Category: Event

Shannon Lecture Series, Spring 2022 – Carleton University

May 9, 2022 / Sean Eedy

The Management of Natural Resources and the Environment in Canada: Historical and Transnational Perspectives

Series Introduction

Relations between humans and non-human inhabitants of the environment are old of several millennia. The history of these relations involves regulations of all sorts about use and preservation, contested or collaborative. In the making of these regulations, users, activists, government agencies and civil society organizations alike have shared contrasting traditions and perspectives on the ecology of natural resources. As recent global climatic trends suggest ominous cataclysmic environmental implications for both the environment and its users, the issue of natural resources and the efficient management of the environment to guarantee the continuous sustainable consumption of the environment and its natural resources has appeared in sharp focus.

This lecture series is intended at sharing different, yet syncretized global environmental experiences and the epistemic outlooks they generate, all within the framework of historically researched multi-disciplinary narratives. The lecture-series involve a predominantly Canada-oriented range of environmental experiences, and feature corresponding transnational perspectives, in conversations with African environmental/resource management experiences/practices from Ghana. Proceedings are aimed at generating historical knowledge of our collective transnational experience of the environment and its resources, which, hopefully, should add to existing knowledge in history, government policy formulation, environmental protection efforts, legal frameworks on the environment, resource management, among others.

Convenor: Mr. Stephen Osei-Owusu (a Graduate Research Assistant & Ph.D. Candidate, History Department, Carleton), with support by Prof Dominique Marshall, Chair, the Shannon Endowment Committee, Department of History, Carleton University.

Please see the Shannon Series website for more information.

Format of the Series and Dates:

Format: Fridays, lunchtime 12:00 -1:00; 5 minutes introduction; 30 minutes talk; 20 minutes Q&A; Virtual; recorded and posted on the website.

This session will be recorded and uploaded to the Shannon Lectures’ website after the series is complete.

Questions and feedback from the audience, once a session is underway, will be collected in the chat box and read to the presenters.

1st Presentation: Friday, 27th May, 2022.

Orcas, Pipelines, and the Politics of Science on the West Coast with Prof. Jason Colby.

2nd Presentation: Friday, 10th June, 2022.

Small Scale Fisheries in Ghana: Historical and Transnational with Prof. Joseph Aggrey-Fynn.

3rd Presentation: Friday, 24th June, 2022.

Grass in the Cracks: Gender, Social Reproduction, and Climate Justice in the Xolobeni Struggle with Prof. Shireen Hassim.

4th Presentation: Friday, 8th July, 2022.

What is Nature?: The Rise and Fall of Moncton’s Petitcodiac Causeway with Prof. Ronald Rudin.

For more information on individual papers including abstracts and speaker bios, please visit the Shannon Lectures website.

Hydroelectric Dams and the Hinterlands in Canada and India, 1953-1958

February 8, 2022 / Sean Eedy

Developing the North: Hydroelectric Dams and the Hinterlands in Canada and India, 1953-1958, by Jill Campbell-Miller

Tues, February 15, 2022 – 7:00-8:30pm

Meghalaya. Photo by Jill Campbell-Miller

About the Event

“Electricity, now-a-days, almost symbolises Civilisation.” This quotation, taken from a c. 1951 report by the Central Waterpower Irrigation and Navigation Commission of the Government of India, states plainly the objective of waterpower development in the “hinterlands” of states during this era. Disconnected from the administrative state, often largely populated by Indigenous or other minority ethnic groups, yet rich in potential for natural resource development, the hinterlands of modern states posed challenges and opportunities for governments in the mid-twentieth century, and to a great extent, still do. Hydroelectric power offered governments a technical solution to perceived political and economic problems. During this period Canada saw a growth in the international potential of its consulting engineer sector. As the federal government in Canada sought to develop its own hinterlands, partly by providing hydroelectric power to these regions, they also supported the growth of Canada’s consulting engineering sector abroad, by promoting their businesses through the foreign aid program. This talk will examine two hydroelectric projects built during the same era, the mid-1950s, one in Canada in the Yukon Territory, and one in India in the state of Assam (present-day Meghalaya), and both funded by the Canadian state. Both projects involved the Montreal Engineering Company, a politically-well connected consulting engineering firm. Though such projects achieved the goal of providing cheaper electricity to these hinterland regions, they had major consequence for the Indigenous peoples that lived in the areas where the dams were constructed, a consequence of little concern to those in power at that time.

