In Da Club: History Students' Society

A look back in KPU.

By Kyle Prince and Monica Mah, contributors

In response to a national discussion centring on domestic security and the spread of terrorist groups, in part fed by the controversial Bill C-51, the Kwantlen History Students’ Society is introducing a new monthly PODtalk called “Narratives of Terrorism.” On it, Clea Hargraves will “look globally at the structure of terrorism,” as well as the “media that factor into it.”

“It should be really interesting to catch up to where we are now [with these issues] and how things aren’t getting any better,” says Hargraves.

Hargraves also states that their PODtalk will include an element where they “ask faculty, or interesting people in the community, or even students, to submit an idea about something that’s related to history,” and then discuss these issues on the PODtalk. These conversations are modeled after TEDtalks, but with a decidedly historical slant.

“We want to pull from what people are talking about, or what’s happening out in society,” explains Hargraves, citing that a potential upcoming talk would be about the application process for grad school, a topic that plenty of people in the History department will have experience in.

The History Students’ Society was formed in the late 2000s and has grown to include over 150 members in that time. In addition to their initiative with the PODtalk, they’ve held history-pertaining movie nights on the KPU campus and have taken a field trip to Seattle to visit the local museums there.

The society says that they’re always looking for new members, and aim to bring people together to overcome the “transient experience in university” that has plagued KPU in particular. One of the recent events they’ve held to help accomplish this goal was a silent auction in the Grassroots Cafe, which boasted some impressive prizes. All the money raised at their events goes towards a scholarship provided to students at the university.

“It’s nice to know we get to give back to the students,” says Hargraves. “We’re not just sitting around in our tweed jackets, smoking a pipe, talking about history.”

The PODtalks, along with their other recent activities, have fulfilled a club mandate to make the history society more current, more exciting, and to allow for more connections with the students at KPU.

“You don’t have to be some history whiz to come out and chat with us or be a part of our events,” Hargraves says. “It’s not just talking about hundreds and hundreds of years ago. We really want to get out there that [the society] is open to everybody, and that we’re not just exclusive to the history program. It’s more about a club getting together, having really cool conversations and having fun.”

Those interested can follow the Society’s twitter account, @KwantlenHistory, or their Facebook page, History at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.