History Students’ Association Blog

Hello everyone! This post is coming in terribly late, but I hope you had a wonderful last few weeks of the semester despite all of the crazy deadlines and exams!

Well, this past semester has been an extremely busy one for the History Students’ Association! We kicked off the school year with THE MASQUERADE BALL which we co-hosted with the English Students Union on Saturday, January 17th at the Great Hall in Hart House. It was an evening of discussion, music and yummy food! Professor Paul Cohen of the History Department gave a short academic presentation. Thank you especially to co-ordinators Natalia Banoub and our Amanda Lord for organizing the event!

The following HSA events took place in March. On Wednesday, March 4th we held a BOOK SALE; the proceeds went towards the funding of a number of our events. Subsequently, another book sale was also held at the end of the month, on Thursday, March 26th. On the following day, Thursday, March 5th, we held our GENERAL MEETING for the semester. It was at this meeting that a number of items were ratified into an updated version of the HSA Constitution to ensure consistency and clarity about the organization of the student union.

Next up was MOVIE NIGHT which took place on Tuesday, March 10th. We viewed The Libertine (2005) starring Johnny Depp. Professor Jennifer Mori came in at the beginning of the movie to give an introduction about the movie and the time period that it was set in. The event was organized by our awesome Social Vice President, Amanda Lord.

The following week (Monday, March 16th), we held our ACADEMIC SEMINAR, entitled “THE ORIGINS (AND PERHAPS FUTURE) OF BLACK AMERICA”. The lecture was presented by Professor Michael Wayne; in the lecture, he discussed about how many perceived and associated the blacks in America and how their identity has evolved and shifted over the centuries. This seminar was coordinated by our wonderful Academics Vice President, Hayley Dilazzaro.

Following our academic social, on Thursday, March 19th was our FACULTY-STUDENT SOCIAL. The HSA changed venues for our social this time, holding the event at UC’s Junior Common Room. A number of professors and TAs attended the event along with a variety of undergraduate students. We also launched the 2008 - 2009 edition of The Future of History, our annual undergraduate history academic journal. Thank you to all who submitted to the journal this year and congratulations to all the contributors who were published! An electronic copy of the journal will be posted up on our website this summer so be on the lookout for it! If you have any questions about the journal, feel free to email the journal editorial board.

The final event that was held this semester was the EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS that took place on Wednesday, April 1st. Thank you to everyone who came out to vote and to run, we really appreciate your interest in the HSA! Following the new HSA Constitution, the following individuals were elected into the HSA executive committee for the 2009 - 2010 school year:

Co-Presidents
Hayley Dilazzaro
Amanda Lord

Vice President (Academic)
Ian Beacock

Vice President (Social)
Ailsa Chau

Treasurer
Gavin Nowlan

Secretary
Julia Lewis

Upper-Year Representative
Zoe Le Blanc

Lower-Year Representative
To be elected in September

Part-Time Representative
To be elected in September

Webmaster
Lev Daschko

Members-At-Large (Not Elected)
Ludwik Antoniuk
Jocelyn Sparrow

Congratulations to the new executive! You’ll be hearing a lot more from these guys in the coming school year and let me tell you, they have some awesome things planned for the year Please keep an eye and ear out for the HSA in the fall as the positions of PART TIME REPRESENTATIVE and LOWER YEAR REPRESENTATIVE will be elected then.

In other news, on Wednesday, March 18th, the History Students’ Association was awarded the SAJEEV DEWETT COURSE UNION OF THE YEAR AWARD FOR 2008 - 2009 at the ASSU-Dean Social at the Faculty Club. Executive members Lianne Bernardo and Amanda Lord were present at the event to accept the award on behalf of the course union. The HSA received a plaque and a cash prize of $150 that was donated towards funding HSA events. On behalf of the History Students’ Association executive, I would like to thank all history students for their involvement this year in their events and the Department of History for their support.

