We are happy to share the news that Sean Mills’ A Place in the Sun: Haiti, Haitians, and the Remaking of Quebec has been published as part of the History of Quebec/Études d’histoire du Québec series with McGill-Queen’s University Press. From the publisher, please see: http://www.mqup.ca/place-in-the-sun–a-products-9780773546455.php.
Congratulations to Sean!
Please join me in congratulating our colleague Ritu Birla, who has been appointed as Richard Charles Lee Director of the Asian Institute for a three-year term, from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018. The appointment is eligible for renewal.
Ritu has been active at the Asian Institute since its inception and since her arrival at the University in the Department of History, St. George. She has been a key voice in the Institute’s evolution over the past several years. The thematic focus of the Institute, its creative teaching programs, and its interdisciplinary conversations reflect, in significant measure, Ritu’s enthusiasm and intellectual leadership.
Most recently, Ritu has been serving as the Director of the Centre for South Asian Studies. In this role, she has raised the Centre’s profile through innovative and cross-regional programming and the curation of high-profile events and speakers. She is well known for her strong administrative experience, ability to get things done, passion, drive, global network, and extensive research profile. The Asian Institute requires someone who can attend to the policy conversations while not forgetting that the Institute holds a rare place at the University where humanities specialists inform social science and vice-versa. Ritu is exceptionally well equipped to fill this role.
Ritu received a B.A. from Columbia (Summa Cum Laude); a second BA and MA from Cambridge (on a Euretta J. Kellett Fellowship); and an M.Phil and Ph.D. from Columbia University. She is recognized for bringing the empirical study of Indian economy to current questions of social and political theory and her research has sought to build new conversations in the global study of capitalism and its forms of governing. Among her many publications is Stages of Capital: Law, Culture and Market Governance in Late Colonial India, which won the 2010 Albion Book Prize. She has co-edited special issues of Public Culture (23:2) on Gandhian thought and its global itineraries, and just out, a project on speculation, futures and capitalism in India in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and Middle East (35:3); both are products of international collaborations. She is working on new book, Neoliberalism and Empire, solicited by Duke for its new series Transactions: Economy, Finance and Theory, a project which has been recognized with a Chancellor Jackman 6-Month Research Fellowship from the Jackman Humanities Institute. The project reflects her continuing commitment to rigorous research across the humanities and social sciences on contemporary global processes and their genealogies.
Recent doctoral graduate Camille Begin has accepted a position as Plaques and Markers Coordinator at Heritage Toronto (http://heritagetoronto.org). She will also remain a research associate at the Culinaria Research Centre in the Historical and Cultural Studies Department at the University of Toronto Scarborough. The monograph based on Camille’s dissertation is also due to be released in this Spring in the Studies in Sensory Studies at the University of Illinois Press. The title is Taste of the Nation: the New Deal Search for America’s Food. To see more, follow the link at: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/65tkf8yq9780252040252.html.
Prof. Bothwell’s interview relates to his new book, “Your Country, My Country: A Unified History of the United States and Canada”: http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/robert-bothwell-on-the-deep-similarities-between-canada-and-the-u-s/?utm_source=Bulletin&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=Media.
Warm congratulations to Ato Quayson, Director of the Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies, and cross appointed to History, who has won the top prize of the Urban History Association (International Category) for Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism (Duke University Press, 2014).
For more information: http://news.utoronto.ca/top-urban-history-association-prize-ato-quayson?utm_source=Bulletin&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=News
Professor Ritu Birla’s recent article “Jurisprudence of Emergence: Neo-Liberalism and the Public as Market in India” has been selected as part of the Editor’s Choice Collection of influential articles published in South Asia: The Journal of South Asian Studies. Based on the Carol Breckenridge Memorial Lecture she delivered in New York City in fall 2014, the article launches the argument of her next book, on colonial genealogies of contemporary neoliberal governing in India.
