MBHS Celebrates 30th Anniversary

The academic year now upon us marks the thirtieth anniversary year of the Montreal British History Seminar (MBHS), established in 1997 as a joint venture by scholars at Concordia and McGill Universities.  Formed in the hope of establishing an inter-university hub for British History, broadly defined, MBHS has created a vibrant community of friends, scholars, and graduate students from the Montreal region and beyond. 

Now chaired at McGill by Elizabeth Elbourne and Brian Lewis, MBHS has hosted three and sometimes four meetings a term to hear papers and foster conversation across campus lines and across the disciplines. Papers last about 45 minutes, followed by up to an hour of discussion and then drinks and informal dinner for those who wish to come.

MBHS defines British History broadly enough to draw participants from departments of e.g., Sociology, Art History, Library Science, Scottish Studies, Religious Studies, Islamic  Studies, Political Science, and English Literature as well as History per se.

The hub we had hoped to create now extends well beyond the  metropolitan area. MBHS still hosts papers from local participants, but over the last five years alone it has also drawn papers and participants from scholars and graduate students at, e.g.,  Yale, St Mary’s University in Halifax, University College London, U. Texas, U. Mass., Johns Hopkins, and U. Vermont.

The Seminar’s success even in the Francophone environment of Montreal and Quebec might well serve as a model for ‘hubbing it’ in British History elsewhere.

Robert Tittler

Concordia University

robert.tittler@concordia.ca