Dr Jill Campbell-Miller is Adjunct Professor of History, Saint Mary’s University

A link to the virtual event will be sent to registrants on Sunday evening, 13 February.

Registration for the event can be found on Eventbrite.

Yukon Territory. Photo by Jill Campbell-Miller

Upcoming Talk on Canada’s first NGO, the Overseas Book Centre

October 5, 2021 / Sean Eedy

On 5 November 2021 at 4pm ET, Jody Mason (Department of English, Carleton University) will deliver the 2021 Canadian Literature Centre Scholarly Lecture, hosted by the University of Alberta. This event will take place on Zoom.

Dr. Mason’s talk, “The ‘Creative Crusade’: Settler Colonial Antinomies and Books for Development in the Age of Three Worlds,” examines the postwar book donation schemes created by Canada’s first NGO, the Overseas Book Centre.

You can register for the meeting using this link:
https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJElc-2upjsoEtHAzQtD8Z0BKLxhCeACQUP2

Digital Pre-Panel I “Governing Humanitarianism – Past, Present and Future”

September 3, 2021 / Sean Eedy

In preparation for the Herrenhausen Conference “Governing Humanitarianism” in 2022, two online pre-panels will take place on September 27 and 28. Scholars from various disciplines and practitioners in humanitarian sectors are invited to join this years’ online event.

In the last two decades, humanitarianism and human rights have crystallized as two flourishing fields of research within various disciplines. Both concepts have been the subject of a lively international debate among political scientists, legal scholars, and historians, concerning their respective histories, nature, and impacts. Humanitarianism and human rights are often presented as opposing terms, and sometimes even as rival concepts, by scholars advocates on both sides. Such definitions typically present humanitarianism as resting upon a discourse of charity and suffering, while human rights are based on a discourse of solidarity and justice. Yet despite their differences, both concepts also share some similar historical origins and developments. Perhaps most importantly, both embody entangled notions of humanity. Despite the academic efforts to draw clear line between them, the boundaries between aid, relief, and rights remain both blurred and complicated.

The main goal of this digital panel is to discuss this complex relationship from various disciplinary perspectives. Rather than highlighting the differences between humanitarianism and human rights, leading experts from political science, international law, and international history will focus on the manifold overlaps and links between the two fields. When and how did these concepts compete and reinforce each other? In what ways did the emergence of humanitarian norms influence and contribute to the global emergence of international human rights law? What entanglements, dilemmas, and tensions emerge out of various competing concepts of humanitarianism and global human rights? And finally, how does this entwined history influence our landscape of international politics and crisis management today?

The digital panel “Human Rights and Humanitarianism – a Complicated Relationship?” is part of the Herrenhausen Conference “Governing Humanitarianism – Past, Present and Future,” funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.

A link to join the discussions will be published on the Volkswagen Foundation website at the beginning of September 2021. This digital pre-panel as part of the upcoming 2022 Herrenhausen Conference on “Human Rights and Humanitarianism – a Complicated Relationship?” will be held on 27 September 2021, 3:30-5pm. More information, including panel participants and bios, registration, and conference details can be found on the conference website.

Talk on Mennonites, Canada, and the founding of Disabled People International on October 1st

September 3, 2021 / Sean Eedy

Henry Enns (left) and Jim Derksen (right), DPI First Assembly, Singapore, 1981.

The Carleton University Disability Research Group (CUDRG) is pleased to announce an upcoming talk by member Dr. Ryan Patterson, “Transnational Representation: MCC Canada and the founding of Disabled Peoples’ International, 1981”. The talk will be held online along with two others as part of the MCC@100 Conference panel “MCC as Incubator and Catalyst” on Friday, October 1st, 2021, 7pm-9pm. Attendees are asked to register (free) here.

