Department of History

"Just How Important is Education in the Final Analysis?": The Canadian Indian Youth Council and Indigenous Education Adctivism in the Sixties

Cathleen Clark, Post-Doctoral Fellow, History

Wednesday, March 18, 2026
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
307 Tier building

In 1965, a group of Indigenous university students formed the Canadian Indian Youth Council (CIYC). Their activist orientation, critiques of Indian Affairs, and focus on Indian education positioned CIYC members at the forefront of a major tonal shift in Indigenous politics in the 1960s. Concerned by high Indigenous dropout rates and by the pattern of educated Indigenous professionals moving away from reserves—outcomes they linked to the assimilative programming of both federally-operated Indian residential schools and the rapid postwar ‘integration’ of Indigenous children into provincial public schools—they aspired to leverage their own educational experiences to promote Indigenous interests. This talk explores the CIYC’s education activism through cross-border alliance building, campus speaking engagements, and contributions to post secondary programming such as the Canadian Indian Workshop at the University of Manitoba and the Indian Institute at Rochdale College in Toronto.

Crisis / Opportunity: 1970s Global Stagflation and Flexible Accumulation in China

Andrew Liu, Villanova University

Thursday, March 26, 2026
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
307 Tier building

In the late 1970s, after the passing of Mao Zedong (1893-1976), Chinese planners pursued an ambitious “new Great Leap Forward” by aggressively purchasing cutting-edge technology from the capitalist world, especially
western Europe. By 1980, however, Party elders had shut down the new Great Leap, panicked by looming political and inflationary dangers. Central to the budgetary fight were competing visions about the meaning and causes of the 1970s global stagflation crisis, stemming from the end of the gold standard (1971) and the oil shocks of 1973. This obscure Politburo debate, in fact, crystallized broad social antagonisms inherited from the Mao era and also eventually pushed China to emulate the Asia-Pacific’s strategy of “flexible,” export-driven industry by the new century. This paper contributes to a wider effort to rethink the history of the neoliberal era from a global perspective.

Presented by the Department of History and the Asian Studies Program.

Asamoah wins Association of Canadian Archivists' Award

Congratulations to Gifty Asamoah, a student in the Joint Masters' program (archival studies stream) for winning the 2024 Association of Canadian Archivists' Ancestry Continuing Education Award. 

"While the importance of community archives for cultural preservation is recognized, there remains a lack of understanding regarding how individual migrant perceptions influence data collection and archival practices. My project seeks to adopt a case study approach to explore migrant perceptions on how archives and record-keeping can contribute to preserving culture and maintaining identity, particularly among Ghanaian immigrants in Manitoba."

General inquiries

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Graduate inquiries

Katy Hunt, Graduate Program Assistant
403 Fletcher Argue
Phone: 204-474-8401
Katy.hunt@umanitoba.ca