News from the History Department at
University of the Fraser Valley
November, 2016

The summer was eventful for the
History Department. Like most faculty we enjoy some time off, but the
summer is also when courses are
designed or refreshed, reading, research or writing that was left unfinished during the teaching semesters
is finally attended to, and the department meets for its annual retreat in
August. In addition, we received the
delightful news that the Peace and
Conflict Studies (PACS) degree was
approved by the Ministry of Advanced Education. History faculty
member Dr. Steven Schroeder developed the PACS program, and seeing
it come to fruition is a feather in his
cap. Students will be excited by the
varied content of the program that
includes a large number of history
courses. Revealing the relationship
between disciplines while respecting
their individual methodologies is a
strength of any interdisciplinary program and PACS encourages students
to see those connections.
Summer meetings set the stage for
events during the new academic
year. The Association of History
Students (AHS) and the department
hosted the annual History Dog Day.
Faculty and students broke bread in

On October 11 the History Department
and the Association of History Students
hosted “What to do with a History Degree”, an event designed to highlight the
career opportunities for students with a
history degree. Many history students
choose teaching as a career goal while a
few anticipate law school. These are fine
ambitions and a history degree provides
the content and skills to support them. In
addition, a few of our students will pursue
graduate studies in history; UFV has a fine
record in preparing students for this path.
However, many other opportunities await
our students. The panel invited to present
some of these opportunities represented a
diverse range of occupations. These included work in museums, political offices,
September, cooking up some
wieners and chatting with new and diverse kinds of research opportunities
and returning students. There is including graduate school. Quite unique
was a business that specializes in geneaplenty of evidence to suggest
that young students who physi- logical research for legal disputes
cally visit a university campus concerning estates. Another public
and meet faculty, are more like- research office represented the Kwantlen
ly to choose that institution and First Nation and examined the impact of
are even more successful once public policies and development proposals
on their ancestral lands.
they arrive. Connecting with
After the panel presentations and the
students is crucial for recruit“question
and answer” session it was clear
ment and a service that the Histhat history students are well equipped for
tory department faculty have
embraced, both officially or as the job sector. Research and
communication skills, especially the
individual initiatives.
ability to write, were all deemed essential
for employability. However, students
have to be aware of the importance of
The History
those skills while they are completing their
Department held
degrees, systematically develop them, be
its Annual
able to market themselves as having them,
Retreat in
and must demonstrate initiative as
August
self-starting creative individuals.

Dr. Chris Leach
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Professor Martin, while ostensibly retired, maintains
an active research schedule, and his adjunct status
allows him access to university library databases to
support this research productivity. The most recent
example (March 2016) is a history of St. John, New
Brunswick, “Geography and Governance: the Problem of Saint John (New Brunswick) 1785- 1927.”
Access to library resources is the primary
appeal of such an arrangement for Professor Martin.
But for the institution and the department, the arrangement offers a great deal more. Ged Martin
(PhD, Cambridge, FRHS) is a scholar of international
reputation who, before his retirement was the Director of the Centre of Canadian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, the United Kingdom's first permanent Chair of Canadian Studies. He has authored or
edited more than a dozen books, and dozens of scholarly articles. In a long a varied career, Professor Martin was also a Research Fellow in History at Australian National University, Canberra; Lecturer in History
at University College Cork, Ireland; and, more recently, was elected to an Honorary Fellowship at
Hughes Hall, a graduate College of the University of
Cambridge. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor in
the Department of History at the National University
of Ireland, Galway, contributing visiting lectures
twice annually.
While Professor Martin’s work has embraced
themes related to Australia, Britain, Ireland, New
Zealand and South Africa, with forays into themes
touching India and the United States, a Canadian affiliation is an especially good fit for Professor Martin.
His work has a high profile in Canada, and he is an
acknowledged expert on the subject of Confederation,
a topic that is likely to generate more interest than
ever as the 2017 anniversary approaches.
Professor Martin has always been generous with his time, being available for media interviews, conferences
and even classroom visits. He has cheerfully engaged with first-year students at 4 o’clock in the morning Ireland
time, discussing John A. Macdonald with students who had read some of his work. Favourite Son? John A . Macdonald and the Voters of Kingston 1841-1891 was awarded the 2012 Ontario Historical Society's James J. Talman
Award “for the best book on Ontario’s social, economic, political and cultural history.” This was followed by a wellreceived popular biography, John A . Macdonald: Canada’s First Prime Minister (Dundurn, 2012). Affiliation with a
scholar of Professor Martin’s stature can only enhance the prestige of the institution and department.
The adjunct arrangement also facilitates a joint study Professor Martin has been engaged in with Barbara
Messamore. This is a study of nineteenth-century private correspondence networks between British Secretaries of
State for the Colonies and governors-general of Canada. This quasi-official channel of communication to London
often reveals more about policy considerations than the formal despatches to the Colonial Office.
In addition, he is engaged in research for a book on the death penalty in Canada, something that may interest colleagues in Criminology.
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Brian Radant:
The Abbotsford
Online Poppy
Album

