Understanding the ubiquity and multiplicity of photography in the context of Japan: A Q&A with Kelly McCormick
Prof. Kelly McCormick joined the UBC History Faculty in January 2020. Get to know her and her research through our new Q&A! Tell me about your research. How do you use photography to study race, class, and gender in modern Japan? I see photography as one of the most expansive forms of historical evidence. What I mean by […]
Museum of Vancouver and the Chinese Canadian Museum exhibit symbolizes the Chinese-Canadian struggle for a “seat at the table”
Professor Henry Yu remembers speaking with his writing professor in his office decades ago as an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia. The professor made an offhand comment that Yu “writes well for an Asian.” When asked today what inspired a new exhibit in Vancouver’s Chinatown that challenges the notion that Chinese-Canadians don’t […]
Q&A with María Muñoz
“My research and teaching aim to excavate and understand the complexities of human systems, cultures and hierarchies.” María Muñoz is an associate professor of history at Susquehanna University, and will be joining the UBC History Department for one year. I talked with her about her historical interests, the several exciting courses she’ll be teaching at […]
HIST 376: Modern Japanese History Since 1800- A Q&A with Kelly McCormick
“All of these incidents [in Japanese history] are connected by people who have wanted to make a change to the world around them and either used images or were depicted in images as heroes and villains.” Kelly McCormick is a historian of modern visual and material culture. She writes about “everything from advertising strategies and […]
HIST 399A: The Theory and Practice of History- A Q&A with David Morton
“If you write about the same historical subject at two different times in your life, you will write two different histories. And yet some call this a social “science.” David Morton is a historian of modern Africa, and he specializes in histories of cities and of decolonization. His focus is on Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony […]
HIST 310: The British Empire to 1850- A Q&A with Jessica Hanser
“I … hope [students] will gain a new appreciation for imperial history by tackling the subject from an unconventional perspective.” Jessica Hanser studies the connections, relationships and interactions between Britain and China from 1600 until the First Opium War (1839–1842). She says of her research, “I’m fascinated by the history of global trade in funky […]
Pandemics and History – a roundtable on COVID-19 and its historical connections
“I feel that it’s a moment when all of history is kind of rising up and being revealed before us, and we’re provoked to think about a million different questions.” – Robert Brain. How has history been impacted by pandemics? How do we understand pandemics, and how do we study them? How do historians interact […]
Congratulations to Leslie Paris on her appointment as UBC Public Humanities Fellow
Please join us in congratulating Leslie Paris on her appointment as one of four UBC Public Humanities Fellows for 2020-21! The fellowship provides support for Humanities scholars in the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, and Allard School of Law in developing public-facing Humanities research projects. Leslie’s project, “‘Send it to ZOOM!’: A Fiftieth Anniversary […]
Op-ed by Tim Brook in the Globe and Mail: Blame China? Outbreak orientalism, from the plague to coronavirus
There are conditions in Asia that have left its people vulnerable to new and strange illnesses over the centuries. We would be wise to learn from them – and leave panicked prejudice out of it.