Lakehead University Department of History

06/23/2026

Congratulations to Kelly Saxberg and Ron Harpelle for their win in the Research category at the Yorkton Film Festival for A Tale of Two Qallunaat. Kelly co-directed this film with Navalik Tologanak, and the film was researched by Kelly, Ron, Navalik, and Dianne Brothers. Kelly will be screening A Tale of Two Qallunaat across Canada in the upcoming year as part of her recent Canada Council grant.

Also nominated in the Research category was The View From Up Here - Getting Ready for the Big One, directed by Ron and researched by Ron, Kelly, and two current or former Lakehead faculty members, Tom Peotto and Nathan Hatton. The View From Up Here will be broadcast on local television in Thunder Bay in August and September of 2026.

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06/23/2026

Check out this recent interview with Dr. Steven Jobbitt on Hungary's recent election, and the defeat of Viktor Orbán's right-wing authoritarian regime.

Viktor Orbán’s Defeat is Giving Democracies Around the World Hope

04/29/2026

Congratulations to MA student Josh Wetendorf whose article "From Captive to Folk Hero: The Legacy of Hannah Duston" has just been published in The Mirror, an undergraduate history journal based out of Western University.

04/09/2026

Congratulations to Department of History adjunct professor Dr. Michel Beaulieu and alumni Laura Nigro (MA 2008) and Christopher Omeljaniuk (MA 2021) for receiving Publications Awards at the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society. The J.P. Bertrand Award for the best full-length scholarly article on the history of Northwestern Ontario went to Laura, Dr. Lori Chambers, and Michel for "Women Not Welcome: Martinie v. the Italian Society of Port Arthur," in Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume XII: New Perspectives on Gender and the Law, ed. Lori Chambers and Joan Sangster (University of Toronto Press, 2023). The Ernest R. Zimmermann First Publication Award went to Christopher for "Combatting the 'Black Bird': Competition between the Hudson's Bay Company and the American Fur Company," Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society Papers & Records (2024): 21-44. Adjunct professor Dr. David Ratz was also honoured by the Museum for surpassing 100 hours of volunteer service.

04/09/2026

Congratulations to the Department of History’s Kelly Saxberg, who has been awarded a Canada Council for the Arts grant for a project called the "Reconciliation Through Art Tour.” This project began a decade ago with the scanning by Lakehead students and alumni of the personal papers of Susan Ross and Sheila Burnford. The files and scans are now in the Thunder Bay Museum and available to researchers. These documents include a large number of Ross's sketch books from her travels to numerous First Nations in Northern Ontario and to hamlets in the Arctic. Using this material Kelly has directed documentaries such as “Silent Cries” and "A Tale of Two Qallunaat“, both of which are currently on the festival circuit. In addition to the films, Kelly developed the "Reconciliation Through Art Tour” which involves sending an art installation and copies of Ross’s sketch books to the communities she and Burnford visited in the 1960s and 1970s. The sketches and writings of these intrepid women are unique in that they visited these communities at a time when the only outsiders were people visiting in an official capacity. Ross’s sketches and Burnford’s stories offer insights that cannot be found elsewhere because they went to learn and not to regulate, exploit, and/or report. In partnership with the Thunder Bay Museum and a number of communities, organizations, and galleries in Northern Ontario and across the Arctic, the "Reconciliation Through Art Tour” will include the installation, workshops, sketch books and Kelly's latest films. Kelly will also travel with the tour to select communities and ensure that copies of the sketch books are available for future generations.

03/27/2026

Congratulations to Department of History faculty members Kelly Saxberg and Ron Harpelle for directing two film projects that have received Golden Sheaf Award nominations by the Yorkton Film Festival. Kelly and her co-director Navalik Tologanak are nominated for the Kathleen Shannon Award for their documentary "A Tale of Two Qallunaat" examining the visit of Sheila Burnford and Susan Ross to Pond Inlet in the early 1970s. Ron is nominated in the Best Historical Documentary category for "The View From Up Here: Getting Ready for the Big One," the third episode of the six-part "found footage" documentary series that takes a satirical view of historical themes and events occurring at Thunder Bay and the Lakehead Region. "The View From Up Here" also features contributions from other faculty members and former students of the Department of History. Information about both of these projects can be found at:

shebafilms.com/a-tale-of-two-qallunaat/

shebafilms.com/the-view-from-up-here-2025/

The View From Up Here – 2025 Coming soon to a screen near you! Coming Soon! The View From Up Here is a six-part “found footage” documentary series that takes a satirical look at historical themes and events in a remote region of Canada. The series is centred on the Lakehead, the Thunder Bay re...

03/27/2026

Congratulations to Kari Alenius, Michel Beaulieu, and David Ratz--three adjunct members of the Department of History--on the publication of their edited collection Agents, Exiles, and Alliances: Finland's Global Entanglements, 1899-1949, a book that brings together new scholarship documenting the political, security, and intelligence dimensions of Finland's history within comparative and international contexts. Kari, Michel, and David also have a co-authored chapter in this collection titled "The 'Pentikainen Case' in Finland in 1933: The Beginning of the Revelation of a Soviet Spy Network in Europe" examining Lieutenant Vilho Armas Pentikainen's defection to the Soviet Union within the broader structure of Soviet intelligence operations and Finland's evolving counter-intelligence framework.

Agents, exiles, and alliances : Finland’s global entanglemen