The storyteller

History professor Todd McCallum with "Commie Nos," a game created by one of his students. (Abriel photo)

As Todd McCallum paces, talks and strokes his red beard at the front of the lecture theatre, you know heÕd rule at a campfire: spinning stories, sharing asides and having a laugh.

On this night, heÕs teaching Social History of Canada (HIST 2212). This could be dry, date-filled stuff, but Prof. McCallum makes it come alive through the stories of Canadians Ñ not just the John A. MacDonalds and R.B. Bennetts, but Canadians who felt the brunt of the economic and political transformations that were sweeping the young nation.

Canadians like Dawn Fraser, a poet from Glace Bay, Cape Breton, who wrote eloquently about the struggles of coal miners and their families through the 1920s. Between 1922 and 1927, the island was rocked by three massive strikes; during this time, the police and militia were used against the miners, and union leaders were targeted and harassed.

Through his poetry, the Cape Bretoner documents how he became radicalized Ñ first, as a young soldier sent to take part in the unpopular invasion of the Soviet Union in 1918, and secondly, by sympathizing with the workers once he was back home. Cape Breton coal miners rebelled against the monolithic British Empire Steel Corporation, which cut wages by 33 per cent even as their profits increased.

His fist-raising anger is palpable in the poem, ÒHe Starved, He Starved, I Tell You,” which Prof. McCallum reads to the class:

ÒÉWhen the mines closed down that winter
He had nothing left to eat,
And he starved, he starved, I tell you,
On your dirty, damned street.”

ItÕs not the only bit of theatre Ñ Òone weapon in the class struggle” Ñ used during the lecture. At one point, his teaching assistantÕs 10-year-old son Lucas leads students in a bit of rabble-rousing by having them raise closed fists and bent arms and chant, ÒYoung Communist League!” (ÒMake sure the arm is bent,” encourages Prof. McCallum, suitably dressed in red. ÒIf itÕs not, thatÕs a whole other movement.”)

The hour speeds by in record time. But the history prof his students call Òeasily the best professor at Dalhousie,” (on ratemyprofessors.com) says he was having an off night. ÒBut thank goodness, itÕs tough to make Dawn Fraser boring,” he says the next day in his office in the McCain Building. ÒThe material IÕve been given to teach is just so interesting.”

As well as Social History, Prof. McCallum also teaches The Political Economy of the Car (HIST 3293), Youth Culture in Canada (HIST 3220), and Topics in the History of Sexuality (HIST 4614). From Bramalea, Ont., the 37-year-old Prof. McCallum (BA QueenÕs, MA Simon Fraser, PhD QueenÕs) has been at Dalhousie for the past seven years. He recently won the Eugene A. Forsey Prize, awarded for the best graduate thesis in Canadian labour history, for his doctoral thesis entitled, ÒStill Raining, Market Still Rotten: Homeless Men and the Early Years of the Great Depression in Vancouver.”

He says Dalhousie is a great place to teach because of the support he gets from
his colleagues.

ÒWhat I love about Dalhousie is that the professors here combine great scholarship with an incredible ethic for teaching,” he says. ÒIf I need to vent or bounce off ideas, there are a half dozen people I can go to.”

The enthusiasm he brings to teaching is also devoted to designing creative assignments. For his Youth Culture class, for example, students have written scripts for TV commercials, recorded their own political protest songs and produced their own versions of Heritage Minutes.

A visit to his office turns into show-and-tell. From the top of a filing cabinet, he takes down a scale model of a bomb shelter one of his students made (complete with miniature bathroom and foodstuffs), and a game of ÒCommie Nos,” adapted from dominoes to inform kids of the worldÕs Òscary red” leaders, such as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and Chairman Mao.

ÒThese assignments look easier than your typical research essay,” he says, noting students have to write those too. ÒBut students invest so much more time and imagination in them. I think they learn a lot.”