Mt. A Professor Michael Akladios explains why studying history “opens the world for you”
In an interview with The Argosy, Mt. A’s new history professor, Michael Akladios explains why a degree in history “opens the world for you.” According to Akladios, learning about history provides “us with the tools and skills to continue to be human, curious, and creative, in a world increasingly shaped by A.I.” Because of the degree’s versatility, Akladios says “history graduates can be anything they want to be. They don’t have to go [into] museums and teaching.” Akladios lists the paths of past history students as being anything from banking to working at a German think-tank.
Akladios pitches history to students as “indispensable to a liberal arts education,” and a place where students can “showcase their creative, public-facing projects [which] emphasize that history isn’t something fixed in the past, but a lens through which to engage critically with the present.” Beyond the usual major, minor, and honours BA programs, Akladios says that with a Public History Certificate (18 credits with lots of options), “students can get hands-on experience with archives, museums, and digital storytelling while bridging academic study and community engagement.” Akladios’ winter 2026 classes include, Canada After 1871, Canadian Working-Class and Labour History, and Un/Settling New France. Each class “invites students to think critically about how migration, settler colonialism, and challenge and change in society, have shaped Canada.” Beyond his own courses, Akladios mentioned Professor Will Wilson’s History, Museums, and Material Culture class and Hannah Lane’s Birth to Death: Family History class, as courses worth looking into as they “encourage students to reflect on their own histories and connect learning to broader cultural and historical contexts.”
Akladios’ teaching style allows students to be guided by their own curiosity, with the classroom becoming “a space of discussion and critical inquiry” where students are encouraged to learn together. Akladios is happiest in the classroom, where he comes “alive in the room” while working with “students on complex ideas and breaking them down, and trying to understand people’s stories and how [they] connect to our present realities, whether it’s war and conflict, everyday racism, or the challenges of working towards a better Canada, or a better world.” In Akladios syllabus, the necessary sources for the class are hyperlinked to provide easy access to critical case studies, used to “understand the gaps in our histories and [to] understand the silences and the voices and the resistance.” Akladios’ classes focus on applied learning and resume building deliverables, giving students a competitive edge by including tangible outcomes that students can add to their cover letter. This semester, projects include a conference held in early December by Modern Canada history students, who are also pursuing an independent publication of the proceedings, podcasts on CHMA, and students from all courses working to create “Instagram reflections grounded in primary source analysis.”
Akladios’ initiatives beyond Mt.A are fuel for his teaching. Akladios founded and directs a non-profit organization called Egypt Migrations, in addition to being vice president of the board of directors of the Coptic Museum of Canada, where he supervises summer interns. There, he teaches interns “critical skills in research and writing and exhibiting,” to provide them with the skills to make “stories come alive for people who don’t need the academic jargon,” facilitating connection and community.
Akladios’ personal research is driven by the desire “to understand what is the Egyptian and specifically Coptic immigrant experience,” an ethno-religious group to which he belongs. Being the only oral and public historian of Egyptian migration to North America in the 20th Century, with a specific interest in Coptic Orthodox Christians, Akladios’ first book, “Ordinary Copts” is the first reference text on Egyptians in America. “Ordinary Copts” frames the stories of Copts “within broader Egyptian migrations as well as racial hierarchies within Canada and the U.S.”
Akladios is currently working on his second book, written for classroom use under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing, titled “Egyptian Americans.” Find out more about Michael Akladios and his projects and publications on his website: www.michaelakladios.com/publications.
Those interested in learning more about history classes, projects, and opportunities, are encouraged to follow History Department’s Instagram account: @mtahistorydepartment.