Johannes Mulder
Hans Mulder is a UFV History student and an infantry officer in training
in the Canadian Forces Primary Reserve since 2009. He recently participated in
a brigade level training activity that replicated the modern unconventional battlefield, with multiple potentially hostile groups, civilians, and NGOs played by
actors utilizing Hollywood type special effects. A system comparable to laser
tag is integrated with all participants' personal equipment and weapons, adding a
final level of realism to the 10 day exercise. The mission was an incredibly
complicated and delicate stability operation set in a fictional country with government forces, militias, rebel and guerilla groups engaging in atrocities, requiring coalition forces (US Army and several States' National Guards) to utilize
skills and techniques learned from modern conflicts.

History Hot Dog Day

A joint History Department and Association of History Students event
that features hot dogs with condiments that reflect the course offerings of
Department members.
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History Department student Brian Radant researched
and compiled the information
on the home addresses and
photographs of Abbotsford
casualties in World War II.
Starting with only the names
on the Abbotsford cenotaph,
Brian traced their information
from newspaper files at The
Reach Archives, as well as
from local land registry records and online resources at
Library and Archives
Canada.

The Online Poppy Album
commemorates 24 recruits
from Abbotsford who died in
World War II. It does so in a
unique way, by showing
where these individuals lived
when they signed up, and
connects us to the
life-altering events of the past
through geography.
The Abbotsford Legion,
Branch 15, hosts the The
Abbotsford Online
Poppy Album on their
website.

Annual History Tea
and Student Awards
Associate History Professor Barbara Messamore completed a
number of projects this year, including “A Critique of Bill C-569: Some
Historical Background to the Appointment and Removal of Governors
General,” appearing in the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law, and
“The Case for George Brown as Confederation’s True Father,” for the
Globe and Mail Online.
She also wrote an entry
for the Encyclopedia of Empire,
edited by John Mackenzie, entitled “British North America
(Canada), 1783-20th c.”, and
contributed a chapter on “John
A. Macdonald and the Governors General: a prime minister’s
use and abuse of the Crown,” in
a collection edited Patrice Dutil
and Andrew Smith, called John
A. Macdonald at 200: New
Reflections and Legacies.
While she was a Visiting Fellow of Hughes Hall,
University of Cambridge,
Messamore delivered a paper
entitled “The Meaning of
Canada’s Confederation: Three
Weddings and a Divorce”, to
the Humanities Research Forum
at Cambridge.
Among her other activities is the preparation of an expert witness
report for a constitutional case concerning the division of financial
responsibility between the federal and provincial governments. She
continues to edit the Journal of Historical Biography, an online,
open-access scholarly journal published at UFV, which features a special
issue devoted to the theme of biographies of historians, and is guest edited
by: Doug Munro (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand);
Geoffrey Gray (University of Queensland); and Christine Winter
(University of Sydney). With three co-authors, she is revising a condensed
version of their earlier-published Canadian history survey textbook, for
University of Toronto Press.
This October, in an interview about Canada’s Prime Ministers for
Maclean’s magazine, Messamore was quoted as saying that Laurier
sometimes chose “a moral evasion,” because his decision on
French-language rights in Manitoba “fundamentally represented an
abandonment of those rights.”
4

