The Gregg Centre is a national, non-partisan academic centre of expertise and analysis on issues surrounding Canada's Land Forces past and present. 40 years of partnership with the nearby Combat Training Centre at CFB Gagetown and The Royal Canadian Regiment makes The Gregg Centre at UNB an ideal location for this research focus.

Research on Canada's Army Today: In 2006, our team launched a new project studying Canadian Land Force operations today. That work initially focused on the mission in Afghanistan in 2006-07 and led to the 2008 publication of Kandahar Tour: The Turning Point in Canada's Afghan Mission. 

Research on the Afghan mission continues through a series of projects studying the long-term implications of Canadian involvement. Projects include the evolution of the Canadian Forces Intelligence Branch led by David Charters, the legacy of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team and Canada's training of Afghan National Security Forces led by Lee Windsor, and on the condition of the army and its soldiers after a decade of intense operations led by Brent Wilson.

'The Human Dimension' of the Canadian Soldier's Experience: The Gregg Centre is planning a major study of the impact of stability and counter-insurgency operations on Canadian soldiers deployed to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2011. This project, entitled "The Human Dimension of Modern Asymmetric Warfare: The Canadian Soldier's Experience," consists of two elements. The first will track the history of changes in the management of Canadian Forces' human resources and the handling of casualties over the last two decades. The second part will assess the efficacy of these changes to determine if they have been successful in mitigating the impact of both physical and psychological casualties and easing the long-term suffering of both wounded soldiers and their families.

The Gregg Centre-Combat Training Centre Annual Fall Conference: This CASP flagship event combines today's Canadian Forces leaders and key instructors together with scholars and military professionals from around the world to discuss the latest findings and best practices relating to challenges faced on missions overseas.

Canadian-American Battlefield Study Tour to Sicily: The Gregg Centre, in partnership with the Combat Training Centre, the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, and the First US Division Foundation each year delivers a professional development study tour to Sicily for graduate students and army officers from Canada and the United States. The emphasis for this exercise is multi-national, joint force planning and decision-making through the case study of the 1943 Sicily Campaign.

Canadian Forces Professional Development: The Gregg Centre faculty routinely provides expertise to today's Canadian Forces, serving as adjunct lecturers on courses, professional development seminars and exercises.

Atlantic Military Affairs Symposium: In 2010, the Gregg Centre opened a series of public conferences in Atlantic Canada in partnership with local Canadian Forces Reserve units aimed at fostering public discussion on the nation's military institutions past and present.

Italy and the Second World War

Developed as part of the University of New Brunswick's Intersession in Rome program, The Second World War in Italy is taught on location throughout Italy at important Canadian battlefield sites as well as points of interest for Italy's Second World War. Although the course is geared towards the undergraduate level, the general public can take the course as an audit.

This course truly explores the war and society problem by studying the Canadian army and other coalition forces in Italy but also the Italian social situation in Italy from the rise and fall of fascism to the brutal civil war of 1943 to 1945. Lasting reminders of Italy's brutal, but little-known, civil war are evident throughout its cities and countryside. In addition, Italy's unique geography made Second World War battles there especially difficult. Thus, the wartime legacy and Italian terrain provide students with an ideal classroom and subject for studying the war in Italy.

Operation Husky: The Sicily Campaign

The Operation Husky: Sicily 1943 Can/Am staff ride was designed in 2006 for civilian graduate students and officers in the Canadian and American armies. The unique education and professional development exercise is conducted semi-annually on location in Sicily and Italy. The objective of the tour is to bring together civilian graduate-level students and military officers from Canada and the United States with the aim of exposing participants to distinct national approaches of war that are both complementary and conflicting. The combination of civilian and military students allows for the interchange of academic and professional perspectives on the application of policy on the battlefield.

The topic and location are ideal to study multi-national, coalition, joint-service warfare in a remote theatre where rugged terrain, extreme climatic conditions and limited infrastructure joined forces with a skillful German opponent. Participants are introduced to the challenge of coordinating military operations with diplomatic efforts to negotiate Italy’s surrender and Allied Military Government operations to deliver aid, reconstruct basic services and maintain public order behind the front. This tour is run on location in Sicily to illustrate how the physical space shaped planning, decision-making, and outcomes.

For more information, contact Cindy Brown cins@unb.ca.

Throughout history, societies have struggled with the ravages of war, which cause upheaval in social, cultural and gender structures. Drawing on an expanding variety of source materials, scholars increasingly link war and peace, acknowledging that civilian encounters with military personnel seldom end when the fighting stops.

The Network for the Study of Civilians, Soldiers and Society explores the multiple and nuanced relationships of continuity and change that arise from conflict between nations, communities and peoples. From military mobilizations and occupying armies to economic and social hardships on the home front, we investigate the many ramifications of war. For example, soldiers return to civilian life but battle experiences live on in their memories; refugees rebuild their lives though they are far from home; communities negotiate the meanings of conflict as they quarrel over appropriate forms of commemoration.

The Network for the Study of Civilians, Soldiers and Society was created to support research, teaching and public outreach on these enduring challenges for humanity. A collaborative effort by faculty at the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, NSCSS is affiliated with the Gregg Centre for War and Society at UNB.

Mobilizing Cross-Curricular Research in Canadian Classrooms

This program empowers students and teachers to work with our faculty in discovering Canada's wartime past. It comprises several component pillars:

• "Minority Experiences in the First World War: Black and Indigenous Soldiers and Nursing Sisters in the Canadian Expeditionary Force”, Supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage

• "In Service of Canada: The Canadian Armed Forces Around the World Since 1949", Supported by Veterans Affairs Canada

• First and Second World War

• Japanese soldiers in the Great War