The Department of Anthropology first began operation in 1965. Anthropology at Trent is an interdisciplinary pursuit, including biological, cultural and applied anthropology, linguistics and archaeology. The Department provides a variety of courses, both practical and theoretical, ranging from the scientific to the humanistic.
The position of Dean of Graduate Studies and Research Officer was created in the (approximately) 1968-69 academic year. Previous to this time, the small number of graduate students at Trent University were looked after by the Registrar's Office. The Senate search committee responsible for hiring a Dean of Graduate Studies and University Research Officer. Since 1985, the Associate Dean of Arts and Science has been responsible for the position of Dean of Graduate Studies and University Research Officer.
In 1966 and 1967, there was both a Dean of Arts and a Dean of Science. In 1967, Professor Thomas Nind became Dean of Arts and Science and, in concert with a number of Associate Deans, this position has existed until the present, sometimes under the name Dean and Provost. In 1996 the responsibilities of the Provost and Dean of Arts and Science were divided between Vice-President Academic and Dean of Arts and Science. The office of the Dean of Arts and Science has been filled by the following incumbents: Thomas Nind, Walter Pitman, David Cameron, George Hamilton, David Gallop, David Morrison, Robert Campbell, John Syrett (acting), Colin Taylor, etc. For further information about the unit and its leadership, see A.O.C. Cole, Trent: The Making of a University, pp. 126-129; D'Arcy Jenish, Trent University: Celebrating 50 Years of Excellence, 2014; and the course calendars (available in the Archives Reading Room).
The Trent University Computer Services Committee was originally established as a Presidential Advisory Committee in 1968. The members of the Committee were Professor Tyson (Chair), Professor Barret (Secretary), Professor Earnshaw, Mr. Lewis, Professor Stanford, Mr. Weinzweig, Mr. Pollock, and Professor Carter. By 1971, the committee had become a Standing Committee of the Senate with a mandate to ensure that faculty members were provided with access to a modern, high-speed computer, which was considered a basic requirement of research in many fields; to provide basic instruction in computer programming and in the capabilities and limitations of computers; and, to ensure that sufficient facilities were provided so that the computer could be regarded as a part of the average student's computational apparatus.
Although Computer Science was offered at Trent University as an interdisciplinary study from 1973 to 1983, one could not major in this discipline until 1983 when the Computer Studies Program was established.
The Committee on Colleges originated with a report entitled "Trent University. The Report of the Committee on Colleges" on April 15, 1964. In the report student life based on social and academic activities within a college setting were recommended. The Committee felt that the colleges should provide an interactive atmosphere of interdiscplinary, social, international and cultural lifestyles in order for residential and non-residential students to acquire the most positive experience possible from college affiliation and life on campus. The Committee wanted to encourage a healthy rivalry between colleges which would benefit both scholarship and undergraduate activities. This would be done by having the colleges within walking distance of one another so that all undergraduates could participate in activities together. The college system would involve faculty and students living and working together by being teaching colleges. Instead of having classes and residences separate, the university would offer lectures, tutorials and seminars in the colleges. In the report the Committee made recommendations as to the size and style of residential rooms needed and the size and style of furniture required. The report also specifies different room requirements such as junior and senior commons rooms, the college library, dining hall, tutorial offices, seminar rooms, lecture rooms, visitor's rooms, don's rooms, master's lodge, administrative offices and a Porter's lodge. The Committee continues to meet as one of the central means of coordinating the activities and policies of the colleges and the university. The Committee now serves a dual purpose to the Senate, on academic matters, and to the President, in an advisory capacity regarding buildings and finance. Members on the Committee are heads of colleges and representatives from dining services, health services, student health services and athletic services committees. The Committee has evolved to take under consideration off-campus housing, the supervisory system, selection of college heads, telephone directories, dining hall services, pub policies and college admissions besides many more concerns.
The Committee on Colleges served as one of the central means of coordinating the activities and policies of the colleges and the University. It served a dual purpose, reporting to Senate on academic matters, and to the President, in an advisory capacity regarding buildings and finance. It is composed of heads of colleges and representatives from dining services, student health services and athletic services committees. The Committee was also concerned with off-campus housing, the supervisory system, selection of college heads, telephone directories, dining hall services, pub policies, college admissions, etc.
The Committee on Colleges serves as one of the central means of coordinating the activities and policies of the colleges and the University. It serves a dual purpose, reporting to Senate on academic matters, and to the President, in an advisory capacity regarding buildings and finance. It is composed of heads of colleges and representatives from dining services, student health services and athletic services committees. The Committee is also concerned with off-campus housing, the supervisory system, selection of college heads, telephone directories, dining hall services, pub policies, college admissions, etc.
Catharine Parr Traill College was opened as a female college in 1964. It was named for Catharine Parr Traill, local author and amateur botanist. Principals have been Marion Fry, Nancy Sherouse, James Neufeld, Dan Dempster, Robert Chambers, Lynn Neufeld (acting), David Page (acting) – several occasions, Heather Avery, Michael Peterman, Michael Eamon.
The Canadian Studies department at Trent University was founded in 1972. Professor Alan Wilson was founding Chair of the department serving until 1984. John Wadland was Acting Chair from 1979-1980 and became Chair in 1984 until succeeded by Christl Verduyn in 1993. Jim Struthers became Acting Chair in 1997. For further information about the Department and its leadership over the years, see A.O.C. Cole, Trent: The Making of a University, pp. 126-129; D'Arcy Jenish, Trent University: Celebrating 50 Years of Excellence, 2014; and the course calendars (available in the Archives Reading Room).
TRENT CANADIAN STUDIES TIMELINE
Assembled by John Wadland
1964 – T.H.B. Symons, founding President of Trent University, noted in his inaugural address that “it is the hope and wish of everyone associated with Trent University that it may become in the fullness of time a useful and significant centre for Canadian Studies.”
1966 – Volume 1, No. 1, Journal of Canadian Studies. Published at Trent University, Denis Smith, Founding Editor. Subsequent Trent Editors: Ralph Heintzman, John Wadland, Michael Peterman, Michèle Lacombe, Stephen Bocking, Robert Campbell, Christl Verduyn, Marian Bredin. Trent Managing Editors and Assistants: Arlene Davis, Margaret Pearce, Jill Smith, Kerry Cannon.
1971—Formation of the Canadian Studies Program Committee (appointed by T.H.B. Symons and chaired by Alan Wilson) charged with the responsibility of hiring its first instructor. The Canadian Studies Program is to be the first formally interdisciplinary program established at Trent University. It becomes the model for all subsequent interdisciplinary programs. The permanent interdisciplinary Canadian Studies Program Committee eventually assembled by Alan Wilson included faculty and students from all the Humanities and Social Science disciplines and even some from the Sciences. It remained a fixture of the Program from 1971 to 2007, meeting routinely to determine the direction of the Program. It was truly a co-operative and inclusive project.
