
Graduate Student Conference that included many arcane diagrams.
She won an OGS and a CGS and will use an Asian Institute
Support Grant to study Mandarin Chinese at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong this summer before beginning preparation
for comps.
This year Nick Matte had a great time doing research in archives
in Ithaca, Ann Arbor, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. He also
continued to broker and process an important collection for
the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives here in Toronto. At U
of T, Nick participated in the Meth Labs and the Biopolitics
and Technoscience Series, and was a finalist for the Adel S. Sedra
Distinguished Graduate Student Award. In the spring term
he taught his first course, Introduction to Trans Studies, in the
Women’s Studies Department at the University of Victoria. He
organized a panel on the history of transgender social organiz-
9

10
ing (“Sex Changes: Historical Transformations in Sex, Gender
and Sexuality”) for the upcoming New England American Studies
Association conference at Brown University in Rhode Island.
Nick is spending July at the Institute for Sexuality and Culture
at the University of Amsterdam and looks forward to being in
Toronto again this fall.
Daniel McNeil has taken a job as Lecturer in Black and Minority
Cultures at the University of Hull/Wilberforce Institute for
the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (http://www.hull.ac.uk/
wise).
Amy Milne-Smith successfully defended her dissertation in August
2006. In the fall she taught a 4th-year urban history seminar
at UTM and in the spring focussed her attention on the job
market. She is leaving Toronto for warmer climes, having accepted
a tenure-track position in Modern European History at
the University of Southern Mississippi. She was honoured to be
the co-recipient of the GHS’s Dana Wessell-Lightfoot award this
spring.
Urs Obrist has been awarded the Harris Steel Post-Doctoral Fellowship
at the University of Western Ontario in London for the
2007–08 academic year.
After a number of research trips to Washington and Berlin, Jutta
Paczulla is getting close to completing her archival research. She
is now settling into the writing mode. The focus of her dissertation
is significant war crimes trials which were conducted by the
government of the German Democratic Republic in the 1970s.
She examines whether the trials addressed appropriately the history
of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Jutta received
critical funding for her research from the US Holocaust Memorial
Museum, the Holocaust Educational Foundation, SSHRC,
OGS, the Joint Initiative in German and European Studies, and
the School of Graduate Studies. Jutta also holds a Chancellor
Jackman Graduate Student Fellowship in the Humanities. Her
essay, “Talking to India: George Orwell’s War Time Propaganda
Work at the BBC, 1941–1943,” won the Canadian Journal of
History Graduate Essay Prize and is published in the journal’s
2007 spring/summer issue.
Stuart Parker’s dissertation is entitled “History as Seen through
Seer Stones: Mormon Understandings of the Past, 1890–2000.”
Although it brings together three of his areas of academic interest,
he is less thrilled that he has come up with a research topic
that, instead of taking him to cultural meccas or tropical locales,
will see him spend time in Missouri and Utah.
Chris Parsons spent five weeks last summer in Laval studying
French thanks to a bursary from the Canadian government. In
September he presented work from his MA to the Society for
the History of Natural History in Montreal; he has submitted
this paper for publication. Chris held a Hannah Junior General
Scholarship from Associated Medical Services this year, and
was awarded an OGS, a SSHRC, and a Hannah Senior General
Scholarship. He passed his comps in April, and this summer will
return to Laval for French lessons (thanks to more bursary money)
and to begin his dissertation research. August will see Chris at
the American Philosophical Society and sites unknown for more
research.
Kristina Pauksens presented papers at the department’s Graduate
History Symposium and the Queens-McGill Conference titled
“The Animals at the Zoo: Representations of Empire in Turn-ofthe-Century
Children’s Literature” and “Entry Points to Empire
Ideology.” She has passed her German and French language exams
and completed her MA coursework. Kristina was GHS secretary
in 2007–08 and edited the GHS Review.
Ruth Percy graduated in November and has had a busy year since.
In the fall she taught a 400-level course at St. George on American
women’s labour history and one at UTM on American food
culture, and taught the US survey at UTM in the winter semester.
