Students in Prof. Kevin James's 'Invitation to History' class officially launched a new exhibit: 'Caledonian Correspondence: Scottish Hotels in Postcards', now installed at the @uofglibrary.bsky.social! Congratulations on a successful launch to everyone involved! @uguelphhist.bsky.social

I'm so tired of people telling me to have students critique LLM outputs. I'm just going to print this on little cards and hand them out

Tri-U Graduate History Conference 2026: Local Meets Global - Call for Proposals uwaterloo.ca/tri-universi... Due January 16, 2026.

To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.” www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...

I’ve written about the 1979 budget vote (my book MS is currently in peer review) and so feel compelled to watch tonight’s vote live. But I am not willing to jinx it by disclosing my guess as to what will happen.

Another Canadian/Quebec history job posting, this one at UQAM - its been a couple decades since I've seen 6 tenure-track job postings in Cdn history all at once. Very happy to see this. universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...

It occurs to me now that the discipline of history was not born out of reverence for the past, but rather out of somebody watching the people in charge make the most insane decisions and just being like “if I don’t write this down nobody’s ever gonna believe any of it happened”

“Our research in our book ’No ‘I’ in Team: Party Loyalty in Canadian Politics’ points to a simple, powerful answer: hyper-partisanship has evolved from traditional ‘party discipline’ (voting together) into ‘message discipline’ (speaking together).” Three experts write. #abpoli #canpoli

"Historical analysis is fundamentally different and more complex than producing a mass of visualizations and statistics that are the lifeblood of many A.I. programmes." Gordon McKelvie @gordonmckelvie.bsky.social on the problematic use of A.I. within historical research.

I'm cited in this piece in the Toronto Star today about the spread of generative AI, the challenges it poses for historians & history education, and the need for digital literacy. www.thestar.com/news/how-fak...

On Remembrance Day, I always think of my two grandfathers, Charles Herbener (centre of left pic) and Ronald Hayday (named in the certificate) who served in the RAF and the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Fighting fascism & the Nazis was necessary then, and it's necessary now.

Time to bring back these t-shirts: www.historymuseum.ca/collections/...

From the vaults: 45 years ago today, voters cast their ballots in one of the ugliest municipal elections in Toronto history, which involved a lot (and I mean a lot) of homophobia. Here's my TVO @tvotoday.bsky.social story about the 1980 campaign. #TOHistory #TOpoli www.tvo.org/article/how-...

This Saturday, the Guelph Museums is hosting a Liberation and Remembrance Symposium to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the War and the liberation of Europe. I'm speaking on the RCAF and other speakers include Roger Sarty, Geoff Hayes, and Alex Souchen. guelphmuseums.ca/event/libera...

If Bryan Adams released a time-adjusted “Summer of ‘69” this year, it would be “Summer of 2010”.

While researching my current column, I had trouble finding something PM Carney said in a speech in either Factiva or Google, so I tried asking ChatGPT-5 to search for it. This was its internal response. It hallucinates in basic searches. It can't write truth. It can't copyedit. What is it good for?

Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is almost here! An exhibit of cookbooks from the @uofguelph.bsky.social collection will be on display w/ info about the @uguelphhist.bsky.social Food History course & I’ll be speaking about Cdn food history on the Growth Hub Stage! news.uoguelph.ca/2025/11/cana...

Random performative cuts to aid will only hurt Canada globally when we need new friends and diversified trade. Short term thinking remains the problem.

1. I'm very familiar with the 1979 budget vote that toppled Joe Clark's government, but the dynamics are different with Carney's budget. Clark needed opposition support or MPs from more than one party to suffer "budget flu". If the NDP abstains and all the Libs show up, Carney's fine.

Here @picardonhealth.bsky.social rightfully takes on Parliament’s attacks on academic research in Canada.

Exciting news - Robert Munsch has donated his archives to the Guelph Public Library! I had just asked a colleague last week whether his papers had been donated anywhere - delighted to learn that they'll be staying here in Guelph! www.guelphpl.ca/Modules/News...

New piece up @ca.theconversation.com: TL;DR, Canada needs to be strategic and diplomatic, but it cannot keep caving to a bully's version of the truth. theconversation.com/mark-carneys...

The gloves come off! 🥊🥊 One of the most common debates in our comments is about how our experts sometimes handle collection materials without those iconic white cotton gloves. Find out why gloves aren’t always necessary here: https://thediscoverblog.com/2019/04/05/the-gloves-come-off/

Baking macarons helps me feel a bit better in a scary world. Now I just need to fill these shells.