Key faculty players in the earliest days of the Canadian Studies Program Committee: Canadian Studies: Alan Wilson (Chair), John Wadland, Jim Struthers, Jamie Benidickson. Politics: Vaughan Lyon, David Cameron, Bob Paehlke, Denis Smith, Joe Wearing, Margaret Doxey, Bill Neville. Philosophy: Lionel Rubinoff, John Burbidge. Geography: Peter Adams, George Nader, Al Brunger, John Marsh. English: Gordon Johnston, Michael Peterman, Gordon Roper, Orm Mitchell, Sean Kane. Indigenous Studies: Harvey McCue, Don McCaskill, Marlene Castellano, Fred Wheatley. History: Dale Standen, Elwood Jones, Douglas McCalla, W.L. Morton, John Jennings, Brian Heeney, Walter Pitman, Alf Cole, Bob Page, Bruce Hodgins. Sociology: Sandy Lockhart, Paul Reed, Roy Bowles. French: Jean-Pierre Lapointe, Fred Harper, Alan Franklin. Anthropology: Kenneth Kidd, Joan Vastokas. Canadiana Librarians: Jack Martin, Anna McCalla, Anne Taylor-Vaisey. Sciences: Roy Edwards, Ian Chapman. Writer-in-Residence and Chancellor: Margaret Laurence.
1972 –John Wadland joins Canadian Studies Program
1972 – CAST offers its first interdisciplinary core course, Canadian Studies 200 (Canada: The Land). The Canadian Studies mandate was to create an interdisciplinary program of which the first core course would set the model. The interdisciplinary dimension of this course was thematic, “The Land” being identifiable in terms understood differently by many disciplines, by many regions and peoples of Canada. An interdisciplinary course very quickly avoids absolutes and demands a conversation governed by rigorous critical thinking. To guarantee that students came armed with an understanding of what constitutes a discipline, the committee determined that the Canadian Studies Program would begin in 2nd year with the Land course, it being assumed at the time that student course choices in first year would all be based within the traditional disciplines. As a core course it would be required of all CAST majors. At each of the 300 and 400 levels, there was to be a core course, also broadly interdisciplinary, also required of majors. The theoretical dimension of all 3 interdisciplinary core courses would constitute the central framework for the content. The balance of a student’s course load in the CAST portion of their degree program would be Canadian content courses cross-listed with cognate departments. Some of these courses would be taught by CAST faculty. (Interestingly, CAST core courses were cross-listed by several departments.)
1972 – Alan Wilson appointed Chair of Canadian Studies (to 1984)
1972 – First Canadian Studies Temagami Field Trip. Launched initially (and for the first 30 years) as a field trip in the second-year core course, “Canada: The Land”. In 2003 it is renamed the Trent Temagami Colloquium and, since then, has been directed jointly by Stephen Hill (ERS, Trent) and Peter Andrée (Politics, Carleton). The trip was not offered in 2019 owing to kitchen repairs at Wanapitei. In 2021 it was not offered again owing to the COVID 19 pandemic. In 2022 it will be offered in what should have been its 50th Anniversary. The annual Temagami Trip began on Thursday and lasted until Sunday featuring evening lectures and seminars, readings, a square dance, canoe excursions on neighbouring lakes, hikes into the interior. Of special importance was the relationship established between Trent students and faculty and the community of Bear Island. Chief Gary Potts became closely associated with the Trip and eventually took courses at Trent. In 1988, his leadership of the Red Squirrel Blockade, based at Wanapitei, included the Bear Island (Teme-Augama Anishinaabe) community and many students and Faculty from Trent.
1973 – CAST offers its second interdisciplinary core course, Canadian Studies 300 (Canada: Communities and Identities).
1973 – John Wadland and Bob Page represent Trent University at the inaugural meeting of the Association for Canadian Studies at Queen’s University. The meeting was chaired by Stan McMullin, then at the University of Waterloo, later at Carleton.
1974 – CAST offers its third interdisciplinary core course, Canadian Studies 400 (Canada: Culture and Communication).
1974 – First Trent graduates with CAST “Emphasis”. CAST was not permitted to identify itself as a “Major” until somewhat later. Indeed, following abandonment of the “Emphasis” Canadian Studies could only be taken as a “Joint Major” with an established discipline. Not until the 1990s could an undergraduate student undertake a “Single Major” in Canadian Studies.
1975 – Ralph Heintzman, Editor Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1980)
1975 – John Wadland, Associate Editor Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1980 and again, with John Milloy, 1993-1995)
1975 – Report of the T.H.B. Symons AUCC Commission on Canadian Studies, To Know Ourselves
1975 – “Conference on Canadian Publishing” organized by Canadian Studies (Alan Wilson), English (Gordon Roper), Writers Union of Canada (Graeme Gibson). Proceedings published in JCS. At this conference was created the Canadian Book and Periodical Development Council (now the Book and Periodical Council).
1976—Tom Symons made an Officer of the Order of Canada
1977 – Jim Struthers joins the Canadian Studies Program
1977 – John Wadland, first recipient of the Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching
1978—1984 the annual 4-day Canadian Images Film Festival at Trent University initiated by Canadian Studies (John Wadland) and English (Orm Mitchell) who remained Executive Directors until 1980, followed by Su Ditta to 1984. In the planning stages from 1976 and assisted in its development by Gerald Pratley, Director of the Ontario Film Institute. During its 7-year history, Canadian Images annually screened hundreds of films in 5 categories: Features, Documentaries, Animated, Experimental and Children’s films, taking over all the theatres on campus and in Peterborough theatres downtown. It also mounted a high-profile Photography component. Over the years an extraordinary array of speakers came to Trent, addressing audiences in panels on topics like “The State of the Industry” and “The State of the Art”: Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland, David Silcox, Michael Levine, Martin Knelman, Liam Lacey, Harry Gulkin, Budge Crawley, Al Razutis, Seth Feldman, Norman Jewison, Fil Fraser, Bruce Elder, Joyce Mason, Varda Burstyn, Martyn Burke, Peter Raymont, Andrew Sarris, Louis Applebaum, Robin Wood, Sophie Bissonette, Laura Sky, Joyce Rock, Paul Cowan, Peter Harcourt, Pierre Berton, Kirwin Cox, Dan Weinzweig, Sandra Gathercole, Michael McCabe, Sid Adilman, Ian McLaren, Seamus Flannery, John Sharkey, Len Klady, Jay Scott, Bob Verrall, Jonathan Welsh, Jim Henshaw, Susan Hogan, Michael Hogan, John Doyle, Francois Dupuis, Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, Linda Beath, Zuzana Pick, Glen Richards, John Forbes, Rick Hancox, Ross McLaren, Ted Riley, Bart Testa, Kay Armitage, John Greyson, Paul Wong, Lisa Steele, Lulu Keating, Lorraine Monk, John and Janet Foster, Jennifer Dickson, George Whiteside, Geoffrey James, Martha Langford, Gabor Szilasi, Sandra Semchuk, David Bierk, Francis Fox, etc. A number of young Trent students and recent graduates fulfilled major administrative roles at Canadian Images, some later going on to careers in filmmaking, and graphic arts, others into acting and arts administration: Margo Welch, Bradford Gorman, Jane Doidge, Bay Weyman, Annie McClelland, Su Ditta and Susan Newman. After the closing of Canadian Images in 1984, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) picked up the ball, launching “Perspectives Canada” in 1984. Eventually (2001) this morphed into two separate programs at TIFF: “Canada First!” and “Short Cuts Canada”, the first emphasizing feature films, the latter shorts and documentaries. TIFF began in 1976 as “The Festival of Festivals”. Piers Handling, later CEO of TIFF, was a programmer for Canadian Images. Trent University copyrighted the name, “Canadian Images” which, in 2002-03, became the title of a course on Canadian visual culture offered by the undergraduate Department of Canadian Studies. Cultural Studies (Kelly Egan) has also initiated an annual program in Experimental Film called “Canadian Images in Conversation”.
