Aldona Sendzikas

Associate Professor
PhD, University of Hawai'i, 2002

On Sabbatical - July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011

Teaching Fields

U.S. History, Military History, American Studies, Museum Studies

Research Interests

The U.S. Submarine Service, particularly during WWII; prisoner of war issues; Canada-U.S. relations; Cold War culture and society.

Selected Publications

Stanley Barracks: Toronto's Military Legacy (Dundurn Press, 2011).  Stanley Barracks, aka the “New Fort”, was constructed by the British Army in 1841 to replace Fort York in Toronto.  After the withdrawal of British forces from Canada in 1871, Stanley Barracks served various purposes, including training depot for the Northwest Mounted Police and internment centre for “enemy-aliens” during the First World War.  This will be the first comprehensive history of this structure, and will also include material about the role of the C.N.E. grounds as “Exhibition Camp” during the two world wars. 

Lucky 73:  USS Pampanito’s Unlikely Rescue of Allied POWs in WWII  (University Press of Florida, 2010).  An account of the rescue of British and Australian POWs by U.S. submarines in the South China Sea in 1944, based on firsthand written accounts, oral histories, and naval records.  Nominated for the Society for History in the Federal Government's Henry Adams Prize and the North American Society for Oceanic History's John Lyman Book Prize.

 

“John McCain” and “Jessica Lynch.”  Entries for The Encyclopedia of Prisoners of War and Internment, (2nd ed.) editor Jonathan Vance (Millerton, NY:  Grey House Publishing, 2006).

 “On Womanhood in Wartime:  Canadian Women and the Second World War.”  Published in Over Here:  Women, Work and WWII (exhibit catalogue), McIntosh Gallery and Museum London, 2004.

Teaching

Prior to coming to Western, I taught American Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and U.S. History at Chaminade University of Honolulu, both on campus and on military bases throughout the island of O‘ahu.

Museum experience

I have also worked at a number of museums, including as Assistant Curator at Historic Fort York in Toronto; Museum Curator at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum at Pearl Harbor; and Curator/Education Manager at USS Pampanito in San Francisco.  I have also done curatorial consulting work for the USS Missouri Memorial at Pearl Harbor and the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California.

Selected presentations

 “American War Resisters in Canada during the Vietnam War.”  "The Idea of Home" Conference, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, November 2010.

 “Aboard Japan’s WWII ‘Hell Ships’: First Person Accounts.”  North American Society for Oceanic History Annual Conference, California Maritime Academy, Vallejo, CA, May 2009.

“‘First you sink us, now you’re going to shoot us!’:  Friendly Fire at Sea During World War Two.”  New Perspectives on War and Society:  31st Annual Great Lakes History Conference.  Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, October  2006.

“A Mission Unique in Submarine History:  The Sinking and Rescue of Allied P.O.W.s by U.S. Submarines in the South China Sea, 1944.”  Charting the Inland Seas:  Recent Studies in Great Lakes Research Conference/Annual Meeting of the North American Society for Oceanic History,  Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, May-June 2006.

“Do We Need More Community Museums?”  Panel debate at the Ontario Museum Association Annual Conference (invited speaker), Niagara Falls, Ontario, October 2005.

“Canada as America’s New Frontier.”  International Association for American Studies conference, The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, August 2005.

“Survivors of the River Kwai:  Tracing the Fates of the Men who Built the Burma-Thai Railroad while Prisoners of the Japanese.” 16th Annual Symposium on Maritime Archaeology and History of the Pacific and Hawai’i, Honolulu, HI, February 2005.

“Women and World War II.”  Talk Tuesdays presentation at McIntosh Gallery, UWO, November  2004.

“The Role of the Curator in Historic Preservation.”  Keynote talk for curatorial workshop at the Elgin Country Railway Museum, August 2004

“Due North:  Canada as America’s 20th Century Frontier.” Australia and New Zealand American Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Auckland, Auckland, NZ, July 2004.

“The Image of the P.O.W. in the American Mind.”  Australian Historical Association Annual Conference, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia, July 2004.

Doctoral Level supervisory privileges

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