I’m just saying, there is a killer opportunity for a meme-able single for the artist who records “Spring Forward”. I think it should have a dance-able beat!

This brings to mind thoughts of episode 2, season 2 of The Good Place. If you know, you know...

Excited to pick up my copy of Ed Conroy’s “ImagiNation: The Golden Age of Toronto Kids’ TV” today. Ed runs the popular Retrontario YouTube channel and gave a great presentation to our Between Postwar and Present Day Canada conference a few years back.

This is some psychotic, McCarthy-esque bullshit.

Join @uguelphhist.bsky.social, Wed. Oct 29 3:30-5pm for Rural History Roundtable presentation. Marcel Martel (York) and Alex Gagné (Laurier) talk about "Drinking Ontario Wine: A Dream?" Both in-person & Zoom (register) at the University of Guelph (MCKN 132). uwaterloo.ca/tri-universi...

Well this is a gut punch. I was just extolling the virtues of his books to my tutorial students this week. What a loss for the field and his family. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Look, as a history professor, I'm just chuffed to see someone bringing the archival receipts. tinyurl.com/56ktcp8n [CBC] tinyurl.com/eb2bfn7z @museemccordstewart.bsky.social

Good, important read (hopefully not by ChatGPT). macleans.ca/education/ai...

If you're on campus, be sure to stop by the exhibit located on the first floor of the library titled, "Kitchens of the Future: Food, Technology, and Convenience Culture in Cold War Canada." On display until Jan. 2026. Learn more: www.lib.uoguelph.ca/news/kitchen.... #UofG @rebeccabeau.bsky.social

Who’s up for a PEI barn dance? We know we are! Join us in Charlottetown on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, for an unforgettable Cliopalooza! It’s going to be a night full of live music, laughter, and community spirit, and we can’t wait to see you there! #CHASHC2026 #cdnhist #PEI

Interesting post by Mike Dawson, drawing heavily on materials from the Archives and Special Collections at the @uofglibrary.bsky.social .

I’m a scholar of social movement studies who has studied protests and conflict for over two decades and I agree with Dr. Corrigan’s points. Read her entire thread.

1. While I enjoy seeing pushback against Poilievre from within the Conservative Party, I find some of Soudas’ claims about Harper as a unifier of various stripes of conservatism hard to swallow. It doesn’t align with what I discovered in oral history interviews for my current research.

Is Open Access to research publications more important for machines than for people? Given recent developments in content licensing I'm starting to think the answer to that is yes...

I barely want to talk to other people, let alone my laptop. Time to find an alternative to Windows!

Join us on Weds Oct 29 from 330-5pm for the second Rural History Roundtable presentation of Fall 2025. Marcel Martel and Alex Gagné will give a talk titled "Drinking Ontario Wine: A Dream?" All are welcome, both in-person and via Zoom. For more info: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/rural/r... #aghist #cdnhist

Assistant Professor – Contemporary Québec History. Deadline: November 29, 2025. #cdnhist #québec #skystorians @histoireudem.bsky.social cha-shc.ca/careers-and-...

Professor – History (Canada-Québec). Deadline: December 8, 2025. #cdnhist #québec #laval #skystorians cha-shc.ca/careers-and-...

It's worth reading Shirley's thread here - I was struck by the same thinking when I was reading the Globe piece. An awful lot got downloaded on to the provinces under Chrétien and Martin, who then passed those cuts along to Canadians in the form of diminished services.

job History - Assistant Professor (Post-Confederation Canadian History) - MacEwan University A review of applications will begin Nov 12, 2025, and continue until a suitable candidate is found. csn-rec.ca/job-postings... @cndhistassoc.bsky.social #cdnhist #cdnstudies

It makes me feel old as a late Gen-X historian to see all these stories about Golden Dome citing 2005 as when Canada opted not to go in on joint missile defence with the US. Does nobody remember Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative/“Star Wars” anymore?

Sadly, my efforts to procure butter tarts at the U of G butter tart festival have been thwarted. Huge crowds, and long line-ups at 12:15 for the few vendors that aren't sold out. But I think that counts as a success - they'll need to broaden it next time!

Yup. The people who should earn a fortune from the years I have devoted to training and research are people who run AI companies, not me.

As someone whose emotional state can fluctuate wildly depending on the latest AI-related news, I appreciated this take from the Oatmeal. It's a bit long, but it's thoughtful. theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art