1980 – John Wadland, Editor, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1984)
1980 – Michael Peterman, Associate Editor, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1984)
1980 – Canadian Studies and History colleagues combine to organize a campaign to endow the annual W.L. Morton Lecture in memory of our colleague Bill Morton, first Vanier Professor, first Master of Champlain College, and Chancellor of Trent, 1977-80.
1980-1984 – The Journal of Canadian Studies faced difficult times following the creation of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council which took over the funding of scholarly journals from the Canada Council in 1978-79. In 1979-80 the JCS was also hit by new regulations from Canada Post requiring a reduction in its mailing size and weight. In 1980-81 the Editors reformatted the publication to meet the new postal and SSHRC requirements, in addition purchasing (with the assistance of a grant from the Bronfman Foundation) a used typesetter on which, with the help of Louis Taylor, it set the next several years of issues. Increased costs were also accommodated by a new policy of selling typesetting to other publications, including the Trent University Calendar. Until 1984 Editors of the JCS performed their duties on overload from full teaching loads. In 1984-85 the University Administration finally initiated a policy of allowing Editors an annual course reduction.
1980 – Ontario Council on University Affairs (OCUA) establishes “Differentiation Grants” available to universities “which accepted a clearly differentiated role, demonstrated an intention to pursue their strengths efficiently and effectively and required special funding to drop disciplinary graduate programs in favour of multidisciplinary ‘umbrella programs’ in areas where it had special strengths and the ability to make a distinctive contribution to post-secondary education in Ontario.” Trent qualifies for and receives an annual Differentiation Grant in deference to its commitment to drop discipline-based graduate programs (History, Physics and Chemistry) in favour of interdisciplinary programs (Canadian Studies, Freshwater and Watershed Ecosystems, Art and Archaeology, at that time).
1980-1982 – Trent establishes the MASSH Committee to explore the possibility of developing an interdisciplinary MA program in the Social Sciences and Humanities.
1981 – Encouraged by Professor Sandy Lockhart, President Donald Theall applies to SSHRC under the new program of “Special Grants to Small Universities in Aid of Research and Research Training Capacities” requesting funding of $25,000 annually for three years to foster the creation of “a research centre through which interdisciplinary research and graduate teaching in specifically Canadian focused social science and humanities subjects may be encouraged, supported and integrated.”
1981—Margaret Laurence appointed Trent University Chancellor (to 1983)
1981 – John Wadland Recipient of City of Peterborough Civic Award of Merit
1982 – Windy Pine (now the Windy Pine Conference Centre) in Haliburton assumed by Canadian Studies Program, with endowment, from Mary Northway and Flora Morrison. This 25-acre property on Lake Kushog serves as a conference centre, retreat, meeting and workshop venue for faculty, staff and students associated with Canadian Studies. In its early years it was maintained almost entirely by faculty and students. Not until the University established detailed risk assessment procedures in the years following 2000 did Trent require a more formal policy of staffing and maintaining the site. Skilled carpenters and regular tradespeople have included Ken Yates, Jack Scott, Don Stewart and Dave Vasey, among others.
1982 – Creation of the Frost Centre for Canadian Heritage and Development Studies (now the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies). Initially a research centre without a graduate program.
1982 – Alan Wilson chairs the search committee choosing Sandy Lockhart (Sociology) as the first Director of the Frost Centre (to 1985)
1982 – Frost Centre receives $25,000 each year (to 1987) from the SSHRC Aid to Small Universities Program.
1982 – Jim Struthers Guest Editor, JCS, Special Theme Issue on “Multiculturalism: The Second Decade.”
1983 – Premier William Davis attends a special convocation celebrating the 20th anniversary of Trent University and formally announces the launch of the Frost Centre for Canadian Heritage and Development Studies. On this occasion the Centre is named for Leslie Frost, former Premier of Ontario and the first Chancellor of Trent University. The undergraduate Canadian Studies Program was the residuary legatee of his estate. The endowment created by this gift was later transferred to the Frost Centre by the Canadian Studies Program.
1984 – John Wadland, Chair of Canadian Studies (to 1993)
1984 – Alan Wilson returns .7 to the History Department but retains a .3 affiliation with Canadian Studies.
1984 – Michael Peterman, Editor of Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1993)
1984—Jim Struthers, Associate Editor, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1987)
1984 – 1988 annual “Anti-Nuclear Symposium” organized by Canadian Studies (John Wadland) and Physics (Alan Slavin).
1984 – Robert Page recipient of the Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching
1985 – Council of Ontario Universities (COU) certifies that the Frost Centre has passed its appraisal and is now authorized to offer the M.A. degree. The appraisers are Malcolm Ross (Dalhousie), Fred Wien (Dalhousie) and J.G. Nelson (Waterloo). The Frost Centre M.A. program features three interdisciplinary clusters (Environment and Heritage; Regionalism; Native (now Indigenous) Studies), each of which offers a course. Students are required to complete two cluster courses in addition to the Colloquium. They must also write a thesis supervised by a committee and examined by an external examiner. Governance of the Frost Centre is based in a Board. Membership on the Frost Centre Board includes faculty and graduate students. No effort in this document has been made to include all the names of Board or Board committee members over the years. Suffice it to say that the Board is always chaired by the Director with the membership rotating through all the faculty directly involved in the Centre’s activities, priority being accorded to graduate student supervision.
1985 – Robert Page, Director of the Frost Centre (to 1986)
1985 - 1986 – John Marsh, Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan.
1985 – “Price of Progress” Conference organized by Canadian Studies (John Wadland and Jim Struthers)) and Politics (Ted Schrecker and Robert Paehlke)
1986 – The first talk in the Northern Chair Lecture Series features Justice Thomas Berger. The funds for the original $750,000 Northern Chair Lecture endowment were raised from two sources: (1) a detailed grant application to Secretary of State, Canada, from the Frost Centre authored by Sandy Lockhart, Larry Gemmell and John Wadland and (2) matching money authorized by the Trent Board of Governors chaired by Jon Grant. The Northern Chair Lecture series continued until 2006 after which (2008) it was redefined to become the Roberta Bondar Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Northern and Polar Studies, to recognize the work of Chancellor Bondar. By this time the endowment exceeded $1 million. The list of speakers in the Northern Chair Series is truly breathtaking. After Tom Berger came Terence Armstrong, Peter Schledermann, Dennis Patterson, John Parker, Fred Roots, Mary Simon, Jill Oakes, Ric Riewe, Mathew Coon-Come, Boyce Richardson, Harvey Feit, Mary Ellen Turpel, Alan Penn, Gary Potts, Hugh Brody, Chris Burn, Leonard Barrie, Ian Sterling, Rob Macdonald, Robert Conover, Leo Norwegian, George Blondin, Elizabeth Mackenzie, Paul Wright, Tom Andrews, Joan Barnaby, Douglas Stenton, Peter Adams, Ludger Muller-Wille, Peter Doran and Joseph Boyden. Bondar Post-Doctoral Fellows to date: Scott Heyes (2009-2011), Allice Legat (2012-2014), Rafico Ruiz (2015-2017), Lisa Janz (2017-2019), Mark Stoller 2019-2022). The Northern Chair Lectures were, and the Bondar Fellowship continues to be administered by the Frost Centre and School for the Study of Canada.
