Steve Fielding

BA, Honours (University of Winnipeg), MA (Simon Fraser University).

Publications: http://uvic.academia.edu/StephenFielding

Supervisor: Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross.

Comprehensive fields: Canada, Migration and Ethnicity, Gender.

Dissertation: "European Migrants Confront the City, Society, and Diaspora through Sport in Postwar Toronto."

My research uses the history of sport to illuminate the formation of ethnic groups, the construction and contestation of gender norms, and the exchanges—both competitive and cooperative—that have characterized cosmopolitanism in Canada.

Megan Harvey

BA Honours, Anthropology (McGill University).

Supervisor: Dr. John S. Lutz.

Dissertation: Indigenous-state relations; Narrative, language, and power in social practice; Intersections of Anthropology and History; Community-based research.

My research seeks to historicize Indigenous engagements with the 'Land Question,' in B.C., focusing especially on the narrative dimension of Indigenous-state relations. I am interested in the historical and ongoing social dynamics of language, narrative and power in encounters between indigenous peoples and the state. I explore how these dynamics are made visible in indigenous approaches to recent treaty negotiations and in the rare archival instances of indigenous peoples speaking on their own behalf. My work will also reconsider how scholars methodologically make sense of and make use of sources that reflect the voices of marginalized people

Christa Hunfeld

BA, Honours (Dalhousie University), MA, History (University of Victoria).

Supervisor: Dr. Andrea McKenzie.

Dissertation: "Half Sciences": Gendering Ancient Knowledge in Pre-Modern England.

I am curious why women were increasingly targeted as ideal audiences for works of judicial astrology, dream interpretation and physiognomy in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. In the early seventeenth century, associations between women and divinatory practices could lead to witchcraft associations, yet by the eighteenth century, there was a definitive shift, as such subjects were increasingly viewed as innocuous (if vulgar and superstitious). In the course of tracing the fate and fortunes of ancient occult sciences, my project examines the period's shift in the status and perceived nature of divinatory knowledge, with a focus on this question: does knowledge have gender?

Jim Kempling

BA Honours Economics & Political Science (Royal Military College), MPA (University of Victoria), MA History (University of Victoria)

Publications:  www.birthofaregiment.com

Supervisor: Dr. David Zimmerman

Dissertation:  A City Goes to War – Victoria 1914-1925

In 1922, Joseph Joffre, Marechal of France, unveiled a plaque in St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Victoria with the names of twenty-nine men from that congregation who died in World War One out of over two hundred who had served.  Today, when the loss of a single soldier in Afghanistan can bring out provincial and city officials, pipe bands with muffled drums, and a casket borne through the streets on a gun carriage, the impact of that loss is difficult to imagine.

I expect initially to examine the public discourse of the immediate pre-war period and consider how it changed over the course of the war and in the immediate post war period.  What factors led to the high rate of enlistment early in the war?  Did a depressed economy mean that recruits were drawn from the unemployed?  Did concerns about German warships in the Pacific drawn men to the newly formed Navy?  What of the United States?  Did Victoria draw recruits from across the border?  How did the treatment of First Nations, Chinese and other groups impact recruiting?  It is no mistake that Joffre’s plaque is mounted on the wall of a church.   What role did the churches play in inspiring young men to go to war?  Were the churches active in the peace movement earlier in the century?  If so, how and why did that change?  How did the city respond to returning wounded and veterans after the war?

Patricia Kidd

BA, History in Art (University of Victoria), MA, History (University of Victoria); Professional Specialization Certificate (CRM) 2007.

Supervisor: Dr. Simon Devereaux.

Dissertation: "The Origins of Marketing: Illustrated Advertising in Late Eighteenth Century London."

I have spent most of my life in the study of historical material culture. I have taught numerous lecture series on the topics of the decorative arts, historical interior design, and cultural history through various galleries, museums and educational institutions in Victoria. I am currently the Adjunct Curator of Decorative Arts at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. I am married with two sons, in whom I take even greater delight than in my research.

Sarah Lebel Van Vugt

BA Honours, (Double Major) History and French, York University (Glendon College);  MA, History, York University.

Comprehensive fields: Canada, Women/Gender, America.

Supervisor: Dr. Lynne S. Marks.

Dissertation: "Beauty and Bombs: Visual Culture and Canada's Female War Workers, 1939-1945."

