Black History Month
February is Black History Month. While we should celebrate Black history and excellence every day, this is an opportunity for a focused, intentional, and elevated reflection and recognition of Black history and achievement – and the many contributions of Black Canadians, Black British Columbians, and Black students, faculty and staff at UBC.
UBC History professor Tina Loo named a University Killam Professor
Dr. Tina Loo, Professor in the Department of History, has been named a University Killam Professor — the highest honour UBC can confer on a faculty member. A University Killam Professorship recognizes extraordinary teachers and researchers who are leaders in their fields and who have received international recognition for their talents and achievements.
Building in Accessibility from the Beginning
When History master’s student Hannah Facknitz was preparing for her first term as a teaching assistant, she realized that disability was mentioned in the description for just one of the online teaching webinars that she saw on offer: “Accessibility in Online Learning.” Facknitz was concerned that disabled students were considered for online learning during the […]
Questions of Inclusion and Belonging: A Q&A with Ben Bryce
Benjamin Bryce is an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia. Get to know him (and his research) in our new Q&A! Tell me about your research. What are you currently working on? One thing I am working on right now is a project about immigration restriction in Argentina at the turn of […]
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 […]
Online Course Preparation Q&A
“Online teaching really means re-thinking teaching from the ground up. Every aspect of a traditional course is open for re-imagining.” With the start of term on September 8th, the UBC History Department will be fully online for the very first time. To prepare the department for this challenge, three graduate students have been working together […]
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 440: History of Health in the Modern West- a Q&A with Benjamin Bryce
“[H]istorical examples give us food for thought about our current experience with COVID-19, and how many of the same factors are at play.” Dr. Benjamin Bryce is joining the UBC History Department after teaching for six years at the University of Northern British Columbia. He completed his PhD at York University in 2013, and he […]
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 […]