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I have worked at 51本色 since 2009. I received my PhD in history from York University. I also studied history at the University of Waterloo (MA) and McGill University (BA). Prior to teaching at 51本色, I taught at York University, Trent University, and Brock University. I am a member of the Canadian Historical Association and the Society for the History of Children and Youth.
My research focuses on the social and political history of modern Canada, with a particlar interest in Cold War Canada, children's health and welfare, women’s political activism, and representations of children's history in film and literature.
My current SSHRC-funded research project, Experiments in Peace: Activists, Families, and State Representatives on Grindstone Island examines how an island in Big Rideau Lake became a gathering spot for wilderness tourism, community building, and efforts to change the world.
I am also leading an oral history project with Tyler Britz, Delores Maas, Lilia Dockree, and Steve Parr on the children's memory of living under the fear of Polio in Brantford, Brant County and Six Nations, 1920s-1970s.
I am part of a team at 51本色 collecting stories of learners from care and their experiences in Post-Secondary Education, funded by the Hallman Foundation.
- 2019 Winner, Alice Prentice Prize, Best Book in Women or Gender History, Ontario Historical Society.
- 2019 Merit Award, WLU Faculty Association
- 2017 Merit Award, WLU Faculty Association
- 2017 SSHRC Insight Grant, PI
- 2017 SSHRC Connections Grant, CI
- 2016 Merit Award, WLU Faculty Association
- 2014 SSHRC Connections Grant, CI
- 2014 Shortlist, C.P. Stacey Award Best Book
- 2013 Shortlist, Political History Prize Best Book
- 2013 Finalist, Canada Prize for the Social Sciences
- 2012 Merit Award, WLU Faculty Association
- 2009 Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal, York University
I am a member of the Tri-University Graduate Program in History. I am available to supervise graduate students in the areas relating to Canadian social and political history, gender history, war & society and the history of childhood.
As a member of the Social Justice and Community Engagement MA program, I can supervise projects related to gender, war, peace, and child welfare.
Past Supervisions
Hannah Feiyan Ostiguy Hopp, “Floating Between Two Mountains: Using Literary Fiction to Express a Transracial Adoptive Experience,” Social Justice Community Engagement, 2022,
Jessica Duncan, ““A Tight-Wad’s Wife:” Financial Neglect as Domestic Violence in the Prairies, 1910-1930,” Tri-University History Program, 2022.
Mihai Giboi “A Time of Expansion: A Documentary Analysis of the Ranger Enhancement Project, 1995-1999,” Tri-University History Program, 2021.
Margaret McKoen, “Bea Alerte and Justin Case Say:” Gender and Early Canadian Cold War Civil Defence,” Tri-University History Program, 2020.
Mary Chamberlain, “A Discourse Analysis of Gender Perceptions, Twitter, the 2018 Progressive Conservative Leadership Race, and the 2018 Provincial Election,” Social Justice and Community Engagement, 2018.
Josie Baker, “Storying Gendered Violence: Indigenous Understandings,” Social Justice and Community Engagement, 2017.
Kelly Mackenzie “Forging Identity: Ontario Propaganda During the Great War,” Tri-University History Program, 2015.
Books
Our Voices Must Be Heard: Women and the Vote in Ontario (UBC Press, 2018).
Cold War Comforts: Canadian Women, Child Safety and Global Insecurity (WLU Press, 2012).
Select Book Chapters and Articles
“I am sure glad I was not born in the 30s:” Discovering Multigenerational Reactions to the Great Depression,” Journal of the History of Children and Youth. Forthcoming 2023.
“History of Adoption and Fostering in Canada.” Oxford Bibliographies in Childhood Studies. ed. Heather Montgomery. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.
“From Wartime Refuge to Peaceful Hippie Haven: Generations of Youth on Grindstone Island.” Small Stories of War: Children, Youth, and Conflict in Canada and Beyond, eds. Kristine Alexander, Andrew Burtch, Barbara Lorenzkowski (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023) 167-185.
With Sarah Glassford, “Home Fronts and Frontlines: A Gendered History of War and Peace,” Reading Canadian Women's and Gender History, eds. Nancy Janovicek and Carmen Nielson (University of Toronto Press, 2019) 151-170.
“Children as ‘Seeds of Destiny’: Nation, Race, and Citizenship in Postwar Foreign Relief Programs,” Bringing Children and Youth into Canadian History, eds. Tamara Myers and Mona Gleason (Oxford University Press, 2017) 376-391.
"He told me “Babies Sleep”: Expectations and Realities about Maternity Leave Productivity,” The Parent-Track: Timing, Balance and Choice within Academia, eds. Christina DeRoche and Ellie Berger (51本色 Press, 2017) 135-148.
“Object Lesson: Representing and Recovering Girls’ Pasts: The Inmates Orphan’s Home Album,” Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 9(3) Fall 2016: 269-282.
“The Fasting Granny vs. The Trudeau Government: Demanding an End to the Canadian Presence in Vietnam,” Worth Fighting For: War Resistance in Canadian History, eds. Lara Campbell, Michael Dawson and Catherine Gidney. (Toronto: Between the Lines, Press, 2015) 187-200.
“Until the world deserves them”: Representations of Apocalyptic Childhoods in The Day After, Testament, and Threads,” in The Child in Post-Apocalyptic Cinema, ed. Debbie Olsen (Lexington Books, 2015) 129-152.
“No Woman is an Island: Heroes, Heroines, and Power in the Gendered World of Lost,” The Journal of the Popular Culture 46.2 (2013): 315-337.
“Modeling the UN’s Mission in Semi-Formal Wear: Edmonton’s Miss United Nations Pageants of the 1960s,” Contesting Bodies and Nation in Canadian History, eds. Jane Nicholas and Patrizia Gentile (University of Toronto Press, 2013.): 247-268.
“Maverick Mothers and Mercy Flights: Canada’s Controversial Introduction to International Adoption,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 19(1) 2008, 307-330.
“Divided by the Ballot Box: The Montreal Council of Women and the 1917 Election,” Canadian Historical Review, 89(4) December 2008: 473-501.
Podcasts & Videos
- , co-creator with Bruce Gillespie, 35 episodes
- “
History
HI124 History Detectives
HI208 Liberty, Work & Power: U.S. History, 1607-1877
HI292 History of Canada to Confederation
HI293 History of Canada since Confederation
HI346V Cold War Canada*
HI396 Home Fronts & Frontlines: Women, War, and Peace
HI397 Canadian Women’s and Gender History
HI430 Reading Seminar in 20th Century Canada
HI480 Research Seminar in 20th Century Canada
HI680 Canadian Women and Gender History
PhD Minor Field – History of Childhood
Youth and Children Studies
YC200 Childhood and Youth through the Ages
YC310 Adoption: Past and Present
YC326 Children, Toys, and Media
YC430 Youth Cultures
Contact Info:
Office location: RCW309
Office hours: Fall 2023: Brantford Wednesdays 2:30-3:30 and Fridays 11:30-12:30
Languages spoken: English