Dale Barbour is returning as a juror for the JW Dafoe Book Prize.
Dr. Dale Barbour, a graduate of the University of Manitoba/University of Winnipeg Joint Master’s Program, received his PhD in history from the University of Toronto in 2018. Barbour’s scholarship pulls together gender, leisure, urban, and environmental history approaches to examine how people find and create recreation spaces.
What are you looking for from the winning book?
I’m looking for a book that tells a Canadian story. Ideally, it’s revealing part of the Canadian experience that I haven’t heard before or that I desperately need to learn more about. And with a nod to John Dafoe, who very much saw Canada as a collection of regions working together, I like a book that reveals some of the regional stories that contribute to a national whole.
One of the joys of the Dafoe book prize is that we don’t just pick a winner. We also pick a long list, which gives us a chance to highlight different books telling a different story about Canada and collectively, I think, they give you a good sense of what’s happening in our country.
Why did you want to be a part of the JW Dafoe Book Prize Jury?
Serving on the Dafoe Book prize jury is a great way to stay engaged with the research and writing that’s happening in Canada, not just in history, which is my home field, but in political studies, Indigenous studies, and a wide range of other fields.
Why do you think it’s important to read and write about Canada’s place in the world?
It feels like we live in a world of social media noise and artificial intelligence slop. I think digging in and understanding who we are as Canadians, where we’ve been, and where we’re going it more important that ever. Reading and writing is a chance to define who we are and who we want to be.