Seminar inspires critical thought about Canada’s history and national identity
McMaster President Patrick Deane (left) hosts a fireside chat with Dr. Lynton (Red) Wilson, McMaster Chancellor Emeritus, long-time university supporter, and passionate advocate for the study and promotion of Canadian history. The talk was part of the inaugural event in the 2016/17 McMaster Seminar on Higher Education series, which, throughout the year, will focus on the theme of ‘Canada @ 150.’
What’s the role of historians in commemorating Canada at 150? How can academics help make Canadian history engaging and relevant to the public? How do we preserve Canada’s historical record?
About 70 McMaster faculty, staff and students recently gathered in Convocation Hall to discuss these questions and more at The Role of the Academy in Preserving an Accurate Record of a Nation’s History, part of the McMaster Seminar on Higher Education: Canada @ 150 series.
Hosted by the President’s Office and the L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History, the event offered insight into the role universities play in the preservation and exploration of Canada’s past, and was intended to inspire critical thought about Canada’s national identity.
“Events like this are important because they arouse in us the need to tell the complicated history of Canada, rather than just the slogans,” says Ian McKay, director of the Wilson Institute. “Canada at 150 cannot be a simply celebratory story, or a homogenously patriotic story, it also has to have a note of caution and realism. It’s our job as historians to produce complicated truths, difficult truths that people need to listen to.”
McMaster President Patrick Deane kicked off the event with a fireside chat with Dr. Lynton (Red) Wilson, McMaster Chancellor Emeritus, long-time university supporter, and passionate advocate for the study and promotion of Canadian history.
Read “Red Wilson invests $2.5 million in the study of Canadian history by renewing successful institute”
This talk was followed by a panel discussion moderated by McKay and featuring a number of McMaster experts including; Asa McKercher, L.R. Wilson Assistant Professor of History, Colin McCullough, a post-doctoral fellow at the Wilson Institute, Stacy Nation-Knapper, also a post-doctoral fellow at the Wilson Institute, and Rick Stapleton, Archives and Research Collections Librarian in McMaster’s William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections.
This was the first of three events on the theme of “Canada @ 150” that will be held as part of the McMaster Seminar on Higher Education series throughout the 2016/17 year. All three events will focus on the role and responsibility of the Academy in the definition and realization of a national identity. Members of the community are welcome and encouraged to attend.