1986 – First external appraisal of the undergraduate Canadian Studies Program (Alan Artibise, University of Victoria)
1986 – Bruce Hodgins, Director of the Frost Centre (to 1992)
1986 – John Milloy Recipient of the Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching
1986 – OCUA approves funding for the Frost Centre M.A. program
1986 – John Wadland Recipient of the Secretary of State, Canada Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Canadian Studies
1986-1987 – The final year for the receipt of the $25,000 SSHRC grant under the Program of Aid to Small Universities. After the 1986-87 academic year the grant was divided between the Frost Centre and the newly created Methodologies graduate program.
1987 – John Wadland, External Appraisal of the Canadian Studies Program, Laurentian University.
1987 – Conference on “New Economics” organized by Canadian Studies and Politics
1987—Robert Campbell, Associate Editor, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1988)
1987 – Formal bequest of Windy Pine to the Canadian Studies Program by Mary Northway. Mary Northway also leaves an estate of $2.6 million to Trent University, $500,000 of which is earmarked for the undergraduate Canadian Studies Program.
1987—With the support of Alan Franklin and the French Section, Modern Languages Department, CAST introduces Canadian Studies Pilot Seminars in French
1988 – Margaret Laurence Tribute organized by Canadian Studies (John Wadland), Women’s Studies (Christl Verduyn) and English (Orm Mitchell). Proceedings of the conference component published. Readings to packed houses by Al Purdy, Alice Munro, Pierre Berton, Roo Boorson, Timothy Findley, Robert Kroetsch, W.O. Mitchell, Adele Wiseman, and many others. Poet George Johnston was MC. This occasion generated two separate endowments: (1) for the Margaret Laurence Lecture, and (2) for the Margaret Laurence Writer-in-Residence Fellowship. The poster advertising the occasion featured a drawing of Margaret that we commissioned from Harold Town, then still living at his home on the Old Norwood Road. This image is now used for the annual Margaret Laurence Lecture.
1988 – Michèle Lacombe joins Canadian Studies Program.
1988 – Alan Wilson Recipient of the Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching
1988 – James Allum (Governor General’s Gold Medal) first student to graduate from the Frost Centre M.A. program.
1988 – Robert Campbell Co-Editor Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1990)
1989 – Conference on Lord Durham and the Durham Report organized by Canadian Studies (Alan Wilson) and Politics (Jim Driscoll). Proceedings published in JCS.
1989 – Retirement of Alan Wilson – Alan Wilson Reading Room established at Kerr House, Traill College, to recognize Professor Wilson’s dedicated service to the Canadian Studies Program.
1989 – Joan Sangster Recipient of the Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching
1989 – Canadian Studies faculty and friends of the Program and from all the cognate disciplines join together to raise funds to establish an endowment to create and maintain the Alan Wilson Reading Room in Kerr House, Traill College.
1989 – Bruce Hodgins, John Eddy, Shelagh Grant and Jim Struthers, eds. Federalism in Canada and Australia: Historical Perspectives, 1920-1988. Canadian Heritage and Development Studies, Trent University, 1989.
1989 – Tom Whillans (ERS) and John Wadland (CAST) launch their 4th year Honours research course on Bioregionalism which evolves ultimately into U-LINKS (in Haliburton) and the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education (in Peterborough).
1990 – Joan Sangster and Christl Verduyn organize 'Moving Forward: Creating a Feminist Agenda for the 1990s Conference' at Trent University
1990-1992 – Dr. Katharine Arnup, SSHUC Post-Doctoral Fellowship with Joan Sangster.
1991 – Michèle Lacombe, Associate Editor Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1993)
1992 – Conference on “Religion in Canada” organized by Michèle Lacombe Canadian Studies) and John Burbidge (Philosophy). Proceedings published in JCS.
1992 – John Wadland Recipient of the OCUFA Teaching Award
1992 – John Wadland Recipient of the Association for Canadian Studies Award of Merit
1992 – Carolyn Sarah Thomson Scholarship established by the late Carolyn Sarah Thomson, a Canadian Studies graduate who was intensely loyal to Trent and to the people -- faculty, staff and students -- who make the University unique. Carolyn died of cancer at the age of 29 in 1992. The funds used to endow this scholarship were provided in Carolyn’s will, where CAST was made the beneficiary of her life insurance policy. The Scholarship was created at her request. The red maple planted on the lawn of Kerr House remembers Carolyn who was an outstanding student and a kind and generous person. After graduating from Trent, she went on to complete her M.A. in History at the University of Ottawa and then worked for the New Democratic Party. Awarded for excellence to a student entering the third year of the Canadian Studies Program.
1992 – John Marsh, Director of the Frost Centre (to 1996). John Marsh was deeply committed to encouraging research relating to heritage and heritage management. He was President of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society from 1979-1982 and a Member of the Canadian Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, 1993-1998. He organized several major conferences in the Frost Centre on applied Canadian Studies. He was particularly interested in fostering research on trails and he became well known in Peterborough and Northumberland Counties for his work and the work of his graduate students designing trails. These trails have become important fixtures in our local communities, gaining special appreciation during the COVID 19 pandemic when urban dwellers sought respite in nature from the density of cities. John was also an active member of the original group fostering the development of the Canadian Canoe Museum.
1992 – Conference on “Managing Science in Northern National Parks,” Peterborough, October 16-17.
1993 – The Frost Centre and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources combine to host a conference celebrating the centennial of Ontario Provincial Parks. Proceedings of the conference were published as Changing Parks: The History, Future and Cultural Context of Parks and Heritage Landscapes, edited by John Marsh and Bruce Hodgins. Toronto: Natural Heritage/Natural History, 1998.
1993 – Conference on “Watercraft Museums,” Jointly with the Canadian Canoe Museum, Peterborough, February 5-6.
1993 – Annual Conference of Interpretation Canada.
1993 – First National “Rails to Greenways” Conference. This conference resulted in a publication: John Marsh, ed. Rails to Greenways. Frost Centre, Trent University, 1994.
1993 – John Wadland Recipient of the Ontario Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Teaching Excellence
1993 – Christl Verduyn joins the undergraduate Canadian Studies Program as a cross-appointment with Women’s Studies
1993 – Christl Verduyn Chair, Canadian Studies (to 1999) Professor Verduyn introduced the first-year course in Canadian Studies. This initiative aimed to increase Canadian Studies majors by engaging students from their first year of study. Students often decided on their major during first year. Students had been entering Canadian Studies in their second year of study via Professor Wadland’s interdisciplinary core course, Canada: The Land (Canadian Studies 200). The development of a first year Canadian Studies course initially encountered a degree of opposition from the History Department, but concerns were allayed, in the first instance through a jointly offered course, and eventually Canadian Studies offered its own introductory interdisciplinary first year core course.
1993 – Robert Campbell Co-Editor, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1994)
1993 – Michèle Lacombe Editor, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1997)
1993 – John Milloy and John Wadland joint Associate Editors, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 1995)
1993-1994 – Christl Verduyn organizes student/ faculty Intercultural/Interregional Exchange Program with Trent and Université du Québec à Trois Rivières sponsored by the Association for Canadian Studies. This was a continuation/version of student exchange trips with Université de Sherbrooke spearheaded by Jean-Pierre Lapointe and John Wadland in previous years. Douglas McCalla and Michèle Lacombe were also central to the success of the UQTR exchange.