Gerald Lefurgy graduated from UFV in 2005 with a B.A. in
Criminal Justice and an Extended Minor in History, and went on to
complete a Graduate Diploma in History at the University of
Melbourne. Continuing to pursue his Graduate Studies, Gerald has
since emigrated to Australia and now lives in Sydney with his wife,
Vanessa. Soon, he will follow his dream to join the New South
Wales Police.
Gerry has a wide range of historical interests, having
published articles on former New South Wales Premier Jack Lang,
Joseph Merrick, 'The Elephant Man', the 1923 Melbourne Police
Strike and the Great Depression in inner-city Sydney, Australia.
He is presently working on a number of projects, such as
articles entitled “To Usurp the Functions of the Courts: The Illegal
Vice-Regality of Sir Philip Game and the Dismissal of the Lang
Ministry”; “Big Fascist Machine: An Illustrative Study of the New
Guard and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs” and “Dutiful Disquiet: Great
Depression-Era Riots in Australian and Canadian Policing”.
Recently, Gerry served as research assistant for Christer
Holmgren, on the sources related to Jack the Ripper, assisted in
researching sources on the Royal London Hospital, and also
Gerry Lefurgy
conducted research at the Lincoln Cottage Museum in Washington DC.
His other interests have introduced him to several Civil War historians and re-enactors such as Dr. Curt Fields
(General and President, Ulysses S. Grant and Doug Baum of the Texas Camel Corps. His research has led to
completing a project for the Dja Dja Wurrung people of Australia, and he also helped a good friend in his application for his Certificate of Aboriginality by conducting research in Sydney’s Mitchell Library. The evidence
then successfully supported his friend’s claim.
In his spare time, Gerry enjoys his favorite activities -- natural bodybuilding and travelling, and serves as
the Secretary of the Polar Dawn Historical Society of Sydney, a group dedicated to furthering knowledge, enthusiasm and historical research for both polar regions.
Gerry has fond memories of the outstanding History Department Faculty whose courses he attended, and
has compiled a list of guidelines for students who want to become historians:
-- develop public speaking skills
-- when doing research, make sure that you’re near a coffee shop and stationery store
-- seek out 'life experience' to develop people skills
-- make notes and writing not just for fun to read but to 'see', with things like
creative acronyms, (i.e. British Columbia Daily Colonist, BCDC).
-- be able to reason critically, logically and offer a good explanation.
-- turn over every last stone in search of evidence.
-- believe in yourself! You're as good as any other historian on the block!

