History Commons^™

Making And Unmaking Collective Memory Through Food: A Case Study Of Windsor, Ontario’S Yugoslav Diaspora, Amanda Skocic

Major Papers

The preparation and consumption of food is not merely a physical act, but a deeply social one, conveying cultural meaning that functions to tie us to our identity and profoundly influence our memory. Drawing upon interviews done with members of Windsor’s Yugoslav diaspora community, this research seeks to explore the ways in which this group has negotiated its collective memory within the host society through the use of food. I identify four central aspects of food’s relation to collective memory within the diaspora. First, the use of food as a means of connection to the homeland, and therefore, to collective …

Skating The Line: Transnational Hockey In The Interwar Windsor-Detroit Borderlands, Nicole Pillon

Major Papers

Scholarship on the role of ice hockey in the development of the Canadian identity has neglected the unique experience of border communities in their discussions of the relationship between the formation of hockey fandom and Canadian nationalism. Usually focused on large hockey communities in Canada such as Toronto and Montreal, these studies examine the “Canadian” experience of hockey without considering the multi-faceted nature of border cities that were exposed to both Canadian and American ice hockey clubs.

This paper argues that professional hockey fandom in the Windsor-Detroit borderlands demonstrated that Windsorites’ shared socio-cultural conditions with Detroit, Michigan made them identify …

“What Sort Of Man Reads Playboy?”: Gender, Heterosexuality, And Reader Letters In Playboy Magazine, 1953-1963, Kess Carpenter

Major Papers

Existing Playboy scholarship overlooks the significance of magazine’s audience outside of the bachelor subculture it fathered in the 1950s. In fact, consumers fitting Playboy’s desired readership of white, financially affluent, single men formed only a small percentage of its actual subscribers. This study makes evident that students, soldiers, sailors, military servicemen, middle- and working- class men, both single and married, as well as women, made up most of its readership. To date, no historical study has been conducted of reader letters to Playboy, which reveal the magazine’s significance to this audience.

This paper argues that postwar men used Playboy as …

Sixties Scoop, Historical Trauma, And Changing The Current Landscape About Indigenous People, Shandel Valiquette

Major Papers

Through analyzing current literature on the Sixties Scoop and how it frames it origins and causes, many describe it as primarily assimilatory, even while acknowledging the historical legacies that contributed to problems in Indigenous communities and families. This paper will analyze the various perspectives on the Sixties Scoop, and argue that it was a complex process, a result of historical trauma related to colonial efforts and not a single, unified policy focused on assimilating Indigenous people into mainstream culture.

In pulling the thread of historical trauma rather than assimilation, this paper traces the streams of the past which help to …

The Gay Commute: On The Development Of Queer Community And Identity In The Windsor-Detroit Borderlands, 1945-1980, Graeme Sylvio Sylvestre

Major Papers

The development of queer community and identity has always necessitated the delineation of queer-friendly spaces as a locus for socialisation, sexual expression, and freedom from animosity and hostility towards queer sexuality. Within the urban area of post-war Windsor-Detroit, the threat of exposure and possible arrest affected the everyday lives of queer individuals, which necessitated a quest for private locales that were amenable to the expression of queer sexuality and gender identity. What is here referred to as “the gay commute” was a defining characteristic of the lived experiences of the white middle-class gay residents in the Windsor-Detroit borderlands through the …

Built Ford Tough: Masculinity, Gerald Ford's Presidential Museum, And The Macho Presidential Style, Dustin Jones

Major Papers

In Cold War America, spanning roughly from 1945-1991, masculinity was in crisis. The rise of Communism and the Soviet Union had led to a fear of spies, infiltrators, and defectors known most commonly as the Red Scare. Americans were encouraged to be hyper vigilant in sussing out deviant behaviour. Alongside this scare came the Lavender Scare. It was suggested that homosexuals were deviant peoples and were therefore more susceptible to being turned Communist than their heterosexual counterparts. This led to a crisis of masculinity where even the smallest suggestion of femininity could lead to accusations of potential compromise, an effect …

Amateur Against Professional: The Changing Meaning Of Popular Football In Scotland, 1870-1890, Alastair G. Staffen

Major Papers

This paper argues that from the early 19^th century there existed a strong push by middle-class reformers to eliminate traditional regional pastimes and identities, and repurpose organised sport with the aim of reinforcing notions of respectability. Despite the initial success of the middle-class in popularizing association football in Scotland, these modernisers ultimately met with failure as the institutions that they created became increasingly subservient to economic realities of popular sport and to the demands of a working-class consumer base. Finally, the success of the middle-class in eliminating pastimes and the corresponding regional identities created the need for new sources …