Who We Are

We are a team of UVic scholars, librarians, students, and staff conducting research on the history of the UVic campus and university community. We are interested in engaging historical injustices for purposes of change, solidarity, and respect.

Learning about and working to repair unjust histories, within a broader context of contemporary historical justice initiatives and debates (e.g. truth and reconciliation, decolonization), is not only for governments, nations, communities, families, and individuals. Universities and other postsecondary institutions are now facing calls to do this work of learning and repair in relation to their own specific unjust inheritances and histories.

We envision this project as an initiative to support the university in continuing to take responsibility for the collective history of this place and of this institution, not as one to ‘attack’ the university. At the same time, we know also that a university with integrity is one that will hold itself accountable for its history, for how it came to be, particularly in relation to dispossession, exploitation, and exclusion of groups of people.

The research collective is fluid in who participates, when, and how. At the time of writing, faculty, librarians, and staff include:

• David Boudinot (LIBR) • Diego Coriaola (BUS)• Deborah Curran (LAW/ES) • Rob Hancock (ANTH/IACE) • Matt James (POLI) • Yin-Man Lam (ANTH) • Ry Moran (LIBR) • Carey Newman (ARTS) • Julianna Nielsen (OVPI) • Oliver Schmidtke (CFGS/HSTR/POLI) • waaseyaa'sin Christine Sy (GNDR) • Helga Thorson (SLLC).

This collective is made stronger by the contributions of its research assistants, past and present, who include:

• Babak Ashrafkhani Limoudehi (ENGL) • Emma Bowick (GEOG) • Shirina Evans (LAW) • Manya Juneja (CSC) • Kate Mix (LAW) • Julianna Nielsen (POLI) • Shaelyn Wabegijig (IGOV).