My research explores the ways that gender, labour, beauty and the body interacted on the Canadian home front during the Second World War.  I examine visual representations in print media that used the glamourized image of the female war worker to sell everything from feminine products to national identity. I also deal with war worker beauty pageants. I'm interested in gender and sexuality studies, cultural history, and feminist history. Visuality is central to my work.

Derek Murray

MA, History (Guelph); BAH, History/Philosophy (Guelph)

Website: http://uvic.academia.edu/DerekMurray

Supervisor: Dr. Eric Sager

Comprehensive fields: Canada, Digital, Race/Gender/Empire

Dissertation: "Shaping Rural Landscapes: Settlers and their Local Environments in the Upper Ottawa Valley, 1850-1910."

My research is on the close-knit relationships among people and their local environments in nineteenth-century Canada. I am interested in the ways people interacted with landscapes, and the subsequent generation of a meaningful connection with a particular idea of "place" in regions of rural Canada. My dissertation looks at the settlement of the community of Brudenell, on the Ottawa and Opeongo Colonization Road, as a way of understanding these processes.

I am also interested in the theory and practice of university teaching. I spend a good deal of my time investigating curriculum development and instructional methods. I am the Teaching Assistant Consultant for the History Department and I have taught courses on antislavery in the Atlantic World, and race and ethnicity in Canada. I am currently enrolled in the Learning and Teaching in Higher Education certificate program.

Maryanne Reed

BA, Honours (University of Regina); MA (University of Regina); PhD Candidate, ABD (University of Victoria).

Supervisor: Dr. Tom Saunders.

Comprehensive fields: Europe 1848-1945, Cultural History, 20th Century Canada.

Dissertation: "A Metropolis in Crisis: Representations of Weimar Berlin, 1929-1933."

I examine cultural representations of Berlin in works produced between 1929 and 1933, the final years of Germany's Weimar Republic. I look at novels, films, photomontages and other artwork, in addition to newspapers, to understand how contemporaries constructed and thus understood Berlin. My purpose is to look at the metropolis between 1929 and 1933 on its own terms, rather than interpreting the Weimar Republic from the perspective of its ultimate demise.

Justine Semmens

BA, (University of Calgary); MA (University of Calgary)

Supervisor: Dr. Sara Beam.

Comprehensive fields: Europe 1500-1800, Britain 1500-1800, History of Religion

Dissertation: "The shifting dynamics of sexual deviance in early modern France."

My research considers the intimate relationships between sexual crime, religion and the state in France from 1550 to 1650. Emerging primarily from a forensic study of the criminal archives of the parlement of Paris, my project seeks to understand the criteria that French courts used to define sexual deviance, how these definitions changed over time, and what these changes might indicate about how people used morality as a tool to shape the modern state.

Wes Thiessen

After living more than 14 years in the Middle East and North Africa, I have now returned to Canada for a brief hiatus in order to pursue a specialization in Islamic History at UVic.  My time overseas was mostly spent teaching in the English Department, mostly English language and civilization studies, at the University of Kairouan, within the city of the birthplace of Islam for North Africa.  Watching history outside my front door in a civilization that exists in many aspects like it did many hundreds of years ago, increased my desire to study the role of law and tradition in the formative and classical period of Islam.  My research will focus on the development of law and the role of the jurists of the region and their influence on the Mālikī school of law, more specifically the idea of jihad on the frontier of the Islamic Empire in North Africa. Working under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Rippin, I look forward to areturn visit to the region of Kairouan in order to carry out my research.

Jeremy Buddenhagen

BA,History (University of Victoria)

Supervisor: Dr. John Lutz

Thesis: Policing in British Columbia: 1820-1900

My thesis seeks to weave together the First Nations and European narrative on policing. Rather than highlighting the differences between the two legal cultures I plan to explore the similarities and examine how a collaborative work environment grew out of the security issues. I was primarily focused on intelligence and military history in my undergrad. I plan to work on the military history of First Nations in my PhD and always have a strong interest in British Columbian history.

David Cahill

BA Honours with Distinction (University of Western Ontario)

Thesis: (No official title yet) The Reform Party and 1980s Canadian Conservatism

Supervisor: Dr. Penny Bryden

My research primarily focusses on the ideological, regional, and rhetorical roots of the Reform Party. This research will allow me to answer two fundamental questions underpinning my program of study: 'How did the Reform Party impact the ability of the Progressive Conservative Party to practice brokerage politics on a regional and national level,' and, 'How were the efficacies of the Reform Party and the constitutional negotiations, agreements, and outcomes of the period interrelated?' With an eye toward the present, this research may provide a greater understanding of the antecedents to Canada's contemporary political order.

