Emeritus Professor Paul Grendler is the Winner of the 2014 Italian Premio Internazionale Galileo Galilei

Congratulations to emeritus Professor Paul Grendler, winner of the 2014 Italian Premio Internazionale Galileo Galilei for a distinguished record of scholarship on Italian Renaissance History. Two Galileo prizes are awarded annually in a ceremony at the University of Pisa, one to an Italian working in the natural sciences, and one to a foreigner who has contributed to the study of Italian civilization. Paul Grendler taught at the University of Toronto from 1964-1998, and published several important works on education, humanism, printing, and the inquisition. Previous winners of the prize include U of Toronto historian Stillman Drake, an international expert on Galileo, in 1984.

Dr. Anna Hájková wins dissertation prize

Congratulations to University of Toronto PhD graduate Anna Hájková, who has won the Herbert Steiner Prize for her 2013 dissertation Prisoner Society in the Terezín Ghetto, 1941-1945. The Prize, awarded in cooperation by the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance and the International Conference of Labour and Social History, is awarded for outstanding research in the fields of resistance, persecution, and exile in the time of fascism and Nazi rule or labour history. Dr. Hájková wrote her dissertation in the Department of History under the supervision of Professor Doris Bergen. She is now Assistant Professor of Modern Continental European History at the University of Warwick.

Professor Nick Terpstra wins book prize!

Congratulations to Nicholas Terpstra, Chair of the Department of History, who has won the Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize in Italian history or Italian-American relations from the American Historical Association for his book Cultures of Charity: Women, Politics, and the Reform of Poor Relief in Renaissance Italy (Harvard University Press, 2013). Click here for more information on the book and prize citation (pdf document).

Originally Posted: October 24, 2014

In memoriam: Professor Emeritus David Higgs

Dear colleagues,

I am writing with the very sad news that David Higgs, who taught in the Department of History from 1964 until his retirement in 2004 passed away yesterday in Toronto.

David was a much beloved colleague and teacher, with a generous manner and a keen wit.  His major interests included the social and political history of France and Portugal from the 17^th to the 19^th centuries, the socio-religious history of colonial Brazil, migration, and sexual dissidences.  We will be sharing further information shortly

Please find an obituary here (pdf document);  many thanks to Eric Jennings for writing it.  There is as yet no word of a memorial service, but we will share with you any information that we receive.

Nick Terpstra

Originally Posted: October 24, 2014

Graduate student Shane Lynn wins essay prize

Graduate student Shane Patrick Lynn has won the Irish Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand Postgraduate Essay Prize in Irish Studies for his article “Osmond Esmonde’s Dominion Odyssey: Irish Nationalism in the British Empire, 1920-21.” This article is based on his MA 2000 paper, written under the direction of David Wilson. It will be published in December’s issue of the Australasian Journal of Irish Studies. Congratulations to Shane for his success!

Originally Posted: October 7, 2014

History on the Move — quite literally!

Dear Colleagues,

In the next 24 hours, the University of Toronto will issue a press release announcing construction of a new building on the St. George campus.  The building will be anchored by a museum and will include some research centres and 2 departments.  The History Department is one of these.

We will be gaining significant new space, and this will allow all members of the St. George History Department to come together in one place.  We will also be able to provide more space — and more appropriate space — for members of the TriCampus Graduate History Department.

The University will announce further details in the official announcement at www.utoronto.ca;  it should be posted by Tuesday morning.  I will also be able to share more information at the Tricampus History Department meeting scheduled for Wednesday 17 September at 3:00, and at the Welcome Back party afterwards.  Please RSVP to history.events@utoronto.ca by Friday 12 September, so that we can be sure to order enough food for the party.

We won’t be wishing Sid Smith good bye just yet, as the process of planning and construction will take a few years.  But this is very exciting news, particularly as our new location will open up many new possibilities for fruitful collaborations with other departments and centres both within and beyond the university.  We’ve been promised a role in the planning of the new space, and with additional fundraising on our part we will have the opportunity to  customize it as well.  Some interesting years ahead!

Memorandum from the President (pdf document)

Press Release (pdf document)

Originally Posted: September 10, 2014

Read the full story by Jim Oldfield:

• Of healing and henbane: what a medieval sedative says about modern medicine
  Using modern pharmacokinetics to assess drug known as the “Great Rest”
  U of T News | August 21, 2014

 

Three historians were interviewed on CBC Radio’s the Current  on the 100^th anniversary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the beginning of the First World War. University of Toronto’s Jennifer Jenkins spoke on Germany, Tim Cook, of the Canadian War Museum on Canada, and Thomas Otte, University of East Anglia on Great Britain.

 

History professor Lori Loeb spoke to FASHION on the history of soap and how the product became a luxury.

“The idea that we should bathe every day, and especially the idea that we should take a shower, is a product of the 1950s and 1960s and the affluence after World War II. Showering is very new,” she said.”

Read more:

• Bar soap vs. shower gel: A brief look at the history of how we bathe
  FASHION | January 6, 2014