Kyle R. Franz

Ph.D. Candidate and Teaching Fellow

 

E-mail:  kyle.franz@queensu.ca
Fax:  613-533-6298
Office:  Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room E-317

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 2:00-3:30 or by appointment

 

Education

Bachelor of Arts – First Class Honours (Simon Fraser University, 2005)
Master of Arts (The University of Lethbridge, 2007)
Ph.D. ABD (Queen's University)

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About

Ph.D. Research Interests:

My research focuses on radical social and political movements during the Great Depression, and the composition/experiences of the communities in which they take place. I am particularly interested in the Crowsnest Pass community of Blairmore, Alberta, where a Communist town council held power from 1933-1936. Though the Communists undertook an ambitious legislative and social agenda - the most "notorious" of which were the declaration of a public holiday to celebrate the anniversary of the Russian Revolution and the re-naming of the town's main street "Tim Buck Boulevard" in honour of the then-imprisoned leader of the Communist Party of Canada - many remember the Communist administration as a novelty; an interesting story for a cocktail party or perhaps the answer to a question in a future edition of Trivial Pursuit. I believe, however, that the Red years at Blairmore have an unrealized ability to meaningfully engage with local experiences and identities while challenging important regional and national narratives in Canadian history.

My undertakes a micro-historical analysis of Blairmore, examining the intersections of ethnicity, class, gender and ever-changing identities - the fabric of local society - in order to understand what made residents so willing and able to actively seek out radical social and political change. By understanding local lived experience, this research, via Blairmore, is in a unique position to comment on or challenge major narratives in Canadian and left history. By placing a socially and politically conceptualized Blairmore within a larger regional and national experience important questions come to the fore: Why, given the massive governmental efforts to jail and/or deport Communists during this period, was the Communist administration at Blairmore allowed to take office and enact a radical agenda? What does this tell us about the movement at Blairmore, the governments in question, and society itself?

Other general areas of interest include: Oral History Methodology, The Canadian West, The American West and community-based histories.

Courses Taught

History 124, Canada and the World
History 434, The Left in Twentieth Century Canada
History 393, The Canadian West
History 431, Atlantic Canada

Teaching Assistantships Previously Held

History of Western Canada
Jewish and World Civilization 30AD to 1492
Myth and Reality of the American West
Post-Confederation Canada
Pre-Confederation Canada
The Soviet Experiment

Publications

Chapters in Edited Collections

"An affront to the Sensibilities of all thinking Canadians!" in Krista Cowman and Ian Packer (eds.) Radical Cultures and Local Identities in an International Context (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010),33-50. https://qcat.library.queensu.ca/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=3560949

"'Blairmore Expects This Day Every Wage Earner to do His Duty': Depression Relief and the Radical Administration of Blairmore, Alberta, 1933-1936" in Hammond-Callaghan and Hayday (eds.) Mobilizations, Protests and Engagements: Canadian Perspectives on Social Movements (Halifax: Fernwood Press, 2008), 105-124. https://qcat.library.queensu.ca/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=2832909

Book Reviews

"Review of Labour at the Lakehead: Ethnicity, Socialism and Politics, 1900-1935 by Michel Beaulieu" Labour Le Travail (forthcoming, 2012). www.lltjournal.ca

"Review of A Dictionary of Twentieth Century Communism by Silvio Pons and Robert Service" Left History Vol. 15 no. 2. www.lefthistory.ca

"Review of The Dirt: Industrial Disease and Conflict at St. Lawrence, Newfoundland by Rick Rennie" Oral History Forum d'histoire orale30 (2010), Special Issue "Talking Green: Oral History and the Environment."