Ruth had an article accepted for publication in Labor: Studies in
Working-Class History of the Americas and is currently working
on a second one. In the meantime she is awaiting the arrival of her
and Jeff ’s first child.
Mike Pettit defended his dissertation in September and was a
postdoctoral fellow in the department this academic year. He
offered a third year course on bio-politics in the fall. This year
he received the Forum for the History of Human Science’s Early
Career Award and had articles published in Isis and The Journal
of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. He recently accepted a
tenure-track position in the History and Theory of Psychology
at York University.
Since passing comps last August Jennifer Polk has been collecting
material for her dissertation in libraries and archives in
Charlottetown, Ottawa, Minneapolis, Urbana-Champaign, IL,
Washington, DC, London, and New York City. Her final dissertation
research trip will take her to California later this summer.
In between her travels Jennifer was a member of the GHS executive
committee and was one half (along with Jared Toney) of the
student search committee for the UTM Transnational History/
Diaspora search. In July 2007 she took up a seat on the Graduate
Education Council, a School of Graduate Studies governance
body, and is a Massey College junior fellow.
This year Benjamin Pottruff conducted research in Buffalo, Pittsburgh,
Washington, and Ann Arbor for his dissertation, “The
Enemy Within: Anarchist Terror and the Culture of Fear in the
United States, 1886–1919.” Benjamin is a recent recipient of the
Social Science History Association-Rockefeller Graduate Student
Award for a paper presented in November at the 31st Annual
Social Science History Association conference in Minneapolis.
During the spring semester Ben taught USA300Y, Thinking
About the USA: American Consumerism from 1877–Present,
and led tutorial sections for HIS271Y, American History since
1607. Ben has worked closely with the Centre for the Study of
the United States as the academic advisor for the American Studies
Program.
Julia Rady-Shaw completed her MA. She begins a PhD in Canadian
history here this fall.
Bruce Retallack completed his dissertation last year and graduated
in November. It was recently awarded the CHA’s John Bullen
Prize, and is currently under consideration for publication by the
U of T Press. Two of his articles have been accepted for publication
next year. Bruce is currently contemplating his next major
research project.
This past year Janine Riviere won a National Humanities Centre
SIAS Fellowship to attend the Summer Institute (“The Vision
Thing”) at Stanford University. She co-authored with Jessica
Warner the article “Why Abstinence Matters to Americans” in
the journal Addiction (102, no. 4 [2007]) and helped organize the
2007 Graduate History Symposium, “After the Fall: Sex, Gender
and Power,” held in February. Janine co-organized the 2007–08
Pre-Modern Discussion Group and TA’d HIS368 (Government
and Politics in Britain, 1470–1715), and HIS340 (Australian
History).
Catherine Roberts completed her MA. She will begin doctoral
studies in Caribbean history this fall at the University of Cambridge.
Sophie Roberts had her first article published: “Jews, Vichy, and
the Algiers Insurrection,” in Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture
and History 12, no. 3 (2006).

Dan Rosenthal presented a paper entitled “Self Help and Double
Jeopardy: A Historiographical Analysis of the Literature on
German Jewish Women During the Early Nazi Period” to the department’s
Graduate History Symposium. He is returning to the
department in the fall to begin his PhD.
Margaret Schotte was the first student from the history department
to participate in the Book History and Print Culture Collaborative
Program and highly recommends it. She is currently
completing her 2000 Paper on the library of Quebec hydrographer
Jean Deshayes. She was on the organizing committee for
the 3rd Annual Graduate History Symposium and worked as a
research assistant for Allan Greer and Janet Ritch. This year Margaret
was awarded a Jeanne Armour Award in Canadian History,
and won a Canada Graduate Scholarship/SSHRC for her PhD
studies, which she will be pursuing at Princeton.
Sheena Sommers finished her comps in April and has two articles
forthcoming in edited collections.
