PROFESSOR RON STAGG RETIRES FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
PROFESSOR RON STAGG RETIRES FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
After a long career, spanning the years from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute to Toronto Metropolitan University, Ron Stagg has retired. During his career he taught a multitude of courses, although his main focus remained centred on Canadian history. A specialist on late-18th- and 19th-century Ontario, he developed courses in mass protest in Canada, and often is asked to do radio and television interviews on the general nature of protests worldwide. Another area of interest in which he has done numerous interviews is the recent trend to reinterpret history based on emotion rather than on factual detail. This has led him to comment frequently on the removal of historical names from buildings, and the removal of statues of historical figures. In recent years, his favourite courses were one on the history of Toronto and one titled “Film, Television, and 20th-Century History.”
Dr. Stagg has an extensive publishing record, including articles, book reviews, encyclopedia entries, short papers, and books. While he focuses mainly on the Upper Canadian (Ontario) Rebellion of 1837, he also has written a book on student initiatives at Ryerson University, and one on the history of the St. Lawrence Seaway. He has written on the history of Toronto Metropolitan University’s predecessor institutions, and for many years was considered by many people to be the university’s unofficial historian.
During his career, Dr. Stagg served on most major committees, councils, and boards at the university, and was chair of the Department of History for 10 years. Externally, he served for four and a half years as book-review editor for the publication Ontario History.
His first book was a co-edited volume of documents, with a book-length introduction, covering the two uprisings in Upper Canada in 1837. Ron is now completing a single-authored monograph on the major rebellion of that year. In the wings are planned works on the history of the city of West Toronto Junction and the history of the still camera since the introduction of film. He continues to do book reviews and interviews.
