The Canadian Network on Humanitarian History is pleased to announce the publication of Sarah Glassford‘s first monograph, Mobilizing Mercy: a History of the Canadian Red Cross, from McGill-Queen’s University Press. Dr. Glassford is a social historian of Canada, having received her PhD from York University in Toronto. She is also a founding member of our Network and has previously blogged on Humanitarianism in the classroom.
Author: Sean Eedy (Page 19 of 20)
Matthew Bunch, member of the CNHH and founder of the Freedom from Hunger Project, recently made the Network aware of not one, but two blogs written and posted to his website. The first, from 7 March 2016, discusses the First World Food Congress held in 1963, the conditions surrounding its creations, and its effects. The second, published earlier this month, discusses the Second World Food Congress (1970) and the construction of youth as activist. Both may be of interest to Network members and can be found via the provided links. These are both posted to the Network’s growing resource list of Canadian Blogs and may, alternately, be found there.
The second Bulletin of the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History was sent out last week. For any who missed it, the full text of the newsletter may be found below. This bulletin covers the upcoming Congress and Workshop in Calgary, some recent blogs, and the Network’s research activities and work with NGOs.
by Nassisse Solomon
Ethiopia has recently resurfaced in international headlines, in light of yet another looming apocalyptic scale famine. It is being widely reported that Ethiopia is facing its worst drought in 50 years. [1] A result of three failed rainy seasons, coupled with an El Nino effect warming the Pacific Ocean and affecting global weather patterns.[2] Changes in weather patterns that have resulted in punishing heat waves and drought throughout the horn of Africa region, and in Ethiopia becoming one of the worst afflicted countries.[3] With just weeks remaining before the start of the main cropping season in the country, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is calling for urgent funding to assist farmers in sowing their fields to abate drought stricken areas from falling deeper into hunger and food insecurity.[4] With a future saddled by the “uncertainty of what nature has called down upon it”[5], Ethiopia, as CBC’s Margaret Evans among many others have characterized it, is once again “on the edge.”[6] Continue reading
by Christine Chisholm and Will Tait
On March 24, 2016 Dr. James Orbinski, former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, scholar of global health and practicing physician was invited by Carleton University’s Bachelor of Global and International Studies (BGInS) to present the keynote lecture for the official launch of the program. Dr. Chris Brown, director of BGInS, kindly arranged for a meeting with Orbinski before the lecture with CNHH members Dr. Dominique Marshall and PhD candidates Christine Chisholm and Will Tait from Carleton’s Department of History.
With conference season looming, this is just a gentle reminder that registration is open for the Third Workshop on the History of Humanitarian Aid. Please join us for what promises to be a productive and informative meeting of some of the brightest minds in our field. There is no fee to attend and participate, though registration of your attendance is required.
by Sarah Glassford
Before taking this course I thought that humanitarianism was just
a nice way of asking for money. You donate and someone tries
to solve a problem. But through the readings and the emergency
relief assignment/exercise it has become clear that the job is less
straightforward than that. – Haley K.
Those of us who research and write in the area of humanitarian history are well aware of the complexities of aid, both on the giving and receiving ends of the equation. But when we have a chance to teach that history, what preconceptions do our students bring to the classroom, and what do they take away with them at the end of the course? Continue reading
The 4th bi-annual conference of the International Humanitarian Studies Association (IHSA) was held this past 5-8 March 2016. The topic of this year’s conference was Changing Crises and the Quest for Adequate Solutions and was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. While the Call for Papers for the Association’s 2018 conference is still a ways off, information on this year’s conference may be found at the conference website, including links to the organized panels and papers. Although the conference is still recent, it appears that individual papers may be uploaded at some point in the future.
Under the ‘Resources’ area of the site, we now have a space dedicated to Journals about the history of humanitarianism and humanitarian aid. The first journal added is Humanitarian Alternatives. Please visit their site and read the first issue of this new journal through our Journals page or via the Humanitarian Alternatives website directly.
If you know of other journals appropriate to the CNHH, please tell us know through the Contact Us page.
by Jill Campbell-Miller
posted jointly with Active History.
In the area of development finance Canada has lagged behind its international partners in the G7, only promising to establish a development finance institution (DFI) in the 2015 budget, some 67 years after the UK established the first DFI. This might come as surprise, since blending the interests of domestic Canadian businesses and official development assistance (ODA) has been an objective of the Canadian government since the early days of aid-giving in the 1950s, to the delight of some, and the dismay of others.