1993 – Joan Sangster organizes 'Teaching Canadian Women's History Conference' Trent University, 1993. An edited book, Teaching Women’s History: Challenges and Solutions is published out of the conference by University of Athabasca Press.
1994 – “Canada’s River Heritage,” a Conference organized jointly with the Canadian Canoe Museum, Canadian Parks Service and the Atlantic Centre for the Environment, Peterborough, October 28-30. This resulted in a publication: John Marsh, Bruce Hodgins and Eric Hanson, eds. Canada’s River Heritage. Frost Centre, Trent University, 1996.
1994-1995 – The Frost Centre, Community Opportunity and Innovation Network (COIN) and Peterborough Social Planning Council (PSPC) partnership (John Wadland, Jim Struthers, Tom Whillans, Sandy Lockhart, Kevin Edwards, Jackie Powell, Jennifer Bowe, Ruth Blishen and Marg Hobbs) meet routinely to plan the creation of the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education at Monture House.
1994-1995 – Christl Verduyn organizes “Making Canadian Culture”, six workshops exploring changing cultural expression and experience in Canada as part of a goal during her term as CAST Chair to facilitate discussion of and attention to issues of difference, race/racism, and urban experience in Canada and Canadian Studies.
1994 – Robert Campbell recipient of the Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching.
1995 – “The Windy Pine Colloquium: Ethnic and Racial Minority Writing and Criticism in Canada” 24 27 August. Organized by Christl Verduyn who conceived, developed, and raised external funds for the four day event, which took place at Windy Pine. This location proved to be unique for the speakers, among them Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Himani Bannerji, George Elliott Clarke, Smaro Kamboureli, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Lucie Lequin, Arun Mukherjee, Enoch Padolsky, Joseph Pivato, Drew Hayden Taylor, Aritha van Herk, all early scholars of and commentators on issues of cultural difference and racism in Canada. The initiative led to two publications, a special issue of the Journal of Canadian Studies “Pulling Together” (31.3 Fall 1996) and a subsequent expanded collection of essays Literary Pluralities (Broadview Press, 1998).
1995—Frost Centre Faculty nominate Mary Simon to become Trent’s 7th Chancellor. She serves from 1995 to 1999 and once again in 2002, following the death of Peter Gzowski.
1995—Christl Verduyn co-organizer, with Shelley Ambrose and Ron Ward, of the inaugural Lakefield Literary Festival, and each year thereafter, until 1999. Ron Ward, then owner of Margaret Laurence’s former Lakefield home on Regent Street, contacted Christl in the spring of 1995 about the possibility of University/Canadian Studies support for an event for which Laurence’s Lakefield connection would serve as base. Shelley Ambrose, then personal assistant to Peter Gzowski, learned of the idea and became involved. This developed into the Lakefield Literary Festival, now a sturdily successful annual (COVID years excepted) summer Canadian cultural event.
1995-1997— Jim Struthers supervises Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Edgar-André Montigny, “Employment, Income, and Living Arrangements of the Elderly in Ontario, a Study of the 1901 Manuscript Census.” While at Trent, Dr. Montigny initiated the historical anthology, Family Matters: Papers in Post-Confederation Canadian Family History, (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1998), which he co-edited with Dr. Lori Chambers and to which Professor Struthers was also a contributor. In 1997 Dr. Montigny also published Foisted Upon Government? State Responsibilities, Family Obligations and the Care of the Dependent Aged in Late Nineteenth Century Ontario (Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press)
1996 - Joan Sangster wins Harold Adams Innis Award (now Canada Prize) from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada for best book in the Social Sciences: Earning Respect: The Lives of Working Women in Small-Town Ontario, 1920-1960, (University of Toronto Press, 1995).
1996-1998 – Jim Struthers supervises Dr. Michael Stevenson, Post-Doctoral Fellow, “The Federal Government and Job Training After World War II.” While at Trent, under Professor Struthers’ supervision, Dr. Stevenson worked on revising his 1996 doctoral dissertation for publication. His monograph, Canada’s Greatest Wartime Muddle: National Selective Service and the Mobilization of Human Resources During World War II, was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, in 2001. He is now an Associate Professor in the Departments of History and Interdisciplinary Studies at Lakehead University.
1996 – Frost Centre Conference on “Research in Protected Areas,” Jointly with the University of Waterloo, Buckhorn, April 11-12.
1996 – Frost Centre Conference on “Trail Development and Tourism,” Jointly with the Ontario Trails Council, April 27-28.
1996 – Canexus 2 – A Frost Centre conference on “The Canoe and Canadian Culture(s)”, Peterborough, May 10-12. Canexus 1 was held at Queen’s University in 1987 and directed by James Raffan. It resulted in a publication featuring essays by many of the national advocates for the Canadian Canoe Museum. See James Raffan and Bert Horwood, eds. Canexus: The Canoe in Canadian Culture (Betelgeuse Books, 1988).
1996 – Community Heritage Ontario Annual Conference, Frost Centre, Peterborough, September 21.
1996 – John Wadland, Director of the Frost Centre (to December 31, 2000)
1996 – Christl Verduyn Recipient of the Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching
1996 – Christl Verduyn, Gabrielle Roy Book Prize (for Lifelines: Marian Engel’s Writing, 1995.)
1996—Larry Turner (1951-1996) died tragically of a heart attack. He graduated with a B.A. in History and Canadian Studies from Trent in 1976 and completed his M.A. at Queen's University in 1984. He was a well-known Ontario historian. He published nine books and also wrote several entries in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. His papers were donated to the Trent Archives and his Library is housed in Kerr House, a gift to the Frost Centre from his family.
1996 – Frost Centre joins in partnership with the Community Opportunity and Innovation Network (COIN) and the Peterborough Social Planning Council (PSPC) to create the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education (TCCBE) and U-Links. Founding Board members include Jim Struthers, Marg Hobbs, Tom Whillans, Sandy Lockhart and John Wadland. The TCCBE changed its name in 2015 to the Trent Centre for Community Research (TCRC). The community-based research project grew in part from the CAST/ERST 470 course on “Bioregionalism” (1989-2003) created and taught by John Wadland and Tom Whillans in fulfillment of our commitment to Mary Northway to give back to the Haliburton community. The Bioregionalism course also spun off U-LINKS, the community-based education program in Haliburton which also remains affiliated with Trent.
1996 – Presidential Advisory Committee to establish the mandate of the newly established T.H.B. Symons Endowed Trust for Canadian Studies (Ralph Heintzman, John Wadland and David Morrison.) The creation of the Trust was spearheaded by Ralph Heintzman, with contributions (now totaling well over $1 million) coming from the family and friends of Tom Symons, before and after his death.
1996 – Dr. Jack Goodman, a Toronto Dermatologist, donates 34 original 19th century Canadian art works to the Canadian Studies Program to hang in the Wilson Room and adjacent spaces in Kerr House. In a supplementary gift he added 7 more paintings.
1996 – Bruce Hodgins retires.
1996 – “Refiguring Wilderness: A Symposium to Honour Bruce Hodgins," Conference organized by John Wadland, Jonathan Bordo, John Milloy, Peter Kulchyski, Wanapitei, Temagami, August 29-September 2. Proceedings published as a special issue of the JCS.
