It has now been a decade since Borealia was launched, in 2015, with the intention of amplifying scholarship on northern North America before the twentieth century. We hoped it would be a forum where historians of different sub-fields of “early Canadian history” could make connections, and to bring this great work to educators, non-specialists, and an interested general readership. Here’s part of what we have been telling potential contributors:
Audience: Borealia is designed to be a conversation among academic historians and an interested general audience. Complexity and nuance communicated in clear, energetic, jargon-free language—that’s what we’re aiming for.
Attitude: We intend the tone of the blog to be positive, focused on content and ideas, respectful and civil in conversation, and professional. If the blog were a restaurant, it would be “casual fine dining.”
Much has changed in the landscape of digital scholarship and social media since 2015, yet we remain convinced of the ongoing value of an online forum of the sort Borealia aspired to be.
But ten years is a long time, and for a variety of entirely normal professional and personal reasons, we need a break. We have decided to wind down Borealia as an active project. The site will remain accessible for at least a couple more years, but after our upcoming final series, we will not be posting new material.
We are grateful for the community of contributors and readers who have encouraged us and made this a worthwhile venture. Since 2015, Borealia has published close about 250 short articles from dozens of contributors at every career stage. These included profiles of research in progress, synopses of major books, thematic forums, teaching reflections, interviews, reviews, conference recaps, and think pieces engaging with current events. Our warm thanks to those who shared their research in smart, relevant essays. We are particularly indebted to those who contributed multiple essays over the years and who became unofficial advisors and mentors.
It has always been encouraging to hear from Borealia readers. The WordPress “stats” page tells us that readers logged over four hundred thousand page views over the decade. Anecdotally, we have heard from researchers who found the site a helpful historiographic entry point, from community members interested in local history, and from authors and publishers who made a connection because of a post.
We have been especially heartened to hear that Borealia posts have been used in classrooms, including at least one syllabus designed around the site. Thanks to the financial support of the Canadian Historical Association Communication Project Fund, co-editor Laura Smith created our Topics and Themes for Teaching page, where you will find a list of common teaching themes in Canadian history linked to essays tagged with those same themes. To be sure, not every important theme is represented in this list, but we are grateful for the variety of scholarship that is found here. Educators will want to give special attention to Teach My Research posts, which included classroom ideas and primary sources. We hope you will continue to use and share those teaching resources.
Borealia was never a solitary project, and over the years we enjoyed much support and several productive collaborations with other history blogs and networks. Special thanks go to Acadiensis, Active History, Findings/Trouvailles, and NiCHE and their vibrant communities and amazing editors. It was a privilege to collaborate with these friends for our CHA panel and JCHA article, “Canadian History Blogging: Reflections at the Intersection of Digital Storytelling, Academic Research, and Public Outreach” (2017), which explores some of the themes that animated our projects. More recently, we were invited to participate in The Future of Knowledge Mobilization and Public History Online project, and although we were entering our final chapter, those conversations give us hope about public history in digital spaces in Canada and beyond. Borealia served as a partner organization for knowledge mobilization on SSHRC-funded projects on “Unrest, Violence, and the Search for Social Order in British North America and Canada, 1749-1876” and “Military Service, Citizenship, and Political Culture: Militia Studies in Atlantic Canada, 1700-2000.” Thanks to all of the other blogs, sites, and organizations with whom we’ve had the pleasure of collaborating and who have shared ideas and amplified Borealia posts.
Working on Borealia has certainly confirmed our original conviction of the sometimes-unheralded strength and variety of scholarship on early Canadian history. It has also, just as importantly, given us a deep sense of gratitude for the community–for the friends, mentors, and conversation partners we have met in the course of this project.
To help us go out in style, we have invited E. A. Heaman, Max Hamon, and Jerry Bannister to contribute essays that bring historical perspective to our current moment of nationalism redux and complex cross-border relations. That final series will be appear this week.
In gratitude and hope,
Keith Grant, Denis McKim, and Laura Smith
Borealia 