Wednesday, April 16th, 2025, 7:00 pm (Atlantic), in-person at the Lindsay Children’s Room on the 2nd floor at the Halifax Central Library, 5440 Spring Garden Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Zoom link will be shared soon.
Born in Truro (the glittering metropolis an hour’s drive from Halifax), Alex Robben is a graduate of Dalhousie’s MA History program. Alex’s research focuses on labour, a specialization inspired by a litany of odd jobs, especially warehouse work for a certain Atlantic Canadian grocery chain. His work attempts to bring Nova Scotia’s public-sector labour culture to the fore in an area dominated by central Canadian, private-sector labour history. Having worked in positions ranging from shuttle driver to substitute teacher, Alex has more recently been involved in Halifax-area political organizing.
Abstract:
Not Just Nice Guys attempts to advance the existing patchwork history of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union between the 1940s to the 1980s. In this predominantly archives-based work, particular attention is paid to re-discovering the militant elements of the union and how they were contained by internal and external actors. It situates the union in the postwar professionalization of the Canadian labour movement and details teachers’ struggles with all levels of government and themselves.