1996-1997 – Julia Harrison Chair of the Board of the Art Gallery of Peterborough.
1997-2005 – Summer Explorations in Canadian Cultures, an 8-year initiative launched by the Canadian Studies Program, with the assistance of the Frost Centre and Julian Blackburn College to bring international academics to Trent for five, seven or 14-day courses, on core themes relevant to the interdisciplinary study of Canada. Staff included Laurie Westaway and Melanie Sedge. At the time of this writing, and with the assistance of students enrolled in the Trent Centre for Community Research, Melanie is preparing a detailed, illustrated volume on the extraordinary success of this program as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Canadian Studies project.
1997 – “Beyond the Postcard: Missing Snapshots of Canada,” National Student Conference organized by Frost Centre students. The Proceedings of this conference were published in the 1997 issue of Avancer: The Student Journal for the Study of Canada.
1997 – Symposium on “Endangered Traces,” to celebrate the visit of Ashley Fellow, Professor John Mulvaney, University of Sydney, Australia, Bata Library, Trent University, Peterborough, November 1997 Co-organized by John Wadland (Frost Centre) and Jonathan Bordo (Cultural Studies).
1997 – The formal inauguration of the Canadian Canoe Museum. The museum had been established originally by Kirk Wipper as the Kanawa Canoe Museum at Camp Kandalore in Haliburton, immediately adjacent to Windy Pine. For many years prior to 1997, faculty associated with the Frost Centre (led by Bruce Hodgins, John Marsh, John Jennings, Tom Symons, Jack Matthews, Shelagh Grant and Dale Standen in particular, and encouraged by then Trent President, John Stubbs) worked with Wipper, James Raffan (Queen’s) and others in the Peterborough community to bring the Museum to Peterborough. Frost Centre members (John Jennings, Julia Harrison, Michael Peterman among them) served on the Canoe Museum Board and Jeremy Ward, a Trent Canadian Studies graduate, became (and remains) the first Curator.
1998 – Bruce Hodgins recipient of Honorary Degree, LLD, Wilfrid Laurier University.
1998 – Robert Campbell Editor, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 2000)
1998-2001 – Jim Struthers Co-Editor, with Margaret Conrad, of the Canadian Historical Review (CHR)
1999 – John Milloy publishes his pathbreaking study, A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System 1879-1986. University of Manitoba Press: Winnipeg, 1999. This was republished in 2017 with a Forward by Mary Jane Logan McCallum Ph.D. of the University of Winnipeg. Mary Jane is a graduate (M.A.) of the Frost Centre. This book was one of the products of Professor Milloy’s work with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). It was described by The Literary Review of Canada as “One of the 100 most important Canadian books ever written.” The Globe and Mail said, “Milloy’s book should be mandatory reading for all citizens of the Americas.”
1999 – Jim Struthers, JCS Guest Co-Editor, with Edgar-Andre Montigny, Special Issue on “Families, Restructuring, and the Canadian Welfare State”.
1999 – Christl Verduyn conducts field trip to Montreal for students enrolled in the Canadian Studies 362 course, Quebec Contexts, to visit and experience various notable cultural and political sites of Montreal.
1999 – Jim Struthers, Chair of Canadian Studies (to 2005)
1999 – Beginning in 1999, following her tenure as Chair of CAST, Christl Verduyn assumed formal responsibilities with the then national Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) 1999-2003 (President Elect, President, Past President) This experience later informed Christl’s role, with many others, in the creation of the new Canadian Studies Network (CSN). To understand the origin of the CSN, consult its website: https://www.csn-rec.ca/about-csn-rec/origins
1999 – Following a conversation beginning in 1996, the Frost Centre Board renames the Centre: The Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Native (now Indigenous) Studies. This change coincided with the publication of John Milloy’s book, A National Crime, and was meant also to acknowledge the importance of the Oka Crisis (1990), the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1991- 1996), the Ipperwash Crisis (1995) and the creation of Nunavut (1999) for the future of the Frost Centre.
2000 – Journal of Canadian Studies special Millennium volume (35) Robert Campbell, conceived and developed this special volume examining Canada and Canadian Studies at the outset of the new millennium. The volume comprised four issues of which three were guest-edited, including by Robert, who also edited the first issue: 35/1 – Canadian Studies at the Millennium (Robert Campbell, editor); 35/2 – Women (Jill Vickers and Micheline de Sève, editors); 35/3 – Canadian Cultures in the 21st Century (Christl Verduyn, editor); 35/4 – Reforming Canadian Political Institutions for the 21st Century Thérèse Arsenault, Robert Campbell, Brian Tanguay, editors) The volume garnered the international recognition of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals as runner up to the prestigious Phoenix Award for Editorial Achievement.
2000 – “Sound Escape: International Conference on Acoustic Ecology” a SSHRC funded conference privileging the work of R. Murray Schafer organized by the Frost Centre (John Wadland) and Cultural Studies (Ellen Waterman), June 28-July 2. Proceedings published: Ellen Waterman, ed. Sonic Geography: Imagined and Remembered. (Peterborough: Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies and Penumbra Press, 2002)
2000 – Second external appraisal of the undergraduate Canadian Studies Program (Colin Howell, St. Mary’s University)
2000 – OCGS approval of the joint (with Carleton) Ph.D. in Canadian Studies. This was the result of several years of negotiation, spearheaded by Christl Verduyn (Trent) and Jill Vickers (Carleton) during the Frost Centre Directorship of John Marsh. From 1993 to 2000 negotiations proceeded to a happy conclusion. Trent’s Frost Centre Ph.D. Planning Committee: John Wadland (Chair), Jim Struthers, Michèle Lacombe, Christl Verduyn, Joan Sangster and Paul Healy. Throughout our deliberations three different faculty members served as Director of the Carleton contingent: Natalie Luckyj (who became seriously ill with cancer in the middle of her term and, in 2002, tragically died), Pat Armstrong and François Rocher. The three external appraisers assigned by OCGS: Roland Lorimer (SFU), James Harding (Regina), John Conway (Regina). An absolute pillar of the Committee’s work was our secretary, Winnie Janzen, in whose name an endowed graduate student bursary was established on the occasion of her retirement.
2000 – Christl Verduyn and Robert Campbell depart Trent for Wilfrid Laurier University (2000-2006), then for Mount Allison University (2006-2018). At each of these universities Christl becomes a central player in the Canadian Studies project. Chair, Canadian Studies Program, Wilfrid Laurier (2001-2005), Recipient of the Governor General’s International Award for Canadian Studies; Director, Centre for Canadian Studies, Mount Allison (2010-2018); Davidson Chair of Canadian Studies, Mount Allison (2010-2020). While at Mount Allison, Christl connects Canadian Studies to the annual Symons Lecture on the State of Canadian Confederation at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, PEI, bringing a busload of students to the lecture each year from 2007 to 2017. She conducted the External Reviews of the Canadian Studies Programs at Dalhousie (2003), McGill (2015), and the University of Toronto (2017).
During their respective tenures at Mount Allison Christl Verduyn becomes a 3-M Teaching Fellow and a Member of the Order of Canada, while Robert Campbell becomes University President and a Member of the Order of Canada.
2001 – Stephen Bocking, Editor, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 2003)
2001 – John Wadland, External Appraiser (with John English and Rusty Bitterman) of the Canadian Studies Program, University of Waterloo.
