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Conversations that help us make sense of our rapidly changing world. Featuring Brock University researchers in history, English, modern languages, literature, ancient history, archaeology, game studies, technology, fine and performing arts, philosophy, Canadian studies, and more.
Episodes
Wednesday May 11, 2022
Wednesday May 11, 2022
Our grad series continues this episode with an exploration of the history of disability in Ontario. We speak with recent MA History graduate Carolyn Fast (BA '14, MA '21), whose MA thesis focussed on the stories of people who experienced institutionalization and explores the continuing impact of this lesser-known aspect of Ontario history.
Between 1876 and 2009, more than 50,000 people with intellectual disabilities were housed in institutions across Ontario. Carolyn shares how her research on the institutionalization experience can help us think about COVID, long term care, the housing crisis, and inclusive education.
Links
The Un-Making of Difference: The Winding Road of Deinstitutionalization in Ontario, 1960-2018 Carolyn Fast (MA thesis, 2021)
Humanities Spirit of Brock winners have sights set on helping others (Brock News, June 25, 2021)
Credits
Thank you for listening to Foreword.
Find our footnotes, links to more information, transcripts, and past episodes on our website brocku.ca/humanities.
We love to hear from our listeners! Join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @brockhumanities.
Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcasting app so you don’t miss an episode.
Foreword is hosted and produced by Alison Innes for the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Series three sound editing is by Mitch Kogan. Theme music is by Khalid Imam.
This podcast is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Wednesday May 04, 2022
Wednesday May 04, 2022
Welcome to series three of Foreword! This series we will be bringing you interviews with our graduate student researchers in our Classics, History, and English MA programs, as well as our Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program.
Today's featured guest is Shakeel Ahmed, an MA student in the Department of Classics and Archaeology. Shakeel shares with us his research on homosexual culture in Ancient Athens, the importance of queer history, and how the study of the ancient world continues to be relevant to modern issues.
Some tech issues were encountered during the remote recording of this conversation. We apologize for any distraction they may cause the listener, but we trust you will enjoy the conversation regardless!
Links
Department of Classics and Archaeology
Credits
Thank you for listening to Foreword.
Find our footnotes, links to more information, transcripts, and past episodes on our website brocku.ca/humanities.
We love to hear from our listeners! Join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @brockhumanities.
Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcasting app so you don’t miss an episode.
Foreword is hosted and produced by Alison Innes for the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Series three sound editing is by Mitch Kogan. Theme music is by Khalid Imam.
Special thanks to Brock University’s MakerSpace and Brock University Marketing and Communications for studio and web support.
This podcast is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
This episode is the finale of a three-episode series of “Chronicles of A Spy in Acadia”: a student-produced podcast researched, written, recorded and edited by the students of Brock University’s History 4P11 class. The podcast centers on Atlantic colonial Canada in the 18th century by looking at the events through the eyes of a real-life historical spy: Thomas Pichon.
This episode closes our interview with Thomas Pichon, his memories of the Acadian Expulsion, as well as his internalized despair, regretting his life choices and feeling sorry for himself in his old age. The major themes of this episode include religion, the Acadian expulsion and diaspora, historical literature based on the Acadians and their forced abandonment of their territory, as well as our group's sincerest thank you for your interest in our work.
Filled with quotations and the memories of Thomas Pichon’s letters and memoirs, listeners gather an understanding of the many emotions and motivations of Thomas Pichon as he spied for the British against the French and assisted to damage the lives of hundreds of innocent Acadians.
Links
Beaubassin: On the Edge of Empires
Brock University Department of History
Student podcast gives voice to Acadian spy, Brock News, Jan. 27, 2022.
Sources
Crowley, T.A. “Biography: PICHON, THOMAS, Thomas Tyrell,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, University of Toronto, 1979.
Webster, John Clarence. Thomas Pichon “The Spy of Beausejour,” An Account of His Career in Europe and America with Many Original Documents. Translated by Alice Webster. Shediac, NB: 1937.
