Hazel Scott Pankratz
Dissertation (working) Title:
- Experiencing Technological Systems in the Canadian Field Artillery, 1914-1918
Research Interests:
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My research focuses on how the intersection of weapons technology and lived experience was conceptualized by Canadian artillery personnel during the First World War. More specifically, it draws upon social histories of technological systems to analyze how increasingly complex weapons systems subsumed human operators as constituent parts, how this compared with 19th-century beliefs about soldiers, sacrifice and individual heroism, and how artillery personnel negotiated their position between these two opposing ideas.
Conference Presentations
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“‘You would have thought we were soldiers too’: Conceptualizing Combatant Experiences of Canadian Gunners on the Western Front, 1914-1918,” 33rd Canadian Military History Colloquium, Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada, 26 May 2023.
Presentations and Public Lectures:
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“‘It is indeed a bedlam’: Sound, Sensation and Shellfire in the Canadian Artillery, 1914-1918,” McCaffrey Seminar Series, Western University, 15 February 2024.
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“‘It was hell, that’s all’: Artillery and the Senses in the Canadian Corps, 1914-1918,” Guelph Museums Military Lecture Series, Guelph Civic Museum, 21 March 2024. https://guelphmuseums.ca/event/military-lecture-it-was-hell-thats-all-artillery-and-the-senses-in-the-canadian-corps-1914-1918/.