With the support of the journal’s publisher Taylor & Francis, the editor of South Asia: The Journal of South Asian Studies has made the collection available free from October 12 to December 31, 2015. The articles are available through the Taylor & Francis website.
Updated: A Memorial Resolution submitted to the Senate of Victoria University presented by Professor Kenneth Bartlett. Please see the attached pdf: PROFESSOR ANN ROBSON.
Dear Colleagues,
We have just received the sad news that our former colleague, Professor Ann Provost Robson, has passed away. Ann Robson taught British History in our Department for three decades from 1967 until 1997. I have included her obituary here, together with details regarding a celebration of her life which is to take place on Saturday 6 June.
Very best,
Nick
Ann Provost (Wilkinson) Robson
2 December 1931 – 3 May 2015
Born to Bertie and Edith (Provost) Wilkinson in Manchester, England, Ann moved with her family to Toronto in 1938.
She attended Brown School and Havergal College, and earned her BA and MA at the University of Toronto. She married John (Jack) M. Robson in 1953 and received her PhD from the University of London in 1958. Ann was professor of history at the University of Toronto, specializing in 19th century Britain, from 1967 until her retirement in 1997. She was active and a leader in many professional, cultural and community organizations, including the Arts and Letters Club, the Republic of Rathnelly, and the Madawaska Club at Go Home Bay.
A loving mother to William (Helen), John (Brigitte) and Ann Christine (Ben), and devoted grandmother to Maria, Jim and Christine Robson, to Catherine, Jennifer and Rebecca Robson, and to Lisa, Andrew and Michael Bacque. Predeceased by her loving husband and academic collaborator Jack Robson (1927-1995) and her brother John Wilkinson. Distinguished by her energy and lively wit, she will be much missed and fondly remembered by her immediate family, nieces and nephews, former colleagues and friends.
A celebration of Ann’s life will take place at 226 Glengrove Avenue West, Toronto, on Saturday June 6th from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. The family would appreciate donations to the Bertie Wilkinson Scholarship at the University of Toronto (www.donate.utoronto.ca/history).
We are very pleased to announce that Margaret MacMillan and David Wilson, two of our faculty members, have been elected Fellows of the prestigious Royal Society of Canada!
Established in 1882, the Royal Society of Canada recognizes outstanding research and scholarly achievements in the humanities, arts and natural and social sciences. Elected by their peers for their contributions to the research community, please join us in congratulating new Fellows Margaret MacMillan and David Wilson on achieving this high honour!
 | MACMILLAN, Margaret – Department of History, University of Toronto; Warden, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University. Through her research and writing Professor Margaret MacMillan has contributed to the greater understanding of international history and to the revival of narrative history. Her work situates the relations between states and the making of war and peace in their broader social and historical contexts. She delivers many of the world’s most prestigious lectures and is committed to bringing history to as wide an audience as possible. |
 | WILSON, David A. – Department of History, University of Toronto. Historian David A. Wilson is internationally recognized for making substantial, original contributions to our understanding of the modern Atlantic world. Focusing on the themes of democracy, conservatism, nationalism and religion, he opens up new perspectives on the transatlantic interchange of ideas. He has written pioneering studies of Thomas Paine, William Cobbett, the United Irishmen, and Thomas D’Arcy McGee, and is also the General Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. |
For the entire Class List of 2015, please see: https://www.rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/NF%20Citations%202015_2.pdf
Other members of the Department who are members of the Royal Society include: Robert Bothwell, Derek Penslar, James Retallack, Edward Shorter, Nicholas Terpstra, Lynne Viola. Natalie Rothman is a member of the New College of the RSC.
We warmly congratulate Li Chen on the award of tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor. He has also taken on the role of Associate Chair of Historical and Cultural Studies at UTSC, for which we thank him and wish him well.
Here is the link to the latest issue of the Graduate Student Journal: http://pasttensejournal.com/index.php/pasttense/issue/view/1614/showToc