Newspapers and Popular Press

Coleman's Little Yellow Engine: Preserving Two Short Tons of Crowsnest History," Crowsnest Heritage News, 15 July, 2012. www.crowsnestheritage.com

"Reconsidering The Story of Blairmore," Crowsnest Heritage News," 15 September, 2011. www.crowsnestheritage.com

"One Flag, One School, One Language: The Ku Klux Klan and the Crowsnest Pass, 1932," Crowsnest Heritage News, 15 July, 2010. www.crowsnestheritage.com

"Coleman on Endangered Places List," Crowsnest Pass Promoter, 17 July, 2009.
http://www.crowsnestpasspromoter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1659141&archive=true

"Losing our History: Coleman, Alta., A National Historic Site, is about to wave goodbye to its giant coal-mining Icons," The Globe and Mail, 1 July, 2009.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/canada-then/article1202642/

"A Priceless Part of Alberta's History Faces the Wrecking Ball," Edmonton Journal, 21 June 2009.
http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/opinion/story.html?id=9703c341-8829-4278-a121-f6a2fd8663d4&p=2

"Red History of the Pass," Crowsnest Pass Promoter, 3 March 2006.

"In the 30s, Blairmore was seeing Red," Lethbridge Herald, 18 February 2006.

Museum Exhibits

"Blairmore's Red Reputation." Crowsnest Pass Museum, August 2007-Present. www.crowsnestmuseum.ca

Oral History Projects

Academic Advisor to "Life in the Pass: The Blairmore-Frank Oral History Project," 2008.

Academic Awards and Recognitions

Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2010-2011.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canada Graduate Scholarship, 2007-2010.
Queen's University, Tri-Colour Scholarship, 2007.
Government of Alberta, Alberta Graduate Scholarship, 2005.

Government of Alberta, Appointed as a Member of the Alberta Centennial Medallion, 2005. http://www.albertacentennial.ca/programs/medal.html

Simon Fraser University, Open Academic Scholarship, 2004-2005.
Government of Alberta, Jason Lang Memorial Scholarship, 2002.
Government of Alberta, Laurence Décore Award for Student Leadership, 2001.

Conferences and Invited Talks

Keynote Speaker, Blairmore's 100th Birthday Celebrations, September 2011.

Invited Speaker: "Blairmore Hits Back: The Red Administration at Blairmore and the Possibilities for Local Agency." Doors Open Historical Festival, Blairmore, Alberta, August 1, 2008.

"'Its an Affront to all Thinking Canadians!': A Communist Town Council and the Community Behind it, Blairmore, Alberta, 1933-1936." Radical Cultures and Local Identities - An International Symposium, Lincoln, United Kingdom, September 2007.

"Painting the Town Red: The 'Communist' Administration of Blairmore, Alberta, 1933-1936."Doors Open Lethbridge / Lethbridge Historic Week. Lethbridge, Alberta, May 2007.

"Painting the Town Red: The 'Communist' Administration of Blairmore, Alberta, 1933-1936." Colloquium Series, Department of History, University of Lethbridge. Lethbridge, Alberta, March 2007.

"Radical Movements and Municipal Administration During the Depression." Mobilization and Engagement - Social Movements in Canada, Sackville, New Brunswick, March 2007.

Invited Speaker: "'Real Reds or Pussyfooting Pinks?' The Red Administration at Blairmore, Alberta, 1933-1936." Simon Fraser University/University of British Columbia 3rd Annual Undergraduate History Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, February 2007.

"'Real Reds or Pussyfooting Pinks?' The Red Administration at Blairmore, Alberta, 1933-1936." Qualicum History Conference, Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, February 2007.

"'Communists Thrown in River - River Reported Polluted': Representations of Blairmore's Red Town Council in the Blairmore Enterprise, 1933-1936." Augustana Graduate History Conference, Camrose, Alberta, February 2006.

"Painting the Town Red: The Communist Administration at Blairmore, Alberta, 1933-1936. Qualicum History Conference, Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, January 2006.

Invited Speaker: "Left Wing or Simply Left Out? The Consolidation of Labour and Radical Movements in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, 1916-1937." Simon Fraser University/University of British Columbia 2nd Annual Undergraduate History Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, November 2005.