On November 6, McGill University students and professors piled into the Faculty Club’s Billiards Room to celebrate the launch of the book McGill in History. The room brimmed with people eagerly awaiting the words from the six-person panel. Edited and compiled by McGill’s own Brian Lewis, Don Nerbas, and Melissa Shaw, the book addresses McGill’s complicated place in history through essays and historiographies from a variety of scholarly contributors.
Each panelist spoke in turn, starting with the editors, who discussed the project’s conception, themes, and approaches to history. While not comprehensive, the book is composed of various “snapshots” of McGill, highlighting previously unearthed and little-known narratives. The book was originally conceptualized after McGill’s History and Classics department held a colloquium on the same topic for McGill’s bicentennial, before realizing papers submitted for the conference were a treasure trove of historical information worthy of publication. McGill in History unflinchingly scrutinizes the university’s past – from James McGill’s participation in slavery to the school’s queer history.
The next three contributors spoke about the chapters they had written. Andrea Tone, a McGill Professor of History in the Department of Social Studies of Medicine, wrote a chapter about the contributions of Heinz Lehmann called “Beyond the Headlines.” Lehmann is often considered the “father of modern psychopharmacology” and served as the chair of McGill’s Department of Psychiatry. Tone began by acknowledging a large amount of scholarship has been about the department accepting funding from the US MKULTRA trials, and very rightfully so. While not denying the importance of looking at MKULTRA and the harm it caused, Tone mentions it is important to continue studying less prominent figures in tandem. Compared to the trials, Lehmann is that less
prominent figure – despite his groundbreaking work in mental health research, promoting new drugs for treatment of conditions like anxiety.
Hoping to plug racially motivated gaps in scholarship, Tess Elsworthy wrote her chapter, “A Distinct Blow to Our Esteem of That Outstanding Institution,” about Japanese internment and the rejection of Japanese students from McGill during World War II. The chapter frames internment as undemocratic and Canada-specific. Furthermore, the chapter counters the historical determinism that has previously characterized discussion of Japanese internment. Elsworthy aims to highlight McGill’s role in perpetuating ideas of Anglo-Saxon, and more generally, white, dominance that we still confront
today. Elsworthy found the historical record acted “like it [internment] never happened,” and brings attention to these often concealed stories that “deserve acknowledgement.”
Have you ever wondered why McGill dominates university rankings in medical-doctoral studies but does not hold a comparable position in the arts, despite Montreal being such a hub of art and culture? Panelist Marlene Shore tackles this question in her chapter “Risky Business,” which deals with the funding and implicit direction of McGill as a private university by politically right-wing business stakeholders. While exploring how these private funds, with their private interests, have shaped the
course of McGill’s pedagogy.
The panel expressed a collective hope for the book’s usage in classrooms as an entry point for students into the historical domain. After all, what better way to get people interested in history than provide them with their own?
McGill in History pushes students to consider the power structures of their institution and consider why McGill has the neoliberal university model we see today. It foregrounds neglected narratives which reveal a more complex view of McGill’s long history. This inspires one to ask: what stories might be missing from narratives seemingly set in stone, and what forces have shaped the McGill we know now? If one can understand McGill not as a wholly rigid institution, but as a product of its multiple intersecting histories, there is, in that same vein, hope to push for future change of institutional focusses, funding, and pedagogy.
McGill in History is available to purchase for $37.95 online through the McGill-Queen’s University Press, or accessible through the McGill library.