Based on participant interviews and archival research, this talk will explore how, in 1981, the Winnipeg-based Mennonite Central Committee of Canada (MCCC) became pivotal to the founding of the worldwide non-profit Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI). Along with material funding, the MCCC offered contacts and credibility in the non-profit world and, most importantly, sustained support for talented individuals at the heart of the early DPI.

Dr. Patterson has also published an article on this subject, available on the CUDRG website: “Transnational Representation” (Carleton University Disability Research Group, open access, February 2020).

Canada postage stamp issued in May 1980 in recognition of the upcoming Fourteenth World Congress of Rehabilitation International planned for June in Winnipeg.

“Rooted in History: Representations of Ethiopian Identities in Canada” Public Lecture-Nassisse Solomon

July 24, 2021 / Sean Eedy

Supervisor: Prof. Stephanie Bangarth

Committee:

Prof. Robert Wardhaugh, Department of History
Prof. Nina Reid-Maroney, Department of History, Huron University College
Prof. Erica Lawson, Undergraduate Chair – Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Prof. Michele Johnson, Associate Dean, Student – York University – Department of History

Chair: Prof. Michael Boffa, Department of Biochemistry

Please join us in supporting PhD Candidate, Nassisse Solomon, at her public lecture.

Date: July 28, 2021

Public Lecture: 10:00 AM, Remote via Zoom
https://westernuniversity.zoom.us/j/94928561048

Western University Event Calendar

http://www.events.westernu.ca/events/western/2021-07/public-lecture-nassisse-solomon.html

Reimagining Humanitarianism in an Age of Global Solidarity

June 28, 2021 / Sean Eedy

Interrogating Power Structures in Aid and Multilateral Institutions

Thursday, 8 July 2021

12.00-17.30 (Irish Time)

Online, via Zoom

What does it mean to embody a lived approach to global solidarity and equal partnership in humanitarian action and advocacy? This workshop, organised by Dóchas and the School of History & Philosophy at NUI Galway, brings together leading voices from the worlds of professional humanitarianism, diplomacy, activism and academia in conversation on three key areas: human rights, multilateralism and the climate crisis. The workshop is funded by the Irish Research Council (New Foundations grant).

Confirmed speakers include:

Hugo Slim (University of Oxford)
Sonja Hyland (Political Director, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
Bulelani Mfaco (MASI – Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland)
Tara Rao (Our Ground Works)
Nishanie Jayamaha (Programme Co-ordinator, Climate and Environment Change and Civil Society Space, International Council of Voluntary Agencies)
Su-Ming Khoo (NUI Galway)
Christopher O’Connell (Dublin City University)
Margot Tudor (University of Exeter)

Register here:
https://nuigalway-ie.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUkceitpzsvHdFGTGeAUlcx77zUfVi4Iwmb

Further information:
Maria Cullen – School of History & Philosophy, NUI Galway – m.cullen10@nuigalway.ie Vikki Walshe – Project Manager, Dóchas – vikki@dochas.ie

International Solidarity Now! Event.

June 14, 2021 / Sean Eedy

On June 17, CFPI will be hosting “International Solidarity Now: A gathering for a more just Canadian foreign policy.”

This live event features presentations from Leap co-founder Avi Lewis, Halifax poet El Jones, and Toronto organizer John Clarke on the importance of international activism. The event will also feature short presentations from over a dozen organizations like MiningWatch Canada, Project Ploughshares, and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, highlighting how they are helping to build a more just Canadian foreign policy.

Join us and hear from organizers across the country working towards a foreign policy based on peace and human rights.

Since Canada’s defeat in its bid for a seat on the UN Security Council there has been growth in critical foreign policy discussion & activism. But much more is still required. “International Solidarity Now!” is a gathering of antiwar, mining justice, and international solidarity organizations that aims to connect, strengthen and amplify our collective efforts. Join us and learn about Canada’s movement for a foreign policy based on peace & human rights.

Event is free and open to the public.

The CNHH is one of the many groups proudly participating in this event.

Follow this link to register or visit the foreignpolicy.ca website for more.

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