Beyond the Ridge / Par-delà la Crête

We were joined by Carla-Jean Stokes, Canadian scholar, curator, and writer specializing in First World War photography. We discussed her research on William Ivor Castle, the stories behind iconic battlefield images, and how these photographs shaped ideas of heroism, sacrifice, and Canadian identity during and after the war.

Dans cet épisode, nous recevons le Dr Serge Durflinger, professeur d’histoire à l’Université d’Ottawa et spécialiste de l’histoire militaire canadienne. Ses recherches portent notamment sur l’impact de la guerre sur les Canadiens et Canadiennes, tant sur le front que sur le front intérieur.

Auteur de nombreux ouvrages sur l’histoire militaire du Canada et du Québec, il s’intéresse particulièrement aux effets de la Grande Guerre sur les communautés locales et la vie quotidienne au pays.

Nous discutons avec lui du front intérieur et de l’expérience des civils pendant la Première Guerre mondiale.

Dr. Matthew Leonard is an archaeologist and anthropologist of modern conflict, and a post-doctoral researcher at Birkbeck, University of London. His doctoral work at the University of Bristol examined the subterranean landscapes of the Western Front, and his research continues to explore how people engage with the physical and ecological legacies of modern war.

He is Chairman of the Durand Group and Editor-in-Chief of the Western Front Association’s journal Stand To!. Dr. Leonard conducts regular fieldwork in France and Belgium, and has been widely published as well as featured in numerous documentaries on the First World War. 

In this episode, we sit down with John Moses, former Director of Repatriation and Indigenous Relations at the Canadian Museum of History. John discusses the legacy of residential schools, the experiences of Indigenous veterans during the First World War, and his family’s personal ties to this history, including his grandmother, Edith Montour, one of the first Indigenous women to serve as a nurse overseas.

John also recently released his new book, Behind the Bricks: The Life and Times of the Mohawk Institute, Canada’s Longest-Running Residential School, offering a powerful look at the enduring impact of the residential school system and the importance of truth and remembrance.

Découvrez un premier aperçu de Mémorial de Vimy : Histoires vivantes—une nouvelle façon d’explorer l’histoire grâce à l’application mémorielle de la Fondation Vimy.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/idrNMjhna9c

Get a first look at Vimy Memorial: Living Stories—a new way to explore history through the Vimy Foundation’s living memorial app.

Watch on YouTube

Dr. Jane McGaughey is the Johnson Chair of Québec and Canadian Irish Studies at Concordia University and a historian with a Ph.D. from Birkbeck College, University of London. She is the author of Ulster's Men: Protestant Unionist Masculinities and Militarization in the North of Ireland, 1912-1923 and Violent Loyalties: Manliness, Migration, and the Irish in Canadas, 1798-1841. Jane is also host of The Irish in Canada Podcast, where she explores the stories of Irish immigrants and their descendants.

While many Canadians are familiar with major Western Front battles like Vimy Ridge, the Second Battle of Ypres in Flanders in 1915 was a pivotal moment for Canada. This battle marked the first large-scale use of poison chlorine gas by the Germans and was also the first major CAnadian engagement since our entry in the war in the fall of 1914.  Second Ypres was hugely important to the Canadian war narrative during the first years of the war, but after 1917 it was eclipsed by subsequent victories and in the century afterward has become mostly forgotten in public memory. Here to speak to us about that eclipse and the question of public memory is Dr. Geoffrey Bird.

Thomas Vennes est doctorant en histoire à l'Université de Sherbrooke. Il s'intéresse au mouvement de conquête coloniale français en Afrique de l'Ouest, en particulier au action politique et militaire des officiers français ainsi qu'à la résistance armée africaine. Lors de sa maîtrise, il a travaillé sur la guerre du Bani-Volta, une révolte paysanne dans le Burkina-Faso entre 1915 et 1916 provoquée par le recrutement de personnes africaines pour l'effort de guerre. Il s'est notamment intéressé à la mobilisation par les empires coloniaux des personnes colonisées lors de la Première Guerre mondiale.

Photo: 9-12-15, camp des tirailleurs sénégalais à Fréjus [défilé des troupes au camp Robert] : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol] Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, EST EI-13 (471)

Sarah Worthman is a freelance researcher and writer from St. John's, Newfoundland. Sarah researches a variety of topics including: human security, political history, and queer theory. Sarah received funding from the LGBT Purge Fund to conduct research on the history of LGBT persecution during the First World War. Sarah spent time working with Veterans Affairs Canada where she began her research on the History of LGBTQ+ Soldiers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and is now the Executive Director of the Newfoundland Queer Research Initiative, who have recently launched the NL Digital Queer Archive. Check it out here!