Chairs and research groups
The research bodies associated with the Department of History bring prestige and recognition to the Université de Montréal.
The concept of time is central to the research done by these chairs and groups whose members' work fosters a renewed dialogue between the present and the past.
Chairs
Canada Research Chair in Healthcare Pluralism
Chairholder: Laurence Monnais
The Canada Research Chair in Healthcare Pluralism works to better understand pluralistic health practices from a historical perspective. The Chair's program has 3 main aims:
- Describe and analyze the contents of statements by decision makers and healthcare professionals on health care pluralism and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
- Analyze pluralistic healthcare practices, their adoption by different communities and their members, and identify the factors underlying these practices or their absence.
- Examine and translate the relationships, tensions and negotiations between statements and action, power and knowledge and their impact on the hybridization process.
The main goal of the Chair is to foster a better understanding of the development of modern societies and health benchmarks since the advent of "scientific" medicine. It examines the development of these benchmarks in mixed societies, where immigrants' health and growing enthusiasm for CAM are subjects of increasing concern.
Canada Research Chair in Latin American History
Chairholder: Cynthia Milton
The research program for this chair is entitled "Writing History After a Period of Violence: Telling the Truth in the Americas." It studies the recent phenomenon of the growing number of "truth commissions" and attempts to understand how shedding light on these memories helps us better understand past violence. The Chair also plans to study other such forums and other ways of speaking about the past that depart from traditional methodology and sources.
The Chair's work will contribute to the cross-disciplinary analysis of memory, violence and truth. Its ambition is to cross disciplinary and regional boundaries by:
- Establishing a research centre at UdeM
- Establishing a network of Latin American studies
- Encouraging comparative studies in the Department of History
J.W. McConnell Family Foundation Chair in American Studies
Chairholder: Baris Kaymak, Department of Economics
Co-Chairholder: Michael Huberman, Department of History
The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation Chair in American Studies is dedicated to research and training on and the dissemination and promotion of the international history of the United States of America.
It works to create links between scholars and students examining the internationalization of US history in broad terms. The Chair collaborates with many groups of scholars and historians, including the Centre d'études et de recherches internationales de l'UdeM (CÉRIUM) and the French Atlantic History Group.
It also brings together the 4 Montréal universities and the Réseau pour le développement européen de l'histoire de la jeune Amérique, 1605-1865 (ReDEHJA). The latter organization, located in Paris, comprises scholars from several French universities.
The Chair establishes the Université de Montréal as one of the world's leading centres for the study of the international history of the United States, in particular in the French-speaking world.
MORE INFORMATION (in French)
Groups
Groupe de recherche sur les pouvoirs et les sociétés de l’Occident médiéval et moderne
The Group's program concerns the basics of social and political bonds during the lengthy reorganization of Western society, from the feudal fragmentation of powers (11th century) to the final consolidation of the modern state (18th century).
The central hypothesis is as follows: the medieval and modern social bond, until the 18th century at least, was founded on the complex and evolving interaction of a large number of competing networks of belonging. They tended to both build and occupy singular spaces and to create representations of their identity that in turn determined the social order and power relationships. This hypothesis seems to be verifiable for the entire space-time defined by the Group.
This program responds to urgent social pressures in the context of globalization and redefinition of powers. In addition, it is intended to support professors and students conducting fundamental research in specialized fields where the basic educational requirements are very high.
Modelling Change: The Paths of French
This major research project (MRP) funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada focuses on the history of the French language, starting with the French spoken in Canada during the New France era and going back to its origins in the Middle Ages. Language has great force of identity, both as a rallying power and a source of distinctness. This project focuses on the important changes that have reshaped the face of French through contacts with other languages and dialects and on the emergence of linguistic identities.
The MRP intends to establish a corpus representative of French society, from the Middle Ages to the 17th century for European French and from the beginning of French colonization up to the conquest, for New France.
It also strives to understand the origins of the process by which the French language was established in Canada and which has driven its evolution.
Groupement interuniversitaire pour l'histoire des relations internationales contemporaines (GIHRIC)
The GIHRIC is a forum for reflection and discussions, a liaison centre and a common framework for developing and promoting the history of international relations (HIR). It invites speakers and organizes meetings on HIR at its members' affiliated universities.
It does all this in association with the university departments, faculties, institutes, centres and groups likely to help it reach its goals.
About HIR
The history of international relations is a specific theme focusing on the historical and international dimensions of both phenomena, be they collective or individual, bilateral or multilateral, brief or long-term.
As a discipline, HIR goes back a long way. Diplomatic history, dealing with treaties and discussions between heads of state, was long the main focus in the study of history. Since the early 20th century there has been a transformation, introducing a broader and deeper view that has led to the history of international relations.
HIR encompasses the history of all forms of international relations among individuals, groups, states and societies. It examines and explains them from the angle of their multiple relationships and their presence in the community, from political, economic, social, cultural, ideological, intellectual, scientific, religious, military, institutional and other viewpoints.
As a field of historical study, HIR remains attuned to relevant developments in other disciplines, and is well suited to collaboration with other fields.
GIHRIC Co-ordinator: Samir Saul
GIHRIC members
Université de Montréal
Carl Bouchard
Michael Jabara Carley
Paul Létourneau
David Meren
Yakov Rabkin
Samir Saul
UQAM
Andrew Barros
Christopher Goscha
McGill University
Concordia University
École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP)
Université Laval
Université de Sherbrooke
Patrick Dramé
Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO)
Kingston Royal Military College
See the list of GIHRIC activities since it was founded in 2004.
French Atlantic History Group (FAHG)
Based in Montreal since its inception in 2005, the French Atlantic History Group brings together researchers interested in the French dimension of the Early Modern Atlantic World (c. 1500 - c. 1830). The FAHG sponsors seminars, workshops, conferences, visiting speaker series and publications.
It provides a supportive and stimulating intellectual environment for graduate students pursuing studies on French Atlantic topics at any of the 4 participating history departments.
Interacting with Print
Interacting with Print is an interdisciplinary, interinstitutional research group devoted to the study of European print culture in the period 1700-1900.
Since 2005, the group has developed and continues to elaborate an innovative approach to the study of print culture based on the concept of interactivity. It investigates how people interacted with printed matter, how they used print media to interact with other people and how printed texts and images interacted within complex media ecologies.