Cara Spittal is beginning the fourth year of her PhD this fall after
having just finished a year of research. Her dissertation is tentatively
titled “The Diefenbaker Moment.” She will be co-teaching
a course with Prof. Bothwell next year, TRN150Y1, National
versus International. Cara recently delivered a paper at the Canadian
Historical Association conference entitled “‘A new vision, a
new hope, a new soul for Canada’: The Rhetorical Diefenbaker.”
In November she will present “Narrative, Nation-Building, and
Political Power in Postwar Canada” at the Association for Canadian
Studies in the United States conference. Her travels over the
past year have taken Cara to archives across Canada—in Ottawa,
Saskatoon, Calgary, and here in Toronto—and to the British National
Archives and the Bodleian’s modern collection at Oxford
University. She interviewed many people for her dissertation,
including Conrad Black, Joe Clark, Senator Marjory LeBreton,
Flora MacDonald, and Brian Mulroney.
Andrew Tracy has completed his PhD course work and will hold
an OGS in 2007–08. He is continuing to work as a writer and
editor for Cinema Scope magazine while preparing for his comprehensive
exams.
Yen Tran co-organized the Pre-Modern Discussion Group with
© Jennifer Polk - GHS Wine & Cheese
© Yen Tran- Pub Night
Janine Riviere this year. She spent the year preparing for her comprehensive
exams and plans to start her research for her dissertation
this fall. Yen was a member of the GHS executive.
Peter Vronsky managed to make it through comps without getting
arrested on the way. He is the first student to complete a new
minor field in Intelligence in International Relations, along with
a minor in Criminal Justice History and a major in Canadian
History. He has been teaching several history courses at Ryerson
University including the American Civil War, Espionage, the
Third Reich, and International Relations. Berkley-Penguin USA
is publishing this August (2007) his history of female-perpetrated
serial homicide, Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women
Become Monsters, a sequel to his earlier book on the history and
psychopathology of male offenders, Serial Killers: The Method
and Madness of Monsters (2004). His dissertation on the Toronto
Police and its border security functions during the Civil War-era
will form the basis of his next book, to be published by Penguin
Canada, 1866: Ridgeway, the Battle that Made Canada. It is the
story of several inexperienced U of T students suddenly called
out as militia and killed the next day during the Fenian border
incursion at Fort Eire on the eve of Confederation.
After a rather chaotic year on the non-academic front, Donna
Williams now intends to complete her part-time MA studies in
the spring of 2008. With her 2000 Paper on British emigration
societies in the 1870s near completion, she intends to continue
as a volunteer editor, researcher, and writer for Heritage Toronto.
While completing her two final MA courses, Donna plans to follow
up on an opportunity to work with the Ontario Visual Heritage
Project.
This year Emily Winerock spent five weeks in England researching
the dancing habits of 16th-century clergymen (thanks to
SGS and history department funding), presented papers to the
Pre-Modern Discussion Group and the Centre for Reformation
and Renaissance Studies at U of T, and organized a panel for the
Society of Dance History Scholars conference in Paris. Emily’s
dance groups also had a good year: Toronto Coranto Renaissance
Dance Ensemble presented several performance-workshops, and
the U of T Argentine Tango Club now hosts a free weekly tango
practice session as well as classes. When not dancing, Emily
moonlights as the GHS’s Web Mistress.
© Jennifer Polk - GHS BBQ
© Jennifer Polk - Past and present organizers at
the GHS Symposium
11

12
CONGRATULATIONS!
PhD Defences July 2006 - June 2007.
Jennifer Carson, “’It takes revolution and
evolution:’ New York City’s Women Laundry
Workers in the First Half of the Twentieth
Century.” Supervisor: John Ingham.
Wendy Cuthbertson, “Labour Goes to
War: The CIO, the People’s War and the
Construction of a “New Social Order,”
Toronto, 1939-1945.” Supevisor: Ian Radforth.
Paul Baxa, “Fascist Rome: Text and Image”;
Supervisor: Modris Eksteins.
Clare Dale, “War, Noblesse and Identity in
Early Modern Champagne: A Study of the
Recherche de la noblesse de Champagne
(1673).” Supervisor: Jane Abray.