Megan Catt

BA, History (University of British Columbia- Okanagan)

Thesis: No official title, Women's Suffrage Movements in Britain and Canada

Supervisor: Dr. Lynne Marks

Broadly speaking, I am fascinated by women's history at any point in time. For my thesis, I am going to focus on women's suffrage. Initially, I had intended to focus only on the British women's suffrage movement and it's divisive effects on society prior to World War I. Recently, I have changed my focus and I plan to focus on the connection between the British and Canadian women's suffrage movements.

Dennis Chen

BA, Honours (Simon Fraser University)

Supervisor: Dr. Zhongping Chen

Thesis: Examining the history of post-1949 China

I studied at Simon Fraser University prior to arriving at UVic. From a broad standpoint,my research interests are in studying the history of Communism. More specifically, my current area of focus is on the political developments ofmodern China, and in particular of those occurring after 1949.

Rachael Conway

BA,Honours (Carleton University)

Supervisor: Dr. Penny Bryden

Thesis: Canadian Citizenship and Indigenous Relations

My primary interest is the development of government policies regarding the Indigenous peoples of Canada, particularly in regards to citizenship. Prior to 1960, those who held Status Indian cards were not, by law, Canadian citizens and therefore could not exercise the right to participate in Canadian democracy. My research focuses on documenting the history of Indigenous enfranchisement; the ideology behind granting, banning, and restricting the franchise; and the impact that this has had on issues of self-government, citizenship, electoral participation, and status rights.

Sydney Cunliffe

BA, Honours, History (McGill University)

Supervisor: Dr. Zhongping Chen

Thesis: The History of Tea: Commerce, Consumption, and Culture between the Eighteenth and Early Twentieth Century

I am a second year MA student specializing in Chinese history. My primary research interests include the development of transnational tea culture and trade in South and East Asia, cross-cultural exchanges leading to new consumption patterns, Indian Ocean commercial networks, and commodity history. My thesis will focus on the tea trade between China, India, Japan, and North America, with a special focus on transplantation and production in South and East Asia and consumption in the modern West.

Cara Doty

BA, Liberal Arts (w/Specialty in History) (The Evergreen State College)

Supervisor: Andrea McKenzie

Thesis: Mistresses of Rebel Leaders in the Long Eighteenth Century

I have a background in the history of the Romantics of nineteenth-century France as well as educational reforms of nineteenth-century England, and have extensive experience with interdisciplinary approaches to cultural history. For my Thesis, I am looking at the ostensibly powerful yet targeted women that held the occupation of 'mistress' from Cromwell to just after the Jacobite rising of 1745. I aim to explore portrayals of these women as well as the positions they held as favorites and as scapegoat targets for rebel leaders such as the Duke of Monmouth or Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Elina Hill

BA (University of Victoria)

Supervisor: Dr. Wendy Wickwire and Dr. Greg Blue

Thesis: Decolonizing History: Respecting Indigenous Historical Practices

I am working toward my MA in History and Cultural, Social, Political Thought (CSPT), with Wendy Wickwire and Greg Blue co-supervising my thesis. My research interests include colonial discourse theory, post colonial discourse, oral history, and critical theory.  My MA thesis is entitled Decolonizing History: Respecting Indigenous Historical Practices, and aims to gain a better understanding of Indigenous historical practices as they exist inside and outside First Nations communities. Through this project, I have begun to understand the ways that Indigenous forms and approaches to history, such as orality, proper listening practices and relationships, are crucial for understanding. When I'm not doing schoolwork, I enjoy playing in the dirt and exploring life with my family.

Salam Guenette

BA, Honours (University of Victoria)

Supervisor: Dr. Robert Alexander

MA Thesis: The Émigrés and their Impact on Franco-British Diplomacy after 1815.

The French Revolution fascinates me. During my Honours thesis, I studied, in part, the émigrés’ relation with Louis XVI as the curtain closed on the ancien régime. Although ‘despised’ in France, most emigrants had returned by 1802 and the remaining few did so after the fall of Napoleon. During their years of exile, about 40,000 found refuge in the United Kingdom and their stay there left its mark on Franco-British relations. My thesis aims to explore what influence they may have had on the countries’ socio-diplomatic relations, and why after 1815 France and Britain were more often allies than than adversaries.