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Loescher, Historian of Refugees, Meets with Graduate Students

October 14, 2015 / Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

by William Tait

(First published by Carleton University FASS blog)

On September 23-25, Migration and Diaspora Studies held the three-day workshop “Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime” organized by Dr. James Milner from Carleton’s Department of Political Science. The event brought together scholars and practitioners from academia, NGOs and government to discuss how refugee policy is influenced and implemented by a broad range of actors, from grassroots activists to transnational governments. One of the presenters was Dr. Gil Loescher from the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University. Gil kindly agreed to hold a separate master class for graduate students before the main workshop took place. The master class, hosted by Dr. Milner and Dr. Dominique Marshall from the Department of History had been organized around a discussion of Gil’s 2001 book, The UNHCR and World Politics: A Perilous Path, a definitive political history of the first five decades of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The class however, developed into something much more than a discussion of this book.

Ideas: “From the Trenches – Just Trying to Help,“ CBC Radio, 15 September 2015

September 24, 2015 / Jill Campbell-Miller

“The borderlands that separate genuine helpfulness from meddling—or worse—are an unruly region in the realm of thought…riddled with questions of consent and of who-knows-best. This episode is called Just Trying to Help and it takes us to a small, densely populated island in the Caribbean, where wealthy foreigners have been ‘just trying to help’ for decades: the troubled nation of Haiti.

It is the latest in our series Ideas from the Trenches where producers Tom Howell and Nicola Luksic showcase the work of PhD students across the country. Marylynn Steckley is a PhD graduate from Western University. She spent 6 years in Haiti with her family both as an NGO worker and researcher.” 55 minutes. SSHRC Storyteller winner.”

You can listen on the CBC website here.

[post suggested by Nassisse Solomon]

Virtual Visit to the Offices of the Canadian Hunger Foundation on the Eve of its Closing, August 2015

September 22, 2015 / Aid History

Carleton PhD candidate Will Tait visited the CHF building just before it closed. Click here for slide show:

And here is the post announcing the closing. Here is an article in Embassy on the forces that lead to the closing: “Anatomy if an NGO closure“.

Library and Archives Canada hold the CHF fonds. Here is the Description of the fonds. They will collect the remaining archives. The CNHH is working with them on a project to rescue and identify a large collection of unidentified pictures.

The Freedom from Hunger Project commemorates some of their history.

And Matthew Bunch, member of the network and historian, wrote his doctoral thesis on the topic: “All Roads Lead to Rome: Canada, the Freedom From Hunger Campaign, and the Rise of NGOs, 1960-1980“, University of Waterloo, 2007. He has posted “A Short History of the Canadian Hunger Foundation” on this website.

My Visit to Plan Canada’s Head Offices in Toronto

August 8, 2015 / Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

By Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

Hello,

In this post I will let you know my experience in Toronto at the offices of Plan Canada, a visit I made last week.

Some weeks ago, Professor Dominique Marshall asked me to check some irreplaceable documents that Plan Canada had in their offices in Toronto, and that are part of the historical archives of the organization. These are basically letters and photo albums of some of their most important and lasting donors and sponsors.

Second Canadian Workshop on the History of Humanitarian Aid

August 8, 2015 / Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

By William Tait

The Second Canadian Workshop on the History of Humanitarian Aid took place on 30 May 2015 at Carleton University in Ottawa. The event built on a workshop held last year where historians from across Canada, archivists from Library and Archives Canada and Carleton University Archives, a well as humanitarian practitioners from Partnership Africa Canada, Oxfam, and MATCH International Women’s Fund met to welcome Dr Kevin O’Sullivan from the National University of Ireland. Kevin was a catalyst for the first workshop in 2014 when he travelled to Canada to conduct research. In his latest book O’Sullivan has likened Irish and Canadian use of soft power through aid and development¹. Under the organisation of Dominique Marshall, Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Carleton and former President of the Canadian Historical Association, a website was created after the 2014 meeting to link a growing online collaboration of aid practitioners, archivists, and academics interested in preserving the history of humanitarian action both in Canada and elsewhere. O’Sullivan returned to Carleton this year to brief the workshop and members of the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History (CNHH) on developments in the field and to continue to expand collaboration with European partners.

Welcome to the New Website

August 6, 2015 / Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

Hello!

