Richard Allen

Richard Allen lived his scholarship, politics and passions as an integrated whole. A historian, social activist and teacher of immense intelligence, integrity, compassion and decency, Richard passed away in March of 2019, just as his most recent book of essays, Beyond the Noise of Solemn Assemblies: The Protestant Ethic and the Quest for Social Justice in Canada, was to be launched

La Question de la précarité dans la profession

A new ad hoc working group has emerged from Council discussions about employment prospects for historians. This Working Group on Precariously Employed and Non-Tenured Track Historians will be coordinated with, and integrated into, the “outreach” portfolio of the CHA. The working group reflects both continuing trends and changing economic realities for historians. In the former case, many historians have long been employed in a range of jobs in research, government, heritage, NGOs, and more. We recognize that those areas of employment may become more and more important to history PhDs as changes in post-secondary education have led to fewer full-time, permanent positions, a veritable shrinking of the university professoriate. This fact of life seems unassailable. As data taken from the Council of Ontario Universities, recently published on the CHA indicate, the percentage of teaching done by those with tenure-track jobs is barely a majority: “55% of courses and student enrolments are taught by full-time faculty members, ….At the undergraduate level…part-time instructors… teach 46% of students and 50% of courses.” The increasing use of precarious labour in the university sector is only one factor reshaping the profession; another is the sad reality that many history departments are facing shrinkages as universities’ put fewer resources into the Humanities

Women and Work: Assessing Canadian Women's Labour History at the Millennium

This paper examines the evolution of historical writing on Canadian women and work exploring the way in which feminist challenges to the masculinist story of class formation altered the contours of working-class history. Our scholarship on women's working-class history is related to the broader trends in Canadian labour and feminist politics as well as emerging international trends in social theory and historical interpretation.Cet article etudie l'evolution des ecrits historiques sur les Canadiennes et leur travail en explorant la maniere par laquelle les defis feministes a l'histoire masculine de la formation des classes ont change les contours de l'histoire de la classe ouvriere. Notre conaissance sur l'histoire des femmes de la classe ouvriere est reliee aux tendances plus importantes dans les politiques sur le travail et sur le feminisme ainsi qu' a l'apparition de tendances internationales dans la theorie sociale et l'interpretation historique