Finally, just a heads up to all undergraduate students, there will be changes in the academic calendar year coming into effect in the fall. Please refer to this page to learn more details about these changes.

And that’s about it! Well, it’s been a crazy, fun-filled and busy school year for the HSA and for myself. Thank you again to everyone who came out to our events; I hope you’ve enjoyed them and I hope that you’ll continue to come out to future HSA events! Thank you also and again to the class representatives for spreading the word and representing the HSA in your respective classes. Last but not least, I especially would like to thank the HSA executive committee and to all the Members-At-Large for all their hard work this year; I couldn’t ask for a more dedicated team and I am deeply grateful for your time, effort, and friendship.

On behalf of the History Students’ Association, we hope you have a wonderful summer (you’ve earned it!) and the new executive will see you in the fall semester.

All the best,
Lianne
HSA President, 2008 - 2009

Hi everyone and welcome back to a new semester here at UofT! I hope everyone’ holidays/break went well.

Although we’re only one week into the semester, the HSA has certainly been busy preparing for our major event of the year: The Masquerade! You may have seen the posters plastered around Sidney Smith Hall and other major buildings but here’s the basic information about this event:

When: Saturday, January 17, 2009
Where: The Great Hall at Hart House, University of Toronto (7 Hart House Circle, Toronto, ON)
Time: Doors open at 6:30pm; runs until 12:30am

Join us for an evening of entertainment including a formal dinner, academic speakers, musicians and dance. This is a catered event. A three (3) course meal will be served throughout the evening. **Vegan/Vegetarian Meals can be made available; please make your request when purchasing your ticket!

A Student Priced Cash Bar is available. To purchase alcoholic beverages, you must provide government ID (driver’s licence or passport) when you enter the room.

Dress Code is in effect: Victorian Costumes welcomed, and masks are *highly encourged*, but formal attire is acceptable.

Live Classical AND Contemporary bands will be performing throughout the evening. Entertainment will continue with an incredible DJ throughout the night. Dancing will commence after dinner!

The HSA will be at the Sid Smith lobby from January 14 - 16 between 9am - 4pm selling tickets. Tickets are $40 for one and $70 for a pair; the number of tickets we are selling are limited so if you really want to go, be sure to get them as soon as you can! From January 12 - 13, you can purchase them at the ASSU Office at Sid Smith. We hope to see you at the Masquerade!

The only other major event that is going on at the moment is that The Future of History, the undergraduate history journal, is currently accepting submissions for the 2009 edition! Full details can be found here; the deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 31st, 2009.

Stay tuned to the HSA website, our Facebook group ‘History Students Unite!’, and this blog for more details of our upcoming events this semester. As always, we welcome any suggestions or questions so feel free to drop us a line by email! Have a wonderful weekend and until next time

- Lianne

A bit late here (as it’s almost midterms), but welcome back to all returning history students to the 2008 - 2009 school year! And to all new students taking a history course this year, welcome to the University of Toronto and to the History Department! My name is Lianne Bernardo and I am this year’s President of the History Students’ Association. The executive and I are looking forward to preparing some awesome events this year and to meeting you all at some of our events!

After introducing ourselves at the UC and UTSU Clubs Days during Frosh Week, we kicked off the school year with our first GENERAL MEETING, which took place on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008. We elected our lower year representative and our part time representative at this meeting, Wendy Kang and Sarah Jackson respectively; we look forward to working with throughout the course of the school year. We’ve also outlined some upcoming events at this meeting of which I’ll talk more about throughout this entry.

On the following Wednesday, October 1st, we held our first MOVIE NIGHT of the year as a way to relax from the sudden kamikaze of assignments and tests coming in from classes. The movie that was aired that night was Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst and directed by Sofia Coppola. This event was organized by our super awesome Social Vice President, Amanda Lord.