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Sonny McHalsie has served as Cultural Advisor/Historian for Stó:lō Nation since 1994. Before
that, he was a Research/Cultural Assistant for Stó:lō Nation/Tribal Council. He is presently
Cultural Advisor and Historian for the
Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre at Stó:lō Nation.
His work and interests
Indigenous communities.
revolve around education and
As the Cultural Advithe transmission of Stó:lō
sor / Sxweyxwiyam
oral history, history and
(Historian) at Stó:lō Resocial organization, Stó:lō
search and Resource ManPlace Names, Stó:lō
agement Centre, Stó:lō Nastorytelling, Halq’emeylem
tion, Sonny’s journey in
language revitalization
cultural and history preserand preservation, and
vation and transmission beaboriginal rights and title.
gan in 1978. Sonny began
These areas intersect and
working in his home territooverlap with the disciplines of
ry as an archaeological asarchaeology, anthropology,
sistant but was soon drawn
Indigenous studies, leadership,
into the oral histories and
and resource management,
the stories of the Stó:lō. His
geography and, especially
natural gift as a storyteller
history.
and Sxweyxwiyam led him
to listen closely to the Stó:lō
His appointment will
elders and to generously
allow him to expand on his
share what he learned at
current relationships with
every opportunity. In 1985
UFV, as an individual and in
Sonny began work for
his capacity as Cultural
Stó:lō Tribal Council
Advisor / Historian of the
(currently Stó:lō Nation) as
Stó:lō Research & Resource
a heritage researcher and
Management Centre at Stó:lō
later as a Cultural researchNation. He will bring to the
er. His work with Stó:lō has
Sonny
McHalsie
UFV the Stó:lō traditional
led him to being an Execusystem of teaching and
Nation and the University of Saskatchetive Director supervising
learning, which relies on the
wan. He brings to the Department of Hisarchival, genealogical, heritoral transmission of
tory a lifetime of cultural work that not
age, justice and environknowledge as well as cultural only preserves Stó:lō traditional systems
mental staff. Simultaneousknowledge and expertise.
of teaching, learning and cognition on
ly, Sonny served as a
their own terms, but draws on both IndigProfessor McHalise
Si:yam (on Chief and Counenous and Western epistemologies to
presently serves as
cil) for his community of
build long-lasting social, cultural and ecoco-instructor with Dr. David
Shxw’ōw’hamel.
nomic relationships between Coast Salish
Schaepe for the Indigenous
Naxaxalhts’i has proand settler cultures. He is able to provide
Maps, Films, Rights and
duced
numerous published
mentorship and advice for Indigenous and
Land Claims Certificate –
and
unpublished
papers, and
non-Indigenous students, provide guest
(Hist 396i), and has been
participates
as
a
Director,
lectures and workshops within and withthe primary instructor and
Chair and member of many
out the department, help develop internmentor for the Ethnohistory
committees, including
ship
and
practicum
opportunities,
and
asField School, offered by the
UFV’s Aboriginal Commusist students with graduate school or apUniversity of Victoria
nity Council.
plied employment opportunities in
in partnership with Stó:lō
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In recent years, Experiential Learning across
Canadian post-secondary institutions has gained
greater prominence in terms of both teaching and
learning methods as well as establishing its presence
on campuses. UFV is no exception. Numerous
experiential learning opportunities such as
internships, practica, field trips and study tours, both
local and international, have been taking place on a
required and extra-curriculum basis for many years,
with great expertise accumulated among our faculty
and tangible benefits gained by students. As well,
UFV has been known for often engaging in projects
that bring together instructors, students and administrative staff members and strengthening a sense of
community. Student engagement in volunteerism
and community-based service learning also contributes to the roster of experiential learning opportuniPeter Inkman, a decorated Canadian veteran of the
ties that enrich their educational journey and creates
Korean War, gave a presentation to
lasting and meaningful memories of their time spent
Larissa Horne’s students
at UFV. All of these activities contribute to our
students’ personal and professional growth, make
them better thinkers, and more compassionate and responsible citizens. Based on my personal teaching experience
in History, I have witnessed first hand how my students’ ability to reflect, analyze and synthesize complex issues
has been served through experiential learning models both locally and internationally, inside and outside the classroom, and how much more meaningful their previously gained theoretical knowledge has become.

The Experiential Education Coordinator position, to which I have been recently appointed, aims at building a
leading-edge, student-centered model of coordination between various aspects of experiential learning at UFV,
and serves to support, enhance and promote such opportunities across the institution. One of the tasks is to create a
comprehensive inventory of opportunities, which is accessible to students, faculty and external partners. In addition to this, my role is to create a database of all the necessary toolkits, handbooks and other documents, to help
students navigate a multidimensional world of experiential learning. This database will also become a platform
where instructors can share new organizational tools and practices. The Coordinator’s mandate also includes
building a greater capacity for Experiential Education by identifying new sources of external support and funding.
“Learning by doing,” “Learning through experience,” and using an “applied learning” model” – are only some
of the definitions that UFV’s instructors use when speaking of their teaching methodologies and the specifics of
their disciplines and programs. In my role, I intend to further cultivate the sense of a teaching and learning community in Experiential Education at UFV, so that the best practices can be documented and shared, new internal
and external partnerships built, and students’ interests best served.

From Left to right: Convocation 2016,
Association of History Students
Paintball Tournament, Award
Presentation at the Grad Party

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