McGill in History

In 2021, McGill University celebrated its bicentennial anniversary, reflecting on contributions to research, education, and other successes. The university’s founding within the context of nineteenth-century Atlantic capitalism requires that a deeper account engage with the more complex and difficult elements of its history.

McGill in History brings together diverse historiographies and perspectives to critically examine how McGill has been implicated in power structures and is the product of conflicting ideologies. James McGill, the university’s namesake, owned and profited from the sale of enslaved Black and Indigenous people, a legacy highlighted by the removal of his statue and ongoing debates over the racially charged Redman name used by the men’s sports teams. Imperialism, settler colonialism, slavery, sexism, and homophobia are elements of McGill’s story that must be fully integrated into a broader understanding of the university’s institutional history. Challenging siloed narratives with new research, the contributors to this volume emphasize the important task of scholars to scrutinize and confront history that is unflattering and to rethink their institution’s own story – a reckoning happening across many institutions of higher education around the world.

McGill in History broadens the historical frame of critical university studies, showing how the university can serve as a model for understanding power in modern society.