Credits
Interviewer 1- Yannick
Interviewer 2- Micayla
Narrator- Erin
Ghost of Thomas Pichon- Dexter
Wednesday Feb 02, 2022
Wednesday Feb 02, 2022
This episode is the second in a three-episode series of “Chronicles of A Spy in Acadia,” a student-produced podcast researched, written, recorded and edited by the students of Brock University’s History 4P11 class.
The podcast series centers on Atlantic colonial Canada in the 18th century by looking at the events through the eyes of a real-life historical spy: Thomas Pichon.
This episode focuses on the ordinary people of Acadia, the Acadians and the Indigenous Mi’kmaq, and how their lives were shaped and changed by those in positions of power, like the French agent Abbé Le Loutre. Aspects of life, religion, Indigenous relations, and acts of destruction are examined through the words of the titular spy, Thomas Pichon. It also explores Pichon’s opinions and beliefs about the subjects of discussion, allowing us to understand the interviewee as well as the topics of the episode.
Filled with quotations from Pichon’s genuine letters and memoirs published after his death, listeners get a chance to not only see the true thoughts and motivations of Pichon as he betrayed France and the Acadians, but also to better understand the events that made Canada into the country it is today.
Links
Beaubassin: On the Edge of Empires
@CBCNovaScotia Centuries-old cannonballs detonated in Gagetown, N.B. (Tweet) Nov. 19, 2021.
Brock University Department of History
Student podcast gives voice to Acadian spy, Brock News, Jan. 27, 2022.
Sources
Crowley, T.A. “Biography: PICHON, THOMAS, Thomas Tyrell,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, University of Toronto, 1979.
Webster, John Clarence. Thomas Pichon “The Spy of Beausejour,” An Account of His Career in Europe and America with Many Original Documents. Translated by Alice Webster. Shediac, NB: 1937.
Credits
Interviewer 1- Yannick
Interviewer 2- Micayla
Narrator- Erin
Ghost of Thomas Pichon- Dexter
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
Wednesday Jan 26, 2022
This episode is the first in a three-episode series of “Chronicles of A Spy in Acadia”: a student-produced podcast researched, written, recorded and edited by the students of Brock University’s History 4P11 State and Society in Colonial Canada class.
The podcast centers on Atlantic colonial Canada in the 18th century by looking at the events through the eyes of a real-life historical spy: Thomas Pichon. Thomas Pichon was a French man sent to take on a legislative position in the military Fort of Beausejour in 18th century Acadia (present-day Nova Scotia). Eager for money and prestige, however, in 1754 he was recruited to spy for the British and played a pivotal role in the French-Acadian defeat at the 1755 Siege of Beausejour.
This episode gives listeners a front row seat to history students interviewing “the ghost” of Thomas Pichon about the events of 1755 and Pichon’s life leading up to it. Pichon was known to exaggerate and be a man invested in his own self-interests, and his character beyond the grave is hardly estranged from that.
Filled with quotations from Pichon’s genuine letters and memoirs published after his death, listeners get a chance to not only see the true thoughts and motivations of Pichon as he betrayed France and the Acadians, but also to better understand the events that made Canada into the country it is today.
Links
Beaubassin: On the Edge of Empires
@CBCNovaScotia Centuries-old cannonballs detonated in Gagetown, N.B. (Tweet) Nov. 19, 2021.
Brock University Department of History
Sources
Crowley, T.A. “Biography: PICHON, THOMAS, Thomas Tyrell,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, University of Toronto, 1979.
Webster, John Clarence. Thomas Pichon “The Spy of Beausejour,” An Account of His Career in Europe and America with Many Original Documents. Translated by Alice Webster. Shediac, NB: 1937.