Welcome to the new website of the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History: aidhistory.ca. In this website you will find the materialization of the wishes of the members of the network, who expressed their feelings and necessities on what the website should include during the Second Canadian Workshop on the History of Humanitarian Aid, which was held on May 30 2015.

Looking Foward, Outstanding Things

July 20, 2015 / Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

By Rebecca Henfrey

Establishing a Program Mandate; what kind of deliverables are we looking for?

Knowledge Mobilization: One of the most important goals of undertaking these projects is demonstrating their practicality. NGOs want you to be able to show that the knowledge you gather has value and from there the community is invested. If there is a formulaic way to do this and potentially demonstrate how this can aid in funding, it can serve to work for both parties involved.
Methodology and Information Sharing: This network will be used to share syllabi, teaching resources and materials and workshops. Individuals will be able to blog about their teaching experiences and perhaps elaborate more upon their professional and practical experiences in this field, providing information on their methodologies
Networking and Twitter: Twitter can not only be used as a teaching resource, it can also be used as a platform to set up courses and integrate teaching about humanitarian agencies an NGOs into ‘mainstream’ courses as it allows professors to broaden their approach.
Module Development and Shared Classes: One potential project that can be undertaken by multiple individuals is the development of modules that can be placed in a classroom or workshop environment. It would be a helpful resource that could be provided to instructors without requiring them to do too much legwork.
Cultivation of Collaborative Discussion: The encouragement of collaborative discussion within the website’s forums was identified as a key priority for the program. Finding a way to connect individuals, whether that be for the purposes of scholarly feedback or discussion amongst students, researchers, instructors and other members is very important.
Growth of Membership: Once a critical mass of members has been reached, the chances of organizing a conference increase. Currently there is a sense of isolation due to the fact that this is a developing field. One proposed way to encourage membership numbers was to engage postgrad students. Because of the emerging and developing nature of this field, it has to be done organically, from the bottom up with engagement alongside deliverance of information.
Attendance of Conferences: Another mandate of this program was to reach out to other historians and practitioners in the field by attending conferences. CCI was listed as a potential
Establish methods of relationship buildlng

Final Priorities; as identified and recorded on whiteboard and through discussion

Establish and maintain trust between NGOs and Researchers
Keep distance and respect in these relationships
Look at models of partnership
1. ODI
2. Non-State Humanitarianism
Humanitarian history as a part of history of imperialism, globalization, development
Share readings, contacts
Organization of academic panels
Publication of special issues of journals
Establishment of international networks
Teach, supervise and discuss
Interest and organize volunteer work
Foster inter-disciplinarity in research and work
Workshop in NGO building next time?
Organize Archives/Research aids
Preserve archives
Identify content of photos
Identify and collect personal collections
Conduct oral histories
Present history of NGO website
Talks to create interest
History workshops for new NGO staff, to avoid mistakes and to raise funds

Future Website and Common Research Projects

July 20, 2015 / Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

By Rebecca Henfrey

Future website

The second Major discussion of the day centered on the creation of the network’s website. Shawn Antcil, a web developer and designer from Carleton University ran this presentation and recorded the feedback given by members. The following is a brief summary of considerations and proposals put forth by Shawn and other various individuals.

Highlights of Shawn’s Presentation

Visions of the Organisation

July 20, 2015 / Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

By Rebecca Henfrey

Introductions

Prior to the first official discussion of the day, participants were invited to give personal introductions. The following are brief summaries of each individual’s introductions, which outline their name, position or involvement with this society and what they would like this workshop to do for them.

July 14, 2015 / Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

Sarah Glassford,Will Tait, Shirley Tillotson, Dominique Marshall, Stephanie Bangarth and Jill Campbell-Miller, members of the Canadian Network on Humanitarian History, participated in three academic events at the Canadian Historical Association
(CHA) Annual Meeting in Congress 2015, which took place at the University of Ottawa from May 30 to June 5, in Ottawa, Ontario.

Sarah Glassford,Will Tait and Shirley Tillotson took part in the “Public, Private, Political: Charitable Organizations and Citizen Engagement” Roundtable, which was held on Tuesday June 2.

by William Tait

By Carlos Uriel Contreras Flores

By William Tait

By Rebecca Henfrey

By Rebecca Henfrey

Future website

By Rebecca Henfrey

Introductions

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