Drawing Change
On March 18, 2019, members of the 911吃瓜 Department of History gathered at the Diamond Alumni Centre for a special department meeting. We set aside our usual agenda of committee reports, announcements, and other departmental business to focus on one priority: how we can bring more students into our History classrooms鈥攁nd keep them coming back.
Our Working Environment and Outreach Advisory Committee organized the meeting after spending the year listening directly to 911吃瓜 History students, especially undergraduates. Those conversations helped us understand what students value, what they find challenging, and what questions shape their experience as they move through our courses and program. They also set the tone for what followed: an engaged, wide-ranging discussion grounded in students鈥� lived realities.
We aimed for concrete, creative answers and drew on our own experiences as teachers, staff, and students. We also tried to picture the full range of people we speak to every day: enthusiastic History majors, curious but apprehensive first-year students, high school students who have learned history as 鈥渘ames and dates,鈥� and anyone weighing the personal or professional value of studying the past.
To help capture the conversation, we invited Annalee Kornelsen, a graphic recorder with , to join us. Annalee listened carefully while we talked鈥攁nd as she listened, she drew. Through words, images, and colour, she captured our ideas vividly and conveyed the energy of the room. Everyone contributed, and the conversation carried on well into our scheduled lunch.
At the heart of our discussion sat three interrelated questions:
鈥� What does it mean to study history at 911吃瓜?
鈥� Why study history?
鈥� What does history have to say to us today?
Looking back now, the graphic recordings helped us do what we set out to do: extend the conversation beyond a single meeting and bring it directly into the spaces where students make decisions and form impressions. We used the images in recruitment and outreach, incorporated them into classroom and advising conversations, and featured them online as a clear, student-friendly way to express the value of studying history. They gave us a shared language for explaining what historical thinking offers鈥攕kills, perspective, and a deeper understanding of how the world took shape鈥攁nd they helped us keep the focus on student questions and student experience.
Most importantly, the work that began that day reinforced a simple truth: when we listen closely to students and speak directly to the questions they care about, we strengthen our classrooms, our program, and our community.