Skip to main content
Ingenium Logo

You are leaving IngeniumCanada.org

✖


This link leads to an external website that Ingenium does not control. Please read the third-party’s privacy policies before entering personal information or conducting a transaction on their site.

Have questions? Review our Privacy Statement

Vous quittez IngeniumCanada.org

✖


Ce lien mène à un site Web externe qu'Ingenium ne contrôle pas. Veuillez lire les politiques de confidentialité des tiers avant de partager des renseignements personnels ou d'effectuer une transaction sur leur site.

Questions? Consultez notre Énoncé de confidentialité

Ingenium The Channel

Langue

  • Français
Search Toggle

Menu des liens rapides

  • Ingenium Locations
  • Shop
  • Donate
  • Join
Menu

Main Navigation

  • Browse
    • Categories
    • Media Types
    • Boards
    • Featured Stories
  • About
    • About The Channel
    • Content Partners

Community, Camaraderie, and Producing Historical Scholarship

Share
3 m
Nov 3, 2022
Categories
Collection Development
Categories
Industrial Technology
Road Transportation
Media
Blog
Profile picture for user Han-Yi Huang
By: Han-Yi Huang
University of Toronto
This photograph shows an assortment of Unifor Local 222 ephemera. It includes Patrick J. Brown’s 1937 United Autoworkers of America Local 222 union membership card and an assortment of union buttons from the 1970s to the 1980s that advocate for increased job security, shorter work weeks, and the rights of retired General Motors employees.
Photo Credit
Han-Yi Huang
Unifor Local 222 Union Ephemera at their Union Hall in Oshawa.

In May 2022, I had the pleasure of working alongside five fantastic Jackman Scholars-in-Residence undergraduate students on Contesting Closure: Life Stories of Work and Community in Oshawa’s Motor City, 1980-2019. This research project was led by Emily Gann of Ingenium — Canada’s Museum of Science and Innovation and Professor Dimitry Anastakis of the University of Toronto. As a team, we created the groundwork for an innovative digital exhibit on the life experiences of former General Motors employees in Oshawa for Ingenium.

This photograph shows the Contesting Closure Jackman Scholars-in-Residence team listening to a tour guide speak about Oshawa’s history during a field trip to Oshawa Museum.
Photo Credit
Han-Yi Huang

Together, we researched old newspapers, magazines, photographs, union newsletters, and other primary sources to learn more about the intertwined history of General Motors in Canada and the community of Oshawa. Many of us also conducted oral history interviews and visited Oshawa Museum, Unifor Local 222’s Union Hall, and the Canadian Automotive Museum. Throughout this process, I was continuously struck by how generous former General Motors employees were with their time and energy and how different museums in Oshawa embraced our project and were eager to share their resources with us. 

In particular, former General Motors employees have been incredibly generous with our team, sharing their time and expertise on their experiences working in Oshawa’s assembly plant and living in the community. As a team, we were able to conduct numerous oral history interviews with men and women who worked throughout the plant in different roles from the 1980s to 2019. Their union, Unifor Local 222, played an integral role in connecting us with interview subjects. They also invited us into their union hall, where we were able to look at a wide assortment of Local 222’s ephemera, ranging from buttons to union membership cards from as early as the 1930s!

The generosity of former General Motors employees and Local 222 has been essential to the success of this project. In many instances, we have quite literally been invited into their homes to ask questions and listen to their life stories. This experience has been incredibly fulfilling and humbling in many ways. It has challenged how I think about the “work” that goes into producing historical research and how scholarship should be conveyed and shared with people. Rather than conceptualizing historical research as a highly individualized task, I have learned about the importance of celebrating community and camaraderie in scholarship and reaching out to the wider community to learn about their stories.  


Enjoying the Ingenium Channel? Help us improve your experience with a short survey!

Share your insights
Author(s)
Profile picture for user Han-Yi Huang
Han-Yi Huang

Han-Yi Huang is a Masters of Arts student at the University of Toronto. She studies the history of drive-in churches in the United States and Canada.

Related Blogs

Sophie working with a series of toaster artifacts placed on a worktable.

A Toast to the Collection: The History of Toasters in Canada

A sign in front of the barricaded museum buildings reads: “MUSEUM CLOSED…Access beyond this point is restricted to on-duty essential personnel only.”

Curating Under Quarantine: Ingenium curators launch a new, digital initiative

Footer

About The Channel

The Channel

Contact Us

Ingenium
P.O. Box 9724, Station T
Ottawa ON K1G 5A3
Canada

613-991-3044
1-866-442-4416
contact@IngeniumCanada.org
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Channel

    • Channel Home
    • About the Channel
    • Content Partners
  • Visit

    • Online Resources for Science at Home
    • Canada Agriculture and Food Museum
    • Canada Aviation and Space Museum
    • Canada Science and Technology Museum
    • Ingenium Centre
  • Ingenium

    • Ingenium Home
    • About Ingenium
    • The Foundation
  • For Media

    • Newsroom
    • Awards

Connect with us

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest Ingenium news straight to your inbox!

Sign Up

Legal Bits

Ingenium Privacy Statement

© 2023 Ingenium

Symbol of the Government of Canada
  • Browse
    • Categories
    • Media Types
    • Boards
    • Featured Stories
  • About
    • About The Channel
    • Content Partners