Monda Halpern

Associate Professor
PhD, Queen's University, 1997

Research Interests

Professor Halpern specializes in nineteenth and twentieth-century Canadian and American Women's History and Jewish History.

Current Research

Professor Halpern's current book project focuses on a 1931 shooting in the Ottawa Jewish community. Ben Edelson, a prominent jeweller, was accused of murdering fellow jeweller Jack Horwitz, who had been in a long-term affair with Edelson's wife Alice. After a sensational trial that captured the headlines of Ottawa newspapers, Edelson was acquitted of the charges. Halpern is using this case to help illuminate trends in Ontario society related to the interconnected issues of ethnicity, gender, and class. In particular, she is examining reactions to the shooting by both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities, especially in the context of the anti-Semitism that pervaded Ontario in the 1920s and 30s. She is also investigating how the middle-class status combined with the immigrant background of the Edelsons might have shaped attitudes about them against the backdrop of the Depression. As well, she is studying the ways in which the differing reputations of Mrs. Edelson and Mrs. Horwitz during and after the trial spoke to varying perceptions of women in this post-suffrage era.

Undergraduate Teaching Philosophy

At the start of every academic year, I make a bold promise to my undergraduate students - one which defines my teaching philosophy and goals. I inform them that my course will change their world view - that in eight months, they will see the world, and therefore themselves, in a new way. By the end of the year, they eagerly tell me of their personal evolution, and I respond that this is what learning should be - transformative. Teaching women's history and Jewish history allows me the opportunity to stray from mainstream historical narratives, and explore with my students people, trends, and events that have often been forgotten, dismissed, or ignored. We journey through material for which I present new perspectives and interpretations, and with which I encourage my students to consider the context and motivation of both historical actor and historian. I believe that students love to be challenged in this way. And I hope it is the confidence they gain through this process of questioning, and in their ability to offer both logical and creative answers, that they will carry with them after they graduate.

Selected Publications

Books


And on that Farm He had a Wife: Ontario Farm Women and Feminism, 1900-1970. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.

An exploration of the historical relationship between Ontario farm women and feminism.



Articles in a Book

 

"Foreword" (co-authored with Rev. Michael Bechard), pp. i-ii, and "Introduction" (co-authored with Sonia Halpern), pp. vii-x, in Esther Warmerdam as told to William Butt, Behind Our Doors (Holocaust memoir). London, Ontario: The Althouse Press (in cooperation with the Centre for Jewish-Catholic-Muslim Learning, King’s University College, 2011.


"Baggage Claim." pp. 65-68. Living Legacies: A Collection of Writing by Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women, Volume II. Edited by Liz Pearl. Toronto: PK Press, 2010.




"'Such Outrageous Discrimination': Farm Women and Their Family Grievances in Early Twentieth-Century Ontario," pp.116-23. Framing Our Past: Canadian Women's History in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Sharon Anne Cook, et al. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.

Journal Articles

 
"'Art Should Always Ennoble': Emma Griesbach and Art Appreciation in the Women’s Page of The Farmers’ Sun, 1917-1922” (co-authored with Sonia Halpern). Ontario History, CCII, 1 (Spring 2011): 42-59.





“JAP – Jewish And Passed-over: The Invisibility of Single Jewish Women in Issues of Intermarriage and Conversion” (co-authored with Sonia Halpern). Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal (Spring 2008) [online journal].
http://wjudaism.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/wjudaism/article/view/3531/1585

"'This Ambitious Polish Jew': Rethinking the Conversion and Career of Bishop Isaac Hellmuth." Ontario History (Autumn 2007): 221-46.

Recent Presentations

"'The First to Jump Were Women':  The Tragedy of the New York 1911 Triangle Factory Fire."  JEM (Jewish Educational Manna) Lecture Series, Jewish Community Centre, London, Ontario, February 6, 2012.

"Secret, Scandal, or Scholarship?:  Ethical Dilemmas in Exploring the Edelson/Horwitz Murder Case, "Social Science Speaker's Series, Fanshawe College, London, Ontario, October, 13, 2011.

"And on that Farm He had a Wife, "Museum London, London, Ontario, June 26, 2011.

Recent Awards

USC Teaching Honour Roll for Teaching Excellence (five awards), 2010-11, 2008-09, 1997-2000.

Nominated, Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (three nominations), USC/Alumni Association/Bank of Nova Scotia, 2009-10, 2006-07, 2001-02.

Alumni Research Award for the book Jews, Gender, and the Edelson/Horwitz Murder Case. Faculty of Social Science, The University of Western Ontario, 2007

The Agnes Cole Dark Research Grant for a book on the Edelson/Horwitz murder case, 1931, Ottawa, Ontario. Faculty of Social Science, The University of Western Ontario, 2006

Affiliated with The Centre for American Studies, The Department of Women's Studies and Feminist Research, Jewish Studies, and the Collaborative Graduate Program in Migration and Ethnic Relations


Doctoral Level supervisory privileges

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Current Courses