Author: Sean Eedy (Page 13 of 19)

The Fascinating Life of Dr. Florence Nichols

May 27, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by Jill Campbell-Miller

Blog Cross-Posted with American Medical Services (AMS) as The History of Canadian Healthcare Aid to India in the 1950s.

I came across the name of Dr. Florence Nichols while doing research for my dissertation, which examined the history of Canadian aid to India during the 1950s (you can find a link to the full dissertation on the University of Waterloo’s website: https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/8756). In 1955, Escott Reid, the Canadian high commissioner in New Delhi, toured southern India, leaving a detailed record of his trip. He visited the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore. There he encountered Dr. Nichols, a Canadian psychiatrist and Anglican missionary, whom he briefly mentions in his account of the trip. Nichols complained to Reid that there was no psychiatric ward, and that “many of [the patients] are kept in chains in local hotels where they are looked after by their relatives.”[1] Continue reading

Humanity: A History of European Concepts in Practice from the Sixteenth Century to the Present, Edited by Fabian Klose and Mirjam Thulin

May 23, 2017 / Sean Eedy

Of potential interest to members of the CNHH, Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht recently published a new volume on the European concepts of humanity, morality, and philanthropy, edited by Fabian Klose and Mirjam Thulin, both of the Leibniz Institut fuer Europaeische Geschichte (IEG). Continue reading

Humanitarian Photography and Refugees Abroad: A Virtual Exhibition CNHH Call for Canadian Stories

May 18, 2017 / Sean Eedy

Deadline: June 30, 2017.

Printer Friendly Call for Photographs.

Photographers and aid agencies each frame photographs according to their own politics, experiences and goals. These, in turn, shape spectators’ interpretations of people’s lived realities around the globe, and contribute to formulating responses to humanitarian issues. How have photographers and agencies represented refugees? How have refugees been pictured? In what way does the photographic version change when it has been published?

See how “Refugees on the road between Gisenyi and Ruhengeri,” a photograph of a Rwandan child made by Canadian photographer Roger LeMoyne’s in 1996 for the CIDA International Development Photo Library and published in 2000, can help answer these questions.

Canada’s Legacy of Gender Equality Support in Pakistan: Malala’s Speech in Parliament, A Symbolic Reminder

May 5, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by Rhonda Gossen

“Women and girls will be at the heart of the Government’s development policy”, Canada’s Minister for International Development, April 12, 2017

CIDA’s 1980s and 1990s Women in Development Strategies for Pakistan.

Malala’s moving speech in Canada’s Parliament last month on the right to education for girls is a poignant reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality in the country of her birth, Pakistan. It is also a symbolic reminder of Canada’s history of support for women’s rights in Pakistan built over more than three decades. Canada’s legacy as a global leader championing gender equality actually began in Pakistan in the mid 1980s. Looking back at that legacy, it is hard not to view it against the rise of violent Islamic extremism that developed inside Pakistan over the same period. These two opposing forces- those working for women’s rights and those working to restrict them, have both consistently gained strength since. Decades later, one can trace the path from the Pakistan women’s movement in its struggle against the Islamic laws affecting women’s rights in the 1980s, to Malala today as a symbol for human rights and peace.

Keith Spicer: Illustrated Maps of Humanitarian Travels in Asia, 1960

April 21, 2017 / Sean Eedy

By Tyler Owens* and Dominique Marshall

The postcards and personal photographs from Dr. Keith Spicer’s 1960 trip through Europe, Africa, and Asia, were produced during the research he conducted on the trip for a doctoral thesis, better known today as A Samaritan State? External aid in Canada’s foreign policy (1966). On the same occasion, he laid the foundations for Canadian Overseas Volunteers, which would become Canadian University Students Overseas (CUSO). These two maps tell the story of this trip, in his own words. Click the arrows below to take this voyage with him.

* Tyler Owens, research assistant for the CNHH paid by I-CUREUS project put together these ESRI Story Map presentations as part of the preparations for A ‘Samaritan State’ Revisited Conference in December 2016 . We thank the MacOdrum Library Map specialist Rebecca Bartlett for ther technical advice.

From left to right: Jay Ramasubramanyam, Chris Russil, Sergio Guerra. Climate Cafe-1st March 2017: Heart & Crown, Preston St., Ottawa.

Sharing Perspectives on Climate Migration: From Narratives, to Language, to Conceptualization

April 19, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by Jay Ramasubramanyam

“Rains have become so fickle, the days measurably hotter, the droughts more frequent and more fierce, making it impossible to grow enough food on their land” read an article in the New York Times that appeared in late February which elucidated the grounds for mass-migratory patterns across Sub-Saharan Africa (Heat, Hunger and War Force Africans Onto a ‘Road on Fire’). In light of such patterns increasing more than ever in the global south, the role of Carleton University’s Climate Commons, a working group that brings together faculty members and undergraduate and graduate students to discuss climate change issues, becomes all the more prominent within the context of such narratives. An evening of discussion and dialogue on climate change migration on the 1st of March brought together professors, a slam poet and a graduate student to discuss ‘climate refugees’.

Oxfam Canada and Relief to East Timor, 1975-76

April 13, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by David Webster

When does the humanitarian impulse to provide aid and relief contribute to activism to promote human rights? When does it prompt avoidance of activism in favour of quietly enduring access to places and people in need?

This is one of the questions I am trying to answer in current research on relations between Canada and East Timor. Under Indonesian military occupation from 1975 to 1999, Canadian aid agencies tended to shy away from criticizing Indonesian actions in order to make sure they could deliver aid supplies. Humanitarian impulses dictated a quiet stance on human rights from a range of Canadian NGOs. But there was an early exception, in the work of Oxfam Canada.

Latest issue of Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees Available Now.

April 4, 2017 / Sean Eedy

The current issue of Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees has now been published. This special issue on Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime is one of the results of the workshop hosted at Carleton University in September 2015 with the generous support of Migration and Diaspora Studies. It is an OpenAccess journal, so you can access and share the special issue through the journal’s Table of Contents or through the provided link.

When Historians Meet Aid Workers and Policy Makers.

March 30, 2017 / Sean Eedy

by Julie Van Drie

Reflections on the Conference, “A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, 1950-2016.”

On December 12th and 13th 2016, the colloquium, A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, 1950-2016 was held at the Lester B. Pearson Building, the main office of Global Affairs Canada, in Ottawa, ON. The conference involved an array of academics and professionals on the history of Canada’s foreign aid policies since 1950, on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Dr. Keith Spicer’s A Samaritan State?[1] The conference featured 17 speakers, all of whom gave a presentation on a specific aspect of Canada’s humanitarian aid policy. With approximately 150 attendees, undergraduate and graduate students, research assistants, professors, academics, bureaucrats, ambassadors, and other distinguished guests gathered together in the impressive Robertson Room at Global Affairs Canada to engage with this important field of study, and explore questions about Canada’s past role in foreign aid and development.