Episode 3 - The Western Development Museum with Tyla Betke

On today’s episode of Off-Campus History, we look to the west.

We’re talking about the Western Development Museum, one of the most important public history institutions in Saskatchewan, Canada. The WDM is actually a network of four museums, though our episode focuses on its largest branch in Saskatoon.

Established in 1949, the WDM was originally dedicated to commemorating the history of pioneers on the prairies in the early 1900s. The Saskatoon branch features the iconic “Boomtown,” which recreates a bustling settler town in 1910.

In recent years, the museum has confronted the challenge of how to integrate Indigenous history into a museum that originally left those stories out. In an episode focusing on the museum’s depictions of Indigenous history, and its efforts to revise those depictions, I’m joined by Tyla Betke. Tyla is a PhD candidate in history at Carleton University whose research focuses on Indigenous history and settler colonialism on the prairies in the late nineteenth century. Tyla also previously worked at the WDM, providing a unique perspective into the museum.

For those interested in learning more about this topic, check out Adam Gaudry’s article “Fantasies of Sovereignty: Deconstructing British and Canadian Claims to Ownership of the Historic North-West,” Native American and Indigenous Studies 3, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 46-74.

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Podcast logo is made by Instagram.com/nethkaria; intro and outro music by Instagram.com/nelamusica. Follow the show on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/offcampushistory/) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Off-Campus-History-104741381870195)!

Episode 2 - Hearts of Iron IV with Sid Sridhar

On today’s episode of Off-Campus History, we get strategic.

We’re playing Hearts of Iron IV, an incredibly detailed grand strategy video game set during the Second World War. In particular, we’re playing as the British Raj—a colony that in the mid-1930s included present-day India, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, among other places—to see how the game depicts the history of South and Southeast Asia during this period.

The period of the Second World War was a tumultuous one in the region. As the British Raj fought to repel Japanese incursions, it also saw an accelerating movement for Indian independence from Britain, and was devastated by the Bengal Famine beginning in 1943. To discuss how the game depicts all this history, how strategy games can interpret the past, and much more, I’m joined by Sid Sridhar, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto who is an expert in themes of capitalism and imperialism in South Asia during the 1930s and 40s.

For those who want to learn more about this episode’s topic, check out Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper’s book Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).

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Podcast logo is made by Instagram.com/nethkaria; intro and outro music by Instagram.com/nelamusica.

Episode 1 - The Fernald Preserve with Steven Langlois

Today on Off-Campus History, we talk about a place with a toxic history. No, I literally mean toxic.

On our very first episode, we’re talking about the Fernald Preserve, a nature park built on the site of a former Cold War-era uranium processing facility for nuclear weapons. From the 1950s to the 1980s, this facility outside Cincinnati, Ohio churned out materials for the American armaments program—and radioactive pollution for the surrounding residents. To help me make sense of this place’s history, and the effort to cover things up (in the most literal sense possible), I’m joined by Steven Langlois. Steven is a PhD student at the University of Alberta who is an expert in the environmental history of the Cold War American nuclear weapons program.

For those interested in learning more about the topic, check out this article by Jenny Wohlfarth in Cincinnati Magazine about the subject, which we reference in the episode: https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/citywiseblog/what-lies-beneath-the-fernald-preserve/. Also, check out this documentary made about Fernald during the Cold War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOm7_Lf8PVo.

Subscribe to Off-Campus History wherever you get your podcasts! Also, follow the podcast at https://www.instagram.com/offcampushistory/, and at https://www.facebook.com/Off-Campus-History-104741381870195. You can write in to the show at offcampushistory[at]gmail[dot]com. 

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Podcast logo was created by https://www.instagram.com/nethkaria/; intro and outro music was created by https://www.instagram.com/nelamusica/. 

Trailer

A short introduction to the podcast. The first full episode will be published the week of July 5!

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Logo by instagram.com/nethkaria