Jennifer M. DeSilva, “Ritual Negotiations:
Paris de’ Grassi and the Office of Ceremonies
under Popes Julius II and Leo X, 1504-
Awards & Scholarships for 2007-2008.
Canada Graduate Scholarship
(Doctoral)
Edward Ho
Meaghan Marian
Bradley Miller
Margaret Schotte
Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council Doctoral Fellowship
Laurie Bertram
Samuel Cohen
Christopher Parsons
Ontario Graduate Scholarship
Auri Berg
Christine Berkowitz
Laurie Bertram
Nancy Catton
Samuel Cohen
Julie Gilmour
Geoffrey Hamm
Edward Ho
Erin Hochman
Mark Laszlo-Herbert
Amanda Lepp
Comprehensive Exams July 2006 - June 2007.
Auri Berg
Anthony Cantor (with distinction)
Samuel Cohen (with distinction)
Helen Dewar (with Distinction)
Svitlana Frunchak
Lisa Helps (with distinction)
Stuart Parker (with distinction)
1521.” Supervisor: Nick Tersptra.
Ryan Gingeras, “Notorious Subjects/Invisible
Citizens, Islam and Ethnicity in Western
Anatolia, 1913-1938.” Supervisor: Virginia
Askan.
Valerie Hébert, “The Nuremberg High
Command Case: Context and Legacy,
1947-1958.” Supervisor: Michael Marrus.
Amy Milne-Smith, “Clubland: Masculinity,
Status and Community in the Gentlemen’s
Clubs of London, 1880-1914.” Supervisor:
Lori Loeb.
Urs Obrist, “An Essential Endeavour:
Canada and West Germany, 1946-1957.”
Supervisor: Robert Bothell.
Ruth Percy, “Women or Workers? The
Construction of Labour Feminism in London
and Chicago, 1880s-1920s”. Supervi-
Meaghan Marian
Denis McKim
Bradley Miller
Jutta Paczulla
Stuart Parker
Christoper Parsons
Margaret Schotte
Heather Shaw
Candace Sobers
David Stiles
Andrew Tracy
American Councils Combined Research and
Language Training Program - Advanced
Research Fellowship 2007-2008
Auri Berg
John Bullen Prize 2007
Dr. G. Bruce Retallack
Jackman Graduate Student Fellowship in
the Humanities 2006-08
Samuel Cohen
C. P. Stacey-Connaught Graduate Fellowship
Laurie Bertram
Christopher Parsons
Jennifer Polk
Elizabeth Skemp
Sheena Sommers
David Stiles
Jared Wielfaert (with distinction)
Peter Vronsky
sor: Rick Halpern.
Michael Pettit, “The Science of Deception:
The Human Sciences, the Law and Commerical
Culture in America, 1860s-1920s”.
Co-supervisors Elspeth Brown and Michelle
Murphy.
Bruce G. Retallack, “Drawing the Lines:
Gender, Class, Race and Nation in Canadian
Editorial Cartoons, 1840-1926.” Supervisor:
Paul Rutherford.
David Mark Thompson, “Delusions of
Grandeur: French Global Ambitions and
the Problem of the Revival of Military Power,
1950-1954.” Supervisor: Denis Smyth.
Sharon Wright, “’And They Say She Drew
Blood:’ Women, Aggression and the Vice
of Wrath on the Wakefield Manor, 1323 to
1410”. Supervisor: Barbara Todd.
Carmen Brock Fellowship
Candace Sobers
Margaret S. McCullough Scholarship in
Canadian Historical Research 2006-07
Christopher Pennington
Nathan Smith
Part Time M.A. History Award 2006-07
Douglas Allen
Sandra Herber
University of Toronto Connaught Scholarship
Sophie Roberts
Women’s Canadian Historical Society of
Toronto Graduate Fellowships in Canadian
History 2006-07
Laurie Bertram
Jodi Giesbrecht
Nadia Lewis
Stephanie Mooney
Graduate History Society
G
University of Toronto
Sidney Smith Hall, Room 2074
100 St. George Street
Toronto, ON M5S 3G3
www.chass.utoronto.ca/history/graduate/ghs.html
H
S