2001 – Bryan Palmer joins undergraduate Canadian Studies Program from Queen’s University as Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (Trent’s first CRC)
2001 – Joan Sangster, Director of the Frost Centre and first Director of the Ph.D. Program (to 2006)
2001 – First Ph.D. students admitted to the Frost Centre
2001 – Joan Sangster Recipient of the Trent University Distinguished Research Award
2002 – Bryan Palmer editor of Labour/Le Travail (until 2017), providing intern support to a number of Frost Centre MA and PhD students
2002 – “Labour/Le Travail at 50,” a conference on writing working-class history and the journal Labour/Le Travail, sponsored by the Frost Centre, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Canada Research Chairs Program is organized by Bryan Palmer, with the help of Frost Centre PhD candidate, Donica Belisle. Participants include academics from across Canada, as well as from the United States, Brazil, Ireland, and Australia. Proceedings were published in a special issue of Labour/Le Travail, 50 (Fall 2002
2002 – John Wadland, Visiting Professor, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Germany, Seminar für Wissenschlaftliche Politik
2002 – Bryan Palmer elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC)
2002 – Davina Bhandar joins Canadian Studies Program
2002-2003, Joan Sangster is awarded Seagram Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies, Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University
2002 – Conference on “Writing Canadian Labour History”, organized by Bryan Palmer, CRC, and co-sponsored by the Frost Centre.
2002-2004 – Jim Struthers sole author of the 236-page Report, “Historical Review of the Veterans Independence Program” for Veterans Affairs Canada, a project that launched Professor Struthers as a senior academic advocate for the importance of research on aging in Canada.
2003 – John Wadland, Chair, Department of Political Studies (to 2005).
2003 – Sally Chivers joins the Canadian Studies Program as a joint appointment with the Department of English Literature.
2003—Jim Struthers serves as External Appraiser of the Canadian Studies undergraduate program, Glendon College, York University.
2003 – Joan Sangster elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC)
2004 – Sally Chivers establishes the Trent “Brown Bag Lunch” series at Traill College
2004 – John Milloy transfers from Indigenous Studies to the Canadian Studies Program
2004 – “Inter/Sections” Conference organized by Michèle Lacombe at Windy Pine
2004 – First Trent National Canadian Studies Undergraduate Student Conference, "Producing Canada", March 5-7. Organized by Portage, the undergraduate Canadian Studies Student Association at Trent.
2004-2007 – Jim Struthers supervises Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Carole Roy, “Social Activism and Contributions of Women Over 60.” Dr. Roy is now a Professor in Adult Education at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish Nova Scotia. While at Trent, Dr. Roy initiated the Peterborough “Travelling World Community Film Festival,” (2005-2007) which subsequently evolved into Peterborough’s ReFrame Film Festival, still (in 2022) a centrepiece of documentary film culture in Canada.
2004-2006 – Julia Harrison, President, Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA)
2005 – Jim Driscoll, Chair of Canadian Studies (to 2006)
2005-2006 – Bryan Palmer supervises Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Dennis Pilon, “Democracy and Comparative Working-Class Politics.” Dr. Pilon subsequently published Wrestling with Democracy: Voting Systems as Politics in the Twentieth-Century West (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,2013), established himself as one of Canada’s leading authorities on electoral reform, and is currently an Associate Professor of Political Science at York University.
2005 – “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Costs and Contributions of Care: The Hidden Costs/Invisible Contributions” Research Project Symposium organized at Trent by Jim Struthers (with Sally Chivers) for the partners in a SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Initiatives Grant.
2005 – Second Trent National Canadian Studies Undergraduate Conference, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," March 4-6. Organized by Portage, the undergraduate Canadian Studies Student Association at Trent.
2006 – Julia Harrison, Chair of the External Review Committee, University of Victoria, Department of Anthropology
2006-2007 – Bryan Palmer supervises Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Wade Matthews, “The British Marxist Historians.” While at Trent Dr. Matthews taught courses in Canadian and comparative labour history and later published The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-up of Britain (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2013 and Chicago: Haymarket, 2014).
2006-08 Joan Sangster receives SSHRC Killam Research Fellowship
2006 – Jim Struthers, Director of the Frost Centre (to 2009)
2006 – Michael Peterman elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
2006 – Christl Verduyn elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
2006 – Brian Thorn 1st Ph.D. student to graduate from the Frost Centre. His PhD dissertation was published as From Left to Right: Maternalism and Women’s Political Activism in Postwar Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017. Brian is currently a faculty member at Nipissing University.
2006 – Jim Driscoll returns to the Department of Political Studies
2006 – John Wadland, Chair of Canadian Studies (to 2007)
2006 – Third Trent National Canadian Studies Undergraduate Conference, "From Far and Wide. . . Which Canada? Reflections on Imagination, Nature and Community," February 10-12. Organized by Portage, the undergraduate Canadian Studies Student Association at Trent.
2007 – Mark Dickinson and Donica Belisle (Governor General’s Gold Medal), 2nd and 3rd Ph.D. students to graduate from the Frost Centre. Donica Belisle’s revised dissertation (supervised by Bryan Palmer), was later published under the title Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press), 2011, and was awarded the Pierre Savard Prize in Canadian Studies by the International Council for Canadian Studies and the Annual Book Award in Canadian Studies by the Canadian Studies Network. Mark Dickinson has taught at OCAD University and is currently teaching in the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University. Mark has published 3 books: Lyric Ecology: An Appreciation of the Work of Jan Zwicky. Toronto: Cormorant Books: Toronto, 2010; Listening for the Heartbeat of Being: The Arts of Robert Bringhurst. (Edited, with Brent Wood) Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015; Canadian Primal: Poets, Places, and the Music of Meaning. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021.
2007 – The undergraduate Canadian Studies Program becomes the Department of Canadian Studies.
2007 Joan Sangster organizes “Canada on Display” History and Canadian Studies Conference, Trent University, April.
2007 – Bryan Palmer, Chair of Canadian Studies (to 2009)
2007 – September-October, Bryan Palmer and Joan Sangster host Ashley Fellow, Dr. David Montgomery, Yale University, who presents four public lectures on “Workers Movements & Imperialism, 18902 to 1950s,” and meets with a number of MA and PhD students in the Frost Centre.
2007 – Jim Struthers Recipient of the Trent University Distinguished Research Award
2007 - Fourth Trent National Canadian Studies Undergraduate Conference, "Wasting and Wanting," February 9-11. Organized by Portage, the undergraduate Canadian Studies Student Association at Trent.
2008 – Retirement of John Wadland
2008 – Title of Professor Emeritus conferred on John Wadland
2008 – “Teaching Canada” 26 April. A day-long set of student-organized panel discussions, presentations and reflections on three themes in Canadian Studies: “Where in the World is Canada?”; “What Culture, What Heritage?”; “Climate Change and Canadian Responsibility”. To honour John Wadland’s role as a university teacher in the fields of Canadian Studies and Environmental Studies, on the occasion of his retirement.
2008 – Bryan Palmer’s CRC renewed for second 7-year term
2008 – Caroline Langill, Rebecca Pollock (Trudeau Scholar and Governor General’s Gold Medal) and Molly Blyth, 4th, 5th and 6th Ph.D. students to graduate from the Frost Centre. Caroline Langill is currently Associate Professor and Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, OCAD University, Toronto. Rebecca Pollock is Executive Director of the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve Mnidoo Gamii.
