A new episode of the Foreword podcast will introduce listeners to the ways in which historians use archival sources such as diaries, letters and government records to learn more about the past.

Danny Samson, Associate Professor of History, is the featured guest on this week’s episode. He will speak about his ongoing research using the diary of James Barry, a miller in rural Nova Scotia in the nineteenth century. Barry’s diary gives insight into the role of the miller in the community, as well as the political and social issues facing Nova Scotia around Confederation.

Samson will also discuss the ground-breaking work his students did last semester in creating an interactive website Ile St-Jean: The Expulsion of 1758, which details the forcible deportation of thousands of Acadians from modern-day Prince Edward Island. The digital project has been getting international scholarly attention.

Episodes are released every Wednesday on Apple, Google Podcasts and Podbean. Transcripts are being made available on the Faculty of Humanities website.