History in the Hot Seat is part of the 2024 Knowledge Synthesis Grant Competition, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in partnership with Canadian Heritage, Genome Canada, and UK Research Innovation’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (UKRI-AHRC). The theme of the 2024 Knowledge Synthesis Grant Competition, “Evolving Narratives of Cultures and Histories,” aims to assess and mobilize the existing knowledge on how factors such as globalization, war, colonization, racism, slavery, climate change, technology, social media, and more have shaped or changed cultural and historical narratives.

Following the theme and goals of Evolving Narratives of Cultures and Histories,” History in the Hot Seat will synthesize a decade of reckoning with Canada’s past and what it means to learn and teach it considering ongoing histories of colonialism and Indigenous dispossession. As such, this project will produce:

• A synthesis of scholarly literature, digital and print media, and grey literature about Canada’s past and colonialism since 2013.
• An open-access report that summarizes the research results.
• An accessible and usable bibliography.
• A podcast series.
• A workshop in late summer 2024 for educators to join the discussion on how we might best teach and disseminate Canadian history in a way that acknowledges the central of Indigenous dispossession to Canada’s past and present.

History in the Hot Seat will provide valuable and portable knowledge about the current reckoning with Canada’s past and what it means for how we might rethink Canada’s history and how we research, commemorate, and study it. These findings will be relevant for academics, public history professionals and organizations, educators and others working to develop and sustain visions of Canada’s past that recognize the role of colonization, dispossession, and systemic racism in Canada’s past, present, and future.