The History Honours program gives students the opportunity to complete a research project with guidance from History faculty. Students will present their work at the annual History Honours Conference which is held in May of each year.
Students who are interested in completing a History Honours can contact the History Department Coordinator, Nicole.Kungle@ufv.ca for more info or visit the UFV Academic Calendar program page for the History Honours.
Note: HIST 400 and HIST 440 may not be offered in the same academic year.
Past History Honours Student Research Projects
"The Land Under Heaven: Motoori Norinaga and the Japanese Collective" by Andrew Kelly
Abstract:
In Japan’s early modern period, the notion of public community and identity flourished through many modes. Playwrights, poets, and authors realized new audiences, geographic space was reimagined and put to physical form through accessible maps and travel guides, and mirrors and surveys gave an encyclopedic overview of Japan’s growing cities. The Tokugawa era, termed for the Tokugawa Shogunate’s reign over military matters in Japan, is often viewed in oversimplified terms as an era of stability and censorship, yet it was also a time of great social and political change. This is the context for Japanese philosopher and writer Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), who forms a sense of national Japanese identity that is rooted in collective habitation within a divine country innately endowed with an idealized but morally distorted “Way”, or a moral and emotional ideology. His ideas provide the foundation for what will eventually evolve into modernized, westernized nationalism come the Meiji Restoration (1868), a trend that would abscond from Norinaga’s ideal of an apolitical, sympathetic community and instead highlight his conceptions of Japan’s circumstantial superiority to China and the rest of the world.
"The Artistic Criminal: Censorship and Surveillance of Black Novelists in Cold War and Modern America" by Jennifer Carstensen
Abstract:
In the fight against communist ideas in Cold War America censorship and surveillance were commonly employed, especially against creatives like authors. Minority authors, such as African Americans, found themselves particularly targeted because of the ways they criticized the American state. However, this is not something that started and ended with the Red Scare, as in modern day America the same kinds of authors are targeted by book bans and governmental actions to silence their dissenting voices. This paper delves into the ways in which African American authors were and are silenced through techniques like FBI surveillance, censorship, book bans, and legislation both in the Cold War and 21st Century to compare the two eras and see how similar or different they are. Through this analysis we see that while the rhetoric and tools of censorship change, the targets remain the same, and that the internet age makes it impossible for these actions of censorship to go unnoticed by the broader public.
"The Impact of Racial Ideology and Internal Rivalry on Recruitment for the Waffen SS: The Latvian Legion" by Steven Prosser
Abstract:
This essay explores the position of Latvia in WWII, specifically examining the nation’s role in the Nazi Waffen SS. Under the command of Heinrich Himmler, the Waffen SS was to play an instrumental role in establishing a society based on horrendous racial ideologies. Roughly 900,000 soldiers fought as members of the SS, however nearly half of these soldiers came from other nations. People of Germanic and Nordic backgrounds, along with various western Europe nations were considered suitable for recruitment to the SS. However, many nations, in particular those in eastern Europe, were disputed among members of the Nazi regime as to where they fit in their constructed racial hierarchy and whether they could be accepted into Germany’s elite military units. Latvians were considered by many of the Nazi regimes top ranked officials, including Hitler himself, as being inferior. As a result, several opposed to the notion of forming a Latvian Legion. Yet the small nation of roughly 2 million people ended up producing one of the largest foreign divisions of the Waffen SS. This essay explores how the Latvian Legion developed under these circumstances.
"The American Superiority Complex: The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb" by Abigail Taggart
Abstract:
The end of the Second World War was marked by the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, these bombings symbolized a new beginning as well. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States of America would rise to
an all-time high just a few decades later, the effects of which are still being felt today. While the official reasoning for the use of atomic weaponry remains focused on the projected casualties of an Allied invasion of Japan, revisionist historians and declassified intelligence documents reveal a far more subtle reasoning. The U.S. government sought to intimidate the Soviet Union and prevent dividing Japan, as they had in Germany, and the constant dehumanization of the Japanese in the American perspective and propaganda, most evident in the characterization of the kamikaze pilots, allowed Japan to be the target of atomic weapons. As such, it was the desire for,
and internal perception of, the United States to be a racially, intellectually, and technologically superior nation to those that may oppose her that drove the decision to drop the atomic bomb.
"(Re)Indigenizing the Creator's Game: Settler Colonialism and Lacrosse's Journey from Eastern Lands to Stó꞉lō Hands" by Carlanna Thompson
Abstract:
This project not only highlights that the version of lacrosse played by Indigenous peoples in the BC was a colonized version of what was originally the Haudenosaunee variation of the game in Northeastern North America, but also that this colonizer’s import was subsequently incorporated and co-opted by Stó:lō communities for their own purposes. In the process, it provided a vehicle for cross-community communication and relationship building, for fostering of pan-Indigenous identities, and for supporting pride in their own identity and proficiency. The effect was thus a ‘re-Indigenization’ of the sport of lacrosse in the Fraser Valley in the late 19th and early
20th centuries.
"Female University Students and the Act of Protest: The Cases of SFU and UBC from the 1960s -1970s" by Katelyn Fisher
Abstract:
This paper offers a case study of women's activist voices in student newspapers over the course of the 1960s and 1970s - notably through Simon Fraser University's Peak and the University of British Columbia's Ubyssey. It demonstrates how women challenged gender norms on university campuses and engaged in "New Left" activism in relation to local and global political issues.
"Reactions to Public Health Mandates in the Influenza of 1918-1919" by Olivia Giesbrecht-Coombs
Abstract:
Like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 was controlled through public health mandates that aimed to stop the spread of disease. These included mask mandates, quarantines, and the closure of public spaces. In the United States, most of these efforts were carried out at the local and municipal levels, meaning that there were great variations in the response to the pandemic from one part of the country to another. This paper analyzes these regional differences and examines the public response to different health measures. It highlights the effect that World War I and major transformations in medical practice played in shaping the public response. This research is significant in the contemporary context as it helps to show the connections between how pandemic mandates are enacted and what the reactions are that can be expected.
"The 2011 Stanley Cup Riot: Hockey Culture, Hegemonic Masculinity, and Violence" by Michaela Sapielak
Abstract:
The focus of this research is the 2011 Vancouver Canucks hockey fan riot, and its place in the history of hockey spectator violence. There will be a summary of the riot following the Vancouver Canucks’ loss at the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, which saw mass vandalism and chaos in the downtown area. This riot will be placed in the context of similar riots, such as the 1994 Vancouver Stanley Cup Riot, as well as the Richard Riot of 1955. To follow will be an exploration of the extent to which the 2011 riot was a result of historical trends in sports spectatorship, or a product of other factors.
"The Heritage of Colonialism: Racism and Colonialism in Abbotsford Public History" by Gina Wiebe
Abstract:
This project will be examining the history of racism in Abbotsford through the lens of public history. In exploring how institutions like the Reach and Heritage Abbotsford have shaped local history in the valley, I want to look critically at how systemic racism may have shaped these narratives. Through my practicum at Heritage Abbotsford, and my local history project in History 440, I noticed that many of the prevalent stories were focused on white settlers while Indigenous and non-European stories were rarely mentioned, if at all. With this project, I want to examine the ways in which public history in Abbotsford has contributed to or pushed back against these racist and colonialist narratives.