Credits
Interviewer 1- Yannick
Interviewer 2- Micayla
Narrator- Erin
Ghost of Thomas Pichon- Dexter
Wednesday Jul 21, 2021
Wednesday Jul 21, 2021
How are our personal and communal identities shaped by the stories we tell ourselves and the traumas we experience? Today's guest, Dr. Cristina Santos, shares how stories like Twilight, the Hunger Games, and Divergent, repackage old ideas of what it means to be a woman and how these fairytale archetypes translate into our social psyche. She will also share her latest project, which investigates the lived experiences of children of survivors of the forced disappearances in Argentina between 1976-1983 and the psychological impact trauma has on both individuals and society as a whole.
Dr. Santos’ research investigates monstrous depictions of women as aberrations of feminine nature in literature, art, and film. She has written about the folklore surrounding the notorious Bloody Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who reputedly murdered hundreds of young girls in late 16th and early 17th century Hungary, and the Latin American legend of La Llorona, a woman who drowns her children.
Her 2016 book Unbecoming Female Monsters: Witches, Vampires and Virgins explores how female monsters from literature, art, film, television, and popular culture embody social and cultural fears of female sexuality and reproductive powers. She has also co-edited volumes on cultural ideas of virginity, monsters and monstrosity in literature, and the Twilight saga.
Dr. Santos teaches in the Hispanic and Latin American Studies program in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She is also a faculty member with the Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program, where she teaches and supervises PhD students. She also teaches courses in the Faculty of Social Science.
Links
Dr. Cristina Santos faculty bio
Unbecoming Female Monsters: Witches, Vampires and Virgins (Lexington Books, 2016)
Virgin Envy: The Cultural (In)significance of the Hymen (co-edited with Jonathan A. Allan and Adriana Spahr; University of Regina Press, 2016)
Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Hispanic and Latin America Studies
Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program
Credits
Thank you for listening to Foreword.
Find our footnotes, links to more information, transcripts, and past episodes on our website brocku.ca/humanities.
We love to hear from our listeners! Join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @brockhumanities.
Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcasting app so you don’t miss an episode.
Foreword is hosted and produced by Alison Innes for the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Series two sound design and editing is by Nicole Arnt. Theme music is by Khalid Imam.
Special thanks to Brock University’s MakerSpace and Brock University Marketing and Communications for studio and web support.
This podcast is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Wednesday Jul 21, 2021
Wednesday Jul 21, 2021
Populism: What is it, where do we see it, and why does it work? Today's episode explores some of the nuances of this political approach and how the American shift to Trumpism impacts Canada and other countries. Guest Ibrahim Berrada also shares how misinformation arises, the risks it poses, and the need for people to work together to overcome COVID.
Ibrahim Berrada is a lecturer in Canadian Studies at Brock University and a PhD candidate at Laurentian University, where his research explores populist influence in a Canadian-American cross-border context. He is also an adjunct professor in Sociology at Niagara University in Niagara Falls, NY. In the past year Ibrahim has appeared in local and national media, including the CBC and St. Catharines Standard, many times to share his expertise and analysis of current events.
Links
Ibrahim Berrada, instructor profile
Centre for Canadian Studies, Brock University
Misinformation, prolonged pandemic pose security threat in Canada: Brock experts (Brock News, Jan. 11, 2021)
Removal of Trump may be best option forward: Brock experts (Brock News, Jan. 7, 2021)
Credits
Thank you for listening to Foreword.
Find our footnotes, links to more information, transcripts, and past episodes on our website brocku.ca/humanities.
We love to hear from our listeners! Join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @brockhumanities.
Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcasting app so you don’t miss an episode.
Foreword is hosted and produced by Alison Innes for the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Series two sound design and editing is by Nicole Arnt. Theme music is by Khalid Imam.
Special thanks to Brock University’s MakerSpace and Brock University Marketing and Communications for studio and web support.
This podcast is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Wednesday Jul 14, 2021
Wednesday Jul 14, 2021
It’s pretty fair to say that the last year has been a tumultuous one. We are still living through the pandemic, and we lived through the endless news cycles and uncertainties of the American election in 2020. Climate change is still threatening, with dramatic weather happening around the globe. But this certainly isn’t the first time that a society has lived through disruption and this episode takes a look back at history to help us understand today.
