Paul Armstrong: Maritime Institute for Civil Society
Abstract: The recovery of the late 19th century Church maps, and the genealogy related to them, exposes the particularities of a different form of life, now lying in a road not travelled. In this talk, Paul Armstrong will discuss the significance of the maps and offer a defence for the value of parochialism.
Wade Pfaff: Cape Breton University
Abstract: Eastern Canada has contributed many talented Black jazz musicians to the stages and pages of music history. This presentation highlights a few ground-breakers and Black influencers from the prewar period, the heyday of Jazz. In our collective subconscious, Black music and dance inspires African Canadians to strive for greatness and unite under the banner of music culture. Often controversial and political, Black music culture is a tangible manifestation of spiritual freedom and an invaluable outlet for Black Canadians to express their selfhood and boundless creativity.
Afua Cooper Professor of Black and African Diaspora Studies, Dalhousie University
Abstract: Afua Cooper examines the correspondence between Lieutenant Governor Dalhousie and the Earl of Bathurst, administrator of Britain’s colonies. Setting the historical context of slavery, war, and settlement, Cooper shows how the letters reveal Dalhousie’s biases. His prejudices contributed to the cruel and unjust treatment of one of Nova Scotia’s founding Black communities, people who had escaped enslavement on American plantations for freedom with the British during the War of 1812.
Laurie Glenn Norris
Abstract: Laurie Glenn Norris draws from letters discovered in the Amos Thomas Seaman House, Minudie, Nova Scotia, to examine the lives and experiences of Mary and Jennie Seaman, granddaughters of Amos “King” Seaman, both of whom married Methodist Church ministers.
Grace McNutt
MA, Atlantic Canadian Studies, Saint Mary’s University
Abstract: Oppression in the Shadows is a comprehensive political history that traces the history of Nova Scotia’s Department of Indian Affairs, from its earliest British colonial origins to the Centralization Policies of the 1940s. Revealed by this research is importance of region to the experience of the Mi’kmaq.
Jennifer Brady
Registered Dietitian and Assistant Professor, Mount Saint Vincent University
Lindsey MacCallum
Scholarly Publishing Librarian, Mount Saint Vincent University
Abstract: Through their training, education, and work in communities, home economists led women’s earliest efforts to politicize domestic work and social issues that shaped the everyday lives of women and their families, such as public sanitation and education, women’s rights, food security and sustainability, and fair labour practices. Dr. Brady and Ms. MacCallum will discuss the development, experiences, and stereotypes faced by women in post-secondary home economics programs in Nova Scotia through a critical analysis of archival documents and oral history interviews of former students, staff, and faculty of those very programs.
Click here for bios of Lindsey MacCallum and Jennifer Brady
Sawyer Carnegie MA Candidate, Atlantic Canada Studies Program, Saint Mary’s University
Abstract: Nova Scotia has a Black Press tradition that dates back to 1915. Sawyer Carnegie will provide an overview of this tradition, while exploring connections between the Black Press and Black activism throughout the 20th century. She highlights The Clarion and publications by the Black United Front.
Click here for a bio of Sawyer Carnegie
Colonel (Ret’d) John L. Orr CD
Volunteer Researcher, Shearwater Aviation Museum
Abstract: Shearwater, located on the eastern shore of Halifax harbour, has made a major, although largely unrecognized, contribution to aviation in Canada. Since its inception in 1918, the air station has served under a variety of commands and services – hence the ‘Seven Flags’ in the title.
Click here for a bio of Col, (Ret’d) John L. Orr
Heather McBriarty
Abstract: In 1914, James W. Johnstone, privileged son of a prominent Nova Scotia family, jumped to enlist in the fledgling Canadian Expeditionary Force. Over 17 months, from Valcartier to Belgium, he wrote nearly 70 letters to his sweetheart in Halifax. Her granddaughter is Heather McBriarty. In her lecture, McBriarty will share selections from the letters with context and comment.
Click here for a bio of Heather McBriarty
Patrick Lacroix, PhD
Independent Scholar
Abstract: The extent of emigration from Nova Scotia to the United States in the late nineteenth century is little-known and understudied. Canadian historians have been more attentive to the contemporary “demographic hemorrhage” that drained the Quebec countryside. Yet, proportionally, the United States exerted the same magnetic effect on predominantly English-speaking provinces as on Quebec. By comparing Quebec and Nova Scotia, Dr. Lacroix exposes outmigration as a nationwide problem whose local solutions were ultimately few, inconsistent, and ineffective.
Click here for a bio of Dr. Patrick Lacroix
