History

Major Fields

There are five major fields: Canadian, Early Modern European, Modern European, Race, Imperialism and Slavery, and Scottish.

Canadian History

The flowering of scholarship into Canada's history is reflected in the research strengths of the Program's graduate faculty members in this area. Their work has investigated questions relating to the origins of social policies, the multifaceted nature of Canadian society in the past, immigration, racial minorities, the differences in urban and rural experiences, the roles of women and children, public health and medicine, political processes, major Canadian institutions such as the Supreme Court, the activities of business, labouring lives, and military history, including the effects of war. A wide variety of research interests can be accommodated in Canadian history area and is supported by excellent library and archival resources.

Early Modern European History

The research interests of the faculty have ranged over the entire spectrum of social, political, intellectual and cultural history of the period, including: family history; women and gender issues; urban history; social change and the nobility; peasant uprisings; popular culture; religious dissent; suppression and persecution; the history of print; the theological and ideological debates of the Reformation. The library holdings are especially rich. The University of Waterloo and Conrad Grebel University College libraries have some of the most substantial 'radical' Reformation holdings in Canada. The Laurier library has an excellent collection in Lutheran and Humanist studies, while Guelph has a special Scottish collection in this period.

Modern European History

Faculty research in modern European history focuses largely on Central European, East Central European and French history. Work on international relations among Baltic states during the twentieth century, post-Cold War security issues in East Central Europe, and the social history of the First World War in Germany offer opportunity for study in areas of both current and traditional historical interests. Research on education in France and Canada, and on Mennonite groups in Canada and Russia provides scope for multicultural and transnational endeavours.

Race, Imperialism and Slavery

The eight members of this research area represent a range of chronological, geographical and methodological approaches to the question of "race", one of the most urgent issues in the contemporary world. Some scholars focus on the encounters between Amerindians and Europeans in the New World, others emphasize the experience of African peoples in the diaspora, particularly Britain, Canada, the Caribbean and the United States, the writing and teaching of these scholars explores the beginnings of modern racism in the slave trade and European overseas expansion, its career through colonialism and New World slavery, and liberation movements from abolitionism to current human rights initiatives. As a result of microform purchases of primary documents, library resources on slavery, the slave trade and abolition have been independently assessed as the best in Canada, and secondary holdings over the entire research area are at least equal to any other Canadian university library. Students may participate in this area with major or minor fields in African, African American, African Canadian, Caribbean or Imperial history, or by adding a race relations dimension to studies in American, British or Canadian history.

Scottish History

Faculty have a wide variety of interests in the history of Scotland itself and in the history of the Scots in Canada. Their research spans the period from the late Middle Ages to the early twentieth centuries, with particular focus on the 14th to 16th centuries and the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Past work includes research on medieval urban and social history, Scottish identity in Canada, prostitution and sex reform in the late nineteenth century, and political patronage in the eighteenth century. Current research interests focus on such topics as the role of gender in Scottish history, the social history of Highland regiments, Scottish emigration to Canada, community studies, crime, and popular culture. There is a commitment to interdisciplinary work -- students can benefit from the expertise of members of other departments who are part of the interdisciplinary Scottish Studies programme at Guelph. Students also have the opportunity to participate in the production of an academic journal, Scottish Tradition, and give papers at the semi-annual conferences organised by Scottish Studies. The University of Guelph Library has an excellent collection in Scottish history and this is complemented by some useful archival holdings.

Minor Areas Of Concentration

British History

The research of the British history area group is chronologically comprehensive (late medieval to twentieth century) and features a particularly interesting blend of new approaches with traditional strengths. In addition to political, military and legal histories, members of our group are engaged in work on women's history, British urban studies, investigations of attitudes toward race and colonialism and its impact. We blend quantitative with more textually-based analyses, and strive to connect our research, not only with those contemporary questions and interests most discussed among British historians, but to the larger world, and to a multiplicity of intellectual frameworks.

Community Studies, incorporating urban and rural history

The researchers who work in this area take a variety of approaches to the study of the urban/rural dimensions of societies in North America, Britain and Continental Europe. Some emphasize a large theme -- imperial expansion to the New World, the migration of peoples, occupational structure, planning and architecture, or culture and religion -- and examine this theme in the context of a particular community. Others deal more generally with the history of a place, as in an urban biography or the history of a specific agricultural community. Both of these approaches can be applied to the analysis of a local region, the Upper Grand River Valley, with its focal points of Kitchener/Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph. It is possible to study the nature of a local region and also the relationship between urban and rural in a regional framework. Superb regional collections are available for research in local and university archives.

Gender, Women's History, and Family History

 This area covers a broad range of interests and expertise, with a strong focus on the Canadian experience (C. Comacchio, T.A. Crowley, G.Cuthbert Brandt, W.L. Mitchinson, J.G. Snell) and on the United Kingdom and the British colonies (D.T. Andrew, E.L. Ewan, L.L. Mahood, S.K. Johannesen). Faculty members have published widely in this area. The interrelations of gender, women, and family with class, race, the law, medicine, and the state, in their historically and geographically-specific contexts, are integral to the on-going research programs of the historians involved in this highly-topical and relevant area of study. All three campuses have some very useful archival holdings in the area of women's history.

History of Science, Medicine and Technology

The history of science and medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries offers rich opportunities for research in a growing field that is well represented in the Tri-University Program. The emphasis is on the relations among science/technology/ medicine, and society and the state. Examples include: applications and implications of scientific ideas; ways in which gender shapes medical knowledge and practice; and more generally, ways in which scientific knowledge has both shaped authoritative social, political, and cultural institutions, as well as influenced dominant ideologies. Specialized areas of expertise also include ways in which scientific knowledge is created and applied to targeted communities, including the rise of health reforms, the development of military psychiatry, and the growth of state intervention.

International Relations, War and Society

 Research in International History covers a broad range of subjects and approaches to the past. The only fundamental requirement of this field is that the topics encompass more than one country's history. At its most basic level, international history might be described as the analysis of relations between peoples, states, empires or alliances. More recent approaches examine the formation of international systems, the forces that shape international behaviour or the exchange of ideas or technologies. The subject remains open to innovative approaches and new research paradigms.

No university (not even three in collaboration) can provide the expertise of resources to guide research at the Ph.D. level in more than a few areas of international history. Both the interests of the faculty and the basic sources to initiate research at the three universities exist primarily for Europe and North America in the 19th and 20th centuries, including topics in the history of international relations, military history, and cultural-intellectual history.

Specific research interests within these areas can be developed initially in consultation with the director and then with individual faculty members. The director can provide a list of the documentary and archival collections in the possession of the three university libraries. These library materials include the most important compilations of diplomatic documents and several thousand microfilm reels of archival material. Several thousand more reels are available on loan to our students through the Centre of Research Libraries in Chicago. Our collections are particularly strong in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union, though some documentary material can be found for nearly all the European states

United States History: Post 186

This area is being revised in light of changing faculty expertise.

Atlantic World:

This area is being revised in light of changing faculty expertise.