Our featured guest is Dr. Colin Rose, a professor with the Department of History and a social historian examining conflict in 16th and 17th century Italy. His 2019 book A Renaissance of Violence: Homicide in Early Modern Italy (Cambridge University Press), examines how economic decline, climate-induced drought and plague lead to the decline of social institutions and rise of interpersonal violence in 1660s Bologna.
Links
Colin Rose faculty bio
Misinformation, prolonged pandemic pose security threat in Canada: Brock experts (Brock News, Jan. 11, 2021)
A Renaissance of Violence: Homicide in Early Modern Italy (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
History course provides context for current pandemic (Brock News, Sept. 17, 2020)
Violence in 17th century Italy has modern policy lessons (Brock News, Dec. 19, 2019)
Credits
Thank you for listening to Foreword.
Find our footnotes, links to more information, transcripts, and past episodes on our website brocku.ca/humanities.
We love to hear from our listeners! Join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @brockhumanities.
Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcasting app so you don’t miss an episode.
Foreword is hosted and produced by Alison Innes for the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Series two sound design and editing is by Nicole Arnt. Theme music is by Khalid Imam.
Special thanks to Brock University’s MakerSpace and Brock University Marketing and Communications for studio and web support.
This podcast is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
What does it mean to be human in a post-COVID world? How are we connected to other humans? What is the role of privacy and social justice when responding to a global pandemic? What is our place in the natural world and our connection with non-human animals? What does it mean for us as humans when we see viruses jumping from the animal world to the human? These are some of the big questions philosophy researchers are asking and that we explore in today’s episode of Foreword.
Dr. Christine Daigle is a philosophy professor with Brock’s Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program and Director of the Posthumanism Research Institute. She is currently a Research Director (Core Fellow) at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies in Finland. She is also a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair on Community Sustainability research team at Brock, where she investigates the ways humans are entangled with the environment and how to frame notions of sustainability. Her research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
This conversation was originally recorded in March 2021. Some details about the pandemic may have changed. Consult your local health authority for the latest information for your area.
Links
Christine Daigle faculty bio
Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD
Posthumanism Research Institute at Brock
UNESCO Chair on Sustainability at Brock
"COVID-19 vaccination requires global thinking: Brock expert" (Brock News, March 15, 2021)
"Re-opening requires us to reconsider our vulnerability, says Brock prof" (Brock News, July 15, 2020)
"Humanities prof receives prestigious fellowship in Finland" (Brock News, July 14, 2020)
Credits
Thank you for listening to Foreword.
Find our footnotes, links to more information, transcripts, and past episodes on our website brocku.ca/humanities.
We love to hear from our listeners! Join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @brockhumanities.
Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcasting app so you don’t miss an episode.
Foreword is hosted and produced by Alison Innes for the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Series two sound design and editing is by Nicole Arnt. Theme music is by Khalid Imam.
Special thanks to Brock University’s MakerSpace and Brock University Marketing and Communications for studio and web support.
This podcast is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Wednesday Jun 30, 2021
Wednesday Jun 30, 2021
This episode is a little bit different from our usual. Instead of interviewing a researcher, we're talking with one of our graduates. April Pett graduated from our French program in 2007 and has gone on to build up a successful tour company in Paris, France. Her company, April in Paris Tours, offers private walking and chauffeured tours of the city of lights. Listen in to learn more about April’s story as she shares her journey from studying French at Brock to running her own company in France.
Links
Stepping Up Surgite (Spring 2020) page 22
Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Brock University
French Studies, Brock University
Italian Studies, Brock University
Credits
Thank you for listening to Foreword.
Find our footnotes, links to more information, transcripts, and past episodes on our website brocku.ca/humanities.
We love to hear from our listeners! Join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @brockhumanities.
Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcasting app so you don’t miss an episode.
Foreword is hosted and produced by Alison Innes for the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.
Series two sound design and editing is by Nicole Arnt. Theme music is by Khalid Imam.
Special thanks to Brock University’s MakerSpace and Brock University Marketing and Communications for studio and web support.
This podcast is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.