As for what’s coming up for the remainder of this semester…first up is our annual GRADUATE SCHOOL SEMINAR, which will be taking place this Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 from 4 - 6PM at SS2127. This event was arranged by our wonderful Academic Vice President, Hayley Dilazzaro, and the new graduate coordinator for the History Department, Professor Lori Loeb. Professor Loeb and Professor Alison Smith will be coming to speak to students about the application process to the history graduate programmes and answer questions you may have about the process. So if you’re considering graduate school down the road or are in the process of preparing your application, this is definitely an event to check out!

Following the seminar in a few weeks is our ACADEMIC SEMINAR of this semester! The title of this lecture is “A RENAISSANCE MYSTERY: A CONTEMPORARY HOMAGE TO RAPHAEL OR A DIABOLICAL VICTORIAN HOAX” and will be presented by Professor Kenneth Bartlett. This lecture will be taking place on Thursday, October 30th 2008; keep a lookout on your inbox, our Facebook group and the HSA website for details on where and what time this lecture will be taking place at. Professor Bartlett has been working on this topic for some time now, using material culture to help unravel this particular mystery and promises to keep us all at the edge of our seats!

The final major event we are planning for this semester is our annual FACULTY-STUDENT SOCIAL. The social has been very successful for the past two years with many students, professors and T.As showing up for the event. It’s a chance to get to know your fellow classmates as well as sit down and have a chat with your professor outside of the lecture halls and classrooms. A set date and location has yet to be determined (it will be held sometime in early-to-mid November), so keep a lookout on our website, Facebook group and your inbox for information in the coming days and weeks! We hope you can pop by (even for just an hour) and say hi!

And that’s about it from us on the events-front for now. If you have any questions about the following events I’ve listed above or about other events and matters relating to the HSA, feel free to drop us a line! If you have any ideas about upcoming events or other activities and services that the HSA can put together, let us know, we’re always welcome to suggestions and comments. Additionally, if you want to get involved with the HSA, feel free to contact us.

So that’s about it from me for now. I hope you and your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving and best of luck in this first semester. I hope to see you at our events! Until next time.

- Lianne

For many, December is a time of relaxation and festive cheer…for history students at the University of Toronto, however, December usually involves countless hours in the library, chugging extra large cups of coffee, and trying to not to succumb to sleep as we write the last few pages of our essays or finally finish studying for our next exam.

But–daunting as it may seem–the end of term IS in sight and we will all have a chance to enjoy the holidays once we get through these last few critical weeks. I wish everyone the best of luck, and I hope that the coming month is as painless and successful as possible.

The HSA has almost wrapped up its activities for the term- our final event is a (very exciting!) lecture on the HISTORY OF PIRATES by the wonderful Professor BARBARA TODD. It will be taking place in the Hart House reading room from 1-3 pm on WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 21st. Pirate enthusiasts and Johnny Depp fans alike are encouraged to attend. And (if you need further incentive) as usual, there will be free refreshments provided.

As for next term…

We already have many plans in the works. We will be starting off with a GENERAL MEETING (to keep class reps and interested students up to date on our events) and this will mostly likely be followed by a CAREER SEMINAR (a joint event with the Career Centre designed to familiarize history students with the career options available to those in our discipline). We will also be trying our first PUB NIGHT soon after the start of term–having never done this before, we’re not sure what sort of turnout/enthusiasm to expect, but if it goes well we hope to follow this up with even more pub nights. We already have a few ideas for ACADEMIC LECTURES next term- we’re hoping to get the very popular and entertaining Professor Steve Penfold to do a special lecture, and we also have a tentative commitment from Professor Ken Mills. Because of our successful screening of ‘Elizabeth’ in October, there will be two MOVIE NIGHTS next term and- of course–there will be a second FACULTY-STUDENT SOCIAL sometime in March.

On the topic of the Faculty-Student Social: I would like to thank everyone that came out last week! I hope that you enjoyed it, and that it gave you a chance to connect with professors, TA’s and fellow History students. We were very pleased with the turn out, and we hope to make next terms event even more successful.

