Eryk Martin
BA (Hons) (UVIC), MA (UVIC), PhD (SFU)
A settler born and raised in Nuu-chah-nulth and Coast Salish territories, Dr. Martin received his PhD from Simon Fraser University in 2016. At present, he's working on a history of anarchist activism in Vancouver. This book manuscript, Burn it Down! Anarchism, Activism, and the Vancouver Five, focuses on anarchist political projects in order to explore the transformation of revolutionary politics and culture in the late twentieth century, both in Canada and abroad. This research is nested within his broader interest in the popular and political culture of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including drug culture, punk and heavy metal, feminist science fiction, and Cold War action movies. Dr. Martin brings these, and other media (including comic books) into his teaching at KPU, where he teaches courses on the history of Canada, gender and race, and activism.
Courses taught
- History 1113: Cultures in Collision: Canada to 1867
- History 1114: Forged in Fire: Canada since 1867
- History 2314: Gender & Sexuality in Canada
- History 3315: Radicalism, Resistance, and Revolution
- History 4414: Race and Ethnicity in Canadian History
- History 4490: History of British Columbia
- History 4497: Canada and World War II
Scholarly Work
- Burn it Down! Anarchism, Activism, and the Vancouver Five (UBC Press) In peer review.
- “We want action now”: Indigenous Spirituality, Prison Activism, and Social Movement Mobilization,” with Sarah Nickel, Social History/Histoire Sociale 56, no. 115 (2023): 149-175.
- “Resisting Red Hot Video: Feminism, Pornography, and the Political Utility of Emotion,” in Feeling Feminism: Activism, Affect, and Canada’s Second Wave, ed. Lara Campbell, Catherine Gidney, and Michael Dawson (University of British Columbia Press, 2022).
- “The Blurred Boundaries of Anarchism and Punk in Vancouver, 1970–1983,” Labour/Le Travail 75 (Spring 2015): 9–41.
- “Canadian Communists and the Politics of Nature in British Columbia, 1937–1956,” Twentieth Century Communism 5 (Summer 2013): 104–125.
- Public engagement and other published work
- “Recalling 1980s Vancouver: When Radical Activists Took Up Arms,” The Tyee (Fall 2016).
- “A Look Back at Anarchist History: Burnaby’s Eryk Martin on Anarchism, Feminism and the Red Hot Video Bombings,” Burnaby Now (Winter 2015).
- • “Remember/Resist/Redraw #28: Indigenous Women, Prison Activism, and the 1983 Kent Hunger Strike” with Sarah Nickel and Tania Willard, Active History (February 2021).
- “History is an Excellent Teaching Aid,” Richmond Sentinel (March 2018).
- “A Radical Tradition: KPU Prof Explores Vancouver’s History of Anarchism and Punk Rock,” The Runner (January 2018).