Shifting Tides 2026
31 January – 1 February 2026
hosted by the Department of History, Simon Fraser University
SFU • UBC • UNBC • UVIC
About Shifting Tides
The Shifting Tides History Conference is an annual graduate history conference organized this year by the SFU History in collaboration with the History Departments at the University of Victoria, the University of Northern British Columbia, and the University of British Columbia. The conference has emerged as an interdisciplinary forum where graduate and senior undergraduate students in History and related fields present their research to colleagues from other institutions across the Pacific Northwest and North America.
We invite proposals on all topics, regions, and time periods. Talks are usually 15 minutes long followed by audience partcipation.
Please direct all inquiries shiftingtides_2026@sfu.ca.
SFU History looks forward to welcoming everyone to Shifting Tides 2026!
2026 Keynote Event: Luncheon Plenary on Public History
Host / MC:
- Joseph Taylor, Simon Fraser University
Panelists:
- Keith Carlson, University of the Fraser Valley
- Jenny Clayton, Parks Canada/Parcs Canada
- Chelsea Horton, Vancouver Island University
- Daniel Sims (Tsay Keh Dene), University of Northern British Columbia
See conference program for additional details.
Keith Carlson is a professor of History at the University of the Fraser Valley and a Tier One Canada Research Chair in Indigenous and Community-Engaged History. An ethnohistorian, he designs and conducts research in partnership with communities and focuses on questions that matter to those partners. His interests include Indigenous history, Indigenous historical consciousness, and the history of settler colonialism, especially in western Canada and the northwestern United States. Carlson works to invert the classic scholarly gaze and foreground Indigenous perspectives. His research centres on the history of Coast Salish peoples in British Columbia and Washington, and he has also worked extensively with Hukbalahap veterans in the Philippines.
Chelsea Horton is a historian and educator of settler heritage with a PhD in Indigenous history from the University of British Columbia. Based in Snaw-Naw-As territory on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, she focuses on research and reporting related to Indigenous rights and title; Indigenous Knowledge, land use, and occupancy; and colonial histories and their cumulative effects. She also brings a longstanding interest in histories of religion and reconciliation. As a research consultant, Horton has supported First Nations across Canada on projects used in specific and comprehensive claims, consultation and negotiation processes, and community-based education. She draws on oral history and archival research, and teaches and develops curriculum in Indigenous history at several universities in British Columbia.
Daniel Sims is a member of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation, an associate professor of First Nations Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia, and an adjunct professor in the School of Education at the University of Northern British Columbia. From 2015 to 2020 he was an assistant professor in history at the University of Alberta - Augustana Campus and is he is an honoured former academic co-lead of the National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health. His research focuses on northern British Columbia and is community-based/community-engaged.
Jenny Clayton studied Canadian History at the University of New Brunswick and the University of Victoria. Her PhD dissertation focused on the history of recreational land use in 20th century British Columbia. She has taught courses in Canadian, environmental, and BC history at UVic, Vancouver Island University, and Camosun College. She has also worked on public history projects, including websites, interpretive panels, and a commissioned book. As a historian at Parks Canada since 2019, she writes reports for the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and provides historical research for national parks and historic sites in Coastal British Columbia. She lives in Victoria with her husband and son.