And–one final point–I’m sure that most of you are familiar with the course evaluation process (in which students are asked to grade their instructors) and have been (or will be) asked to fill out the evaluation forms. Those evaluations are organised by ASSU (the Arts and Science Students’ union) and, as a course union under ASSU, the HSA executives will be the ones reading and summarizing your evaluations for the annual Anti-Calendar. I ask you to please take these evaluations seriously, and to provide meaningful, useful (and neatly written) comments. YOUR opinion counts, and by participating in the evaluation process, you are helping other students make informed decisions about their courses.

That is all for now. Once again, best of luck with the end of term–we hope to see you at the academic lecture, and at all of our events next term!

Happy Holidays!
-Stefanie
HSA President 2007-2008

I hope that everyone has been enjoying the first few weeks of school, and that the stress of classes/essays/work/life hasn’t been too overwhelming. The HSA has been working tirelessly over the past month to get all of this terms events organized, and I am happy to say that things have been going very well thus far.

We had a good turn out at our first General Meeting on September 26th, and I am pleased to welcome our two newly elected members—Charles Reinhardt and Jeremy Andrews—to the exec. It was great to see that many people are interested in the HSA, and I hope that this level of enthusiasm will continue throughout the year.

If you could not make the General Meeting, never fear—there are a lot more events coming up this term, and we look forward to seeing you there!

First up is our GRADUATE SEMINAR on Wednesday October 10th (SS2098, 1-3pm), and I encourage all students who think that they might be interested in applying to graduate school to attend. This event was a great success last year, and our Academic Vice President, Andrea Yau, has been working hard to ensure that this year’s seminar will be even better. The UofT History Department Graduate Coordinator, Eric Jennings, and a panel of professors and graduate students will be there to discuss the graduate programme and answer any questions you might have. It promises to be a very informative afternoon, and I hope to see many of you there.

If you’re looking for something more relaxing, the following day, Thursday October 11th, the HSA will be hosting its first MOVIE NIGHT (SS2098, 6-9pm)- organized by our wonderful Social Vice President Samantha Share. We will be showing Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett, 1998) as the sequel (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) will be released in theatres the next day. Free popcorn, pop, and pizza will be provided. It should be a fun evening, and another great chance to meet some of your fellow history students.

And if you’re up for a double dose of 16th century England (who wouldn’t be!?), then you are also welcomed to join us on our first ever unofficial HSA ‘field trip’ to see the sequel (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) on Friday October 12th. Unfortunately, I can’t provide many details about this yet- we will decide on a time and meeting place when that information is made available and let you know!

The next event we have planned is the FACULTY-STUDENT SOCIAL on Thursday November 8th. This will be held at the Innis Café (in Innis College, right next to Robarts) from 5:30-9:30pm, and should be an enjoyable evening full of good food and good company. The socials were very successful last year and many professors, T.A’s and students came out. I hope that many of you will be able to spare a few hours to join us (you can pop by any time) – it really is a great opportunity to talk to the faculty (and fellow students) outside of the classroom.

The social will be followed by an ACEDEMIC LECTURE on the “HISTORY OF PIRATES” by Professor Barbara Todd. This will be held on November 21st from 2-4pm (the location will be announced soon)- and we hope that aspiring historians and Johnny Depp fans alike will be intrigued by this very exciting topic. Professor Todd is a fantastic lecturer, and I’m certain that this will be a very enthralling event.

That is everything that we have planned thus far- but another event or two may be added. We have been discussing the possibility of holding a History pub night sometime in the near future, and will let you know if we manage to work this out. We’re also very open to any suggestions you might have- if you think we’re missing a certain type of event, or have any creative ideas then don’t hesitate to email us—we’d love to hear from you!

And while I’m at it, I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone that has volunteered to be a class representative this term. I was thrilled to get such a great response—class reps are critical to our success, and I really appreciate the willingness of students (and professors) to help make this system work. It makes a huge difference!

I think that’s all for now.

Best of luck with everything this term.
We hope to see you soon!

- Stefanie