News release

For Immediate Release
July 20, 2009

Mount Royal instructor receives grant to research how war
affects soldiers

(CALGARY – July 20, 2009) Mount Royal History Instructor, Mark Humphries believes his research will help modern era soldiers overcome traumatic war-time experiences.

By studying the effects of shell shock on First World War soldiers after they returned to their lives in Canada, Humphries hopes to help modern day soldiers who struggle with similar afflictions upon returning home.

Humphries has received a prestigious Standard Research Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research council of Canada (SSHRC), worth $38,000 for this project.

“We can learn how modern soldiers will respond simply by learning about what happened to soldiers in the past,” says Humphries, who joined Mount Royal last August. “It is a different war and different time, but one thing that is pretty clear from the limited research done is all soldiers suffer equally in every war.”

“The experience of the trauma of war is transferable from the past to today — human beings don’t biologically change.”

Humphries will use his SSHRC money to collect data from Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. He plans on hiring four Mount Royal history students over the three years of his grant, including one who will go to Ottawa with him this summer.

The research will start by studying Admission Discharge Books that were uncovered in a government warehouse basement a few years ago. From there, Humphries and his team will start their “archival adventure” and trace other documents — such as pension applications and appeals, criminal records, divorce papers — that will tell the stories of these brave men.

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For further information contact:
Fred Cheney, Media Relations Officer
Office of External Relations
Office: 403.440.5195
Cell: 403.542.7904
mediarelations@mtroyal.ca