Program
Roundtable: Creating Space for Utopian Thinking
October 23, 2022 from 1:45pm EDT to 3:15pm EDT
Location: Room Y324
Chair: Bryan Palmer
Abstract:
This roundtable will discuss the necessity of utopian thinking for the contemporary labour movement, the role labour historians’ critical evaluation of theories of transition to post-capitalism can play, how role plays and simulations can be used in the classroom to engage students and expose them to radical discourses, and methods of building capacity for self-organization on a micro-scale in the classroom.
Joseph Burton, PhD student SFU history
John-Henry Harter, lecturer SFU labour studies
Andrea Samoil, PhD student SFU history
Jim Selby, retired Alberta Union of Public Employees researcher
Speakers / Panelists
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Roundtable: Creating Space for Utopian Thinking
October 23, 2022 from 1:45pm EDT to 3:15pm EDT -
Roundtable: Creating Space for Utopian Thinking
October 23, 2022 from 1:45pm EDT to 3:15pm EDT -
Roundtable: Creating Space for Utopian Thinking
October 23, 2022 from 1:45pm EDT to 3:15pm EDT -
Roundtable: Creating Space for Utopian Thinking
October 23, 2022 from 1:45pm EDT to 3:15pm EDT
Joseph Burton
Joseph Burton is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Simon Fraser University. His research explores the transmission of anarchist ideas in North America during the middle and latter twentieth century, focusing on the Industrial Workers of the World and linkages between democracy and revolutionary practice. Recent publications and activity include: “Anarchy in the Classroom: Frederick Thompson and a Revolutionary Pedagogy at the Work People’s College,” paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the History of Education Society, November 3-7, 2021 and Review of Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial, and Racial Questions, edited by Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay and: Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War by Tyler Wentzell Canadian Historical Review 102 (1), 181-185 (March 2021). Beyond the academy, Joseph has collaborated with the public history group, Defining Moments Canada, to assist in the planning of a commemorative project on the Nine Hour Movement.
John-Henry Harter
John-Henry Harter is a Lecturer in Labour Studies at SFU. His research and teaching focus on both environmental and labour history but combines multiple disciplines, including history, sociology, political economy, and cultural studies. He has published in academic journals such as Labour/Le 36 Travail academic online magazines The Otter and Active History and popular left magazines such as Canadian Dimension, Briar patch, and The New Twenties.
Andrea Samoil
Andrea Samoil is a PhD stuent at SFU working on the working-class response to neoliberalism in Alberta in the 1980s and 1990s. Her roundtable presentation from the last 43 CCLH conference appeared in Labour/Le Travail Fall 2019 as part of “Contemporary Challenges: Teaching Labour History,” and she has written a brief history of the Gainers strike for the Alberta Labour History Institute, “Alberta Workers Rise Up: The 1986 Gainers Strike.”
Jim Selby
Jim Selby retired as a research officer with the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) November 2020. Prior to that, he was research and communications director for the Alberta Federation of Labour for 24 years. He is a past board member and continuing supporter of the Alberta Labour History Institute.