2008 – Christl Verduyn (Trent Alumna, former Trent CAST Chair, Professor of Canadian Studies, Mount Allison University) Editor, Journal of Canadian Studies (to 2012)
2008-2010 – Jim Struthers, Christl Verduyn and Julia Harrison serve on the new Canadian Studies Network (CSN) Steering Committee.
2008 – Bryan Palmer awarded the Canadian Historical Association Wallace K. Ferguson Prize for his book, James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928.
2008 – Julia Harrison, Co-Chair, External Review Committee, Wilfrid Laurier University, Department of Anthropology.
2008 – Joan Sangster awarded Laurence G. Pathy Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies and History, Princeton University.
2008, 26 February, Bryan Palmer organizes public lecture, “2008: Finish the Job,” in which Shawn Brant spoke on “Mohawk Militancy and the Struggle for Aboriginal Rights,” sponsored by Canadian Studies, Political Studies, History, Sociology, Indigenous Studies, Champlain College, Frost Centre, and the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty.
2009 – Sally Chivers, Chair of Canadian Studies (to 2011)
2009 – Molly Blyth Recipient of the Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching.
2009 Joan Sangster awarded Fulbright Chair in Canadian Studies and History, Duke University.
2009 – Julia Harrison, Director of the Frost Centre (to 2013). John Marsh had developed a newsletter for the Frost Centre called The Frostline. This appeared intermittently in hard copy and reported on events occurring in the CAST graduate program. Copies are still to be seen in Frost Centre Office. During John Wadland’s tenure as Director, Kim Krenz began to appear regularly at Frost Centre lectures and special events. Dr. Krenz was a Physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project and at Atomic Energy of Canada and who lived in Lakefield. During Julia Harrison’s tenure as Director, Dr. Krenz donated funds to produce a new hard copy document, The Frost Report, an end of year summary which Julia had initiated to replace The Frostline. In her first year as Director, Julia produced the first hard copy issue of The Frost Report. But for the following years both hard copy (for mailing) and online versions of the document appeared, so that there would be a consistent record of Frost Centre activities. See https://www.trentu.ca/frostcentre/frost-report/frost-report-2011 https://www.trentu.ca/frostcentre/frost-report/frost-report-2012 https://www.trentu.ca/frostcentre/frost-report/frost-report-2013 Dr. Krenz remained interested in the Frost Centre for many years. He died at the age of 101 in 2021.
2009-2013 – Julia Harrison initiated and hosted the annual September 3-day retreat for incoming and upper year CAST Carleton and Trent Ph.D. students at Windy Pine Conference Centre.
2009 – Third External Appraisal of Trent’s undergraduate Canadian Studies Department (Ian Angus, Simon Fraser University)
2009 – Sally Chivers and Julia Harrison begin talks towards the development of what would become the School for the Study of Canada.
The Trent University Broadcast Board Committee was created in 1968. It was designed as a joint Senate-Congress Committee comprised of three students and three faculty members. The Board was responsible for the Trent University Radio Service. During the 1968-69 academic year, the radio service was run by thirty-five students and faculty and produced a series of programs which were broadcast on Sunday evenings through the facilities of CHEX-FM. The series was an experiment to determine if radio service from Trent would be adventageous for both the University and the Peterborough Community. The results of the experiment were a success and the Radio Service was expanded the following academic year to AM radio through CKPT-AM. The main function of the Broadcast Board was to approve annual budgets and gain approval for the budgets from the appropriate University bodies. The Board was also responsible for choosing the Radio Service Manager and selecting its own Chairman. The Broadcast Board was designed in a similar fashion to the Publication Board which monitored the University newspaper, "The Arthur".
Although the Bookstore Committee reported to the Office of the President (1963-1971), it also reported prior to 1965 with both the Academic Planning Committee and the Campus Planning Committee. It subsequently was a sub-committee of the Board of Governors (1966-1968), then the Senate (1972-2001). The next recorded iteration of the committee was as a Senate sub-committee (2013-2016). In 1985, there was a Task Force on Bookstore Services and Management, reporting to the Office of the Dean.
It was in 1957, through public discussion, that the people of Peterborough decided they wanted to establish a post-secondary educational institution in their city. The Mayor Colonel John Dewart set up a Committee on Higher Education which brought together many facets of the community to study such a possibility. The committee members represented business and industry, religion, education, and women's interests. On September 21, 1960, the committee became the Board of Directors of Trent College Limited. It was incorporated for the purposes of preliminary planning under the Companies Act. The elected body was comprised of C.K. Fraser as chairman; Dr. Donaldson Whyte, first vice-chairman; Rev. John Coughlan, second vice-chairman; Fred Chapman, treasurer; and Norman Crook, secretary. In May 1962, on the recommendation of the Provincial Government's Advisory Committee on University Affairs, the Government of Ontario announced its support for the founding of Trent University. An Act to incorporate Trent University was passed by the Legislature. The Act established a Board of Governors and the Senate of the University and conferred upon Trent the full and traditional powers and responsibilities of a University. The initial six members of the Board of Governors were C.K. Fraser, Dr. Donaldson Whyte, Rev. John Coughlan, Norman Crook, T.H.B. Symons, and Walter G. Ward. The number of board members was increased to 18 in 1963. The role of the Board of Governors was, and still is, to appoint and remove the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University; to appoint, promote, and remove deans, senior administrative officers and teaching staff, with the approval of the President and Vice-Chancellor; to fix the number, duties and salaries of the officers, clerks, employees, agents, and servants of the University; to appoint the executive committee as needed and to confer upon them the powers of the Board; and to make by-laws and regulations for the conduct of its affairs.
The Audio-Visual Department was an academic support department set up to provide audio visual equipment, projectionists, other technical services and a media library service to the University community. Audio-Visual activities were divided into four distinct categories: distribution of audio visual equipment; film/video bookings - media library; language laboratory operations; and audio-visual productions. The Audio-Visual Department fells within the umbrella of the Library, and was directed administratively by the Head Librarian.
The Audio Library Program was established in 1974 to service visually and physically disabled students at the post-secondary level in Ontario. Housed at Trent University, the Program’s primary focus was to make print material accessible to students.
The office of Associate Dean of Arts and Science at Trent University has had a convoluted history. The first incumbent was W. Eldon, followed by Julian Blackburn, Prudence Craib, Peter Adams, and Colin Taylor. The position has held responsibilities related to graduate studies and research since 1984.
The Ashley Fellowship was established at Trent University in 1976 with a bequest from the late Charles Allan Ashley. Proceeds from the endowment are used to bring a visiting scholar to reside in one of the university’s five colleges in order to participate in lectures, seminars and informal contacts with students and faculty. Those eligible to receive the fellowship are persons who have made significant achievements in their field. They do not necessarily hold an academic appointment, but are required to contribute broadly to the academic and collegiate life of the University.
The first archivist was Pat Johnston. She was succeeded by Ken Johnson who was archivist until 1982. Bernadine Dodge was first appointed Acting University Archivist in 1982 and then University Archivist the next year. She retired in 2009. At various times between 2009 and 2022 Janice Millard served as Curator and Jodi Aoki as Archivist and University Archivist. Janice Millard retired in 2015 and Jodi Aoki in 2022.
Trent University was formally created in 1963 by the Ontario Legislature. Located in Peterborough, Ontario, Trent opened its doors to its first students in 1964.
