A Tall Tree Has Fallen
In memory of Michael Earle
It is with collective sadness that we report the passing of a stalwart member of the Mount History community, Michael Earle. Mike was a Maritimer, but one who had lived in many places in Canada, as well as the UK. He returned to the Maritimes to teach at the Mount for many years, covering courses on Maritime History and the Social and Cultural History of Canada, sometimes on TV via Distance. His students considered him a fountain of knowledge, and one student said his lectures were so filled with detail that they were akin to “a looking glass trained on the past.”
Mike had a clear moral compass, and he sought in various ways to make the world a better place. In particular he was a vigilant protector of the rights of instructors at the Mount, helping to form the part-time instructors’ union, Canadian Union of Public Employees #3912.
As his colleagues, we will always remember Mike for his quick historical wit. Mike once told us that as brilliant as Karl Marx’s understanding of the working class may have been, Marx himself “never worked a day in his life.” His jokes were often accompanied by his laugh, which, as our colleague Frances Early recalled, “came from his centre and radiated out, enveloping those in his circle.” He will be much missed.
News:
- Congratulation to Alishia Berthelet, recipient of a Kappa Gamma Pi Prize at the Fall 2020 Convocation. Find out more about Alishia and the award.
- History grad’s academic experience helps ensure smooth sailing in his oceanic career – A story on Flair Martin, who graduated in 2014 with a BA in history
- Dr. Jonathan Roberts recently published Medicine for Hatred: Civil, Criminal, and Supernatural Justice at the Nae We Shrine Tribunal in Accra, Ghana. A 10 year project that involved four honours history students from MSVU and a scholar in Ghana.
- Check out “Brexit & Wexit blend self-pity with sense of greatness” written in the Chronicle Herald by Dr. Ken Dewar, a emeritus professor in the Mount’s History Department.
Feeling hungry? Here are some foods from the Paleolithic era, part of our weekly feast in HIST 2255 – The History of Food!- Mary Owusu, MSVU instructor for the courses of Story of Modern Africa and African Civilizations, has won the prestigious Barbara Harlow Prize for Excellence in Graduate Research.
- Dr. Arthur McCalla presented the Sister Francis D’Assisi award to Elise Blacker at the 2019 Academic Award Reception. The D’Assisi prize is given to the graduating history Major or Honours student judged by the faculty of the Department of History to be the most outstanding of her class.
- Three students from the MSVU Department of History presented papers at the Atlantic Universities Undergraduate History/Classics Conference at the University of New Brunswick from March 1-3, 2019, thanks to generous funding from the Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Department of History. The papers presented were:
- Alishia Berthelet, Mount Saint Vincent University, “‘Oh God that you will give me the strength to live a good Catholic girls life’: Love and Learning at Mount Saint Vincent Academy, 1926-1927”
- Ashley MacKinnon, Mount Saint Vincent University, “Talk this Way: The Perception of Patois & Linguistic Diversity during the French Revolution”
- Cora Lynn Munroe, Mount Saint Vincent University, “First Wave Feminism and the Bible: Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Kenneth Dewar wrote “Liberalism, Social Democracy, and Tom Kent“, which was published in the Journal of Canadian Studies (Volume 53, Winter 2019).
- The MSVU History Department Curling team, featuring Arthur McCalla as skip, Becca Babcock as vice, and Jonathan Roberts as lead, won the “Best Curlers in History” bonspiel at the Mayflower Curling Club on February 9th, 2019.
- Women on the Waterfront Statues unveiled – featuring Dr. Janet Guildford, retired faculty member of the MSVU History Department, and chair of the Halifax Women’s History Society.