Research areas
Department of History is the home of research areas including Cultural History, Political History, Social History, and more, making a real-life impact with our researchers.
Explore our research areas
Africa
African history includes the study of war and society, with particular emphasis on Southern Africa.
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Tim Stapleton
African history and military history
Canada
The Canadian history faculty offer particular strength in military history, western Canadian history and social, cultural, and intellectual history; they also have expertise in legal and gender history, as well as the history of energy.
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David Bercuson
Modern Canadian political, military and diplomatic history; Strategic studies
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Lyndsay Campbell
Canadian and American legal, constitutional and social history; Transmission of legal ideas through texts and publishing.
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Paul Chastko
Military/Diplomatic History; Political History; United States
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Beau Cleland
U.S. military and diplomatic history; Canadian history; political history
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George Colpitts
Conservation and preservation policies, fur farming; Environmental History; First Nations History; the Canadian North; Western Canadian History
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Warren Elofson
18th-century British history; Canadian agriculture; Edmund Burke; Rockingham Whigs
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Nancy Janovicek
Canadian Women's Movement; History and Ethics Policy; The Back-to-the-land Movement in the West Kootenays, British Columbia
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David Marshall
Canadian social and intellectual history, particularly relating to religion; History of popular culture in Canada; issue of secularization
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Frank Stahnisch
History and Philosophy of the Neurosciences; History of Physiology; Medical Visualizations throughout History; Modern Public Mental Health
East Asia
East Asian history include Chinese military and diplomatic history, the Mongol conquest of China and the Mongol world empire, and 19th- and 20th-century North American journalists and missionaries in China.
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David Wright
Chinese military history; Mongols, the Mongol conquest of China, and the Mongol world empire; North American journalists and missionaries in China, 1858-1949; possible connections between Asian Xiongnu and the European Huns; Premodern Chinese foreign relations and frontier administration; Qing Taiwan; World history
Europe
European history is represented across the full range from its medieval foundations to the contemporary era. Their approaches to the past include social, political, military, religious, cultural, legal, intellectual, and gender history. Areas of specialization include British history, German history, and the history of Russia and the Soviet Union. Faculty expertise further extends to the study of lay piety, family and labour; the Reformation and wars of religion; England/Britain and its empire; nationalism; the First and Second World Wars; fascism and Nazism; and the history of medicine.
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Warren Elofson
18th-century British history; Canadian agriculture; Edmund Burke; Rockingham Whigs
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Alexander Hill
The Soviet Union and Military/Diplomatic History
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Courtnay Konshuh
Medieval History; Early Medieval England; Early Medieval Scandinavia
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Ken MacMillan
Early modern Europe; Early modern England (legal and imperial); English Atlantic World, 1500-1800
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Frank Stahnisch
History and Philosophy of the Neurosciences; History of Physiology; Medical Visualizations throughout History; Modern Public Mental Health
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Glenn Wilkinson (Teaching)
Post war Britain; Military History; Guerrilla Warfare
Middle East
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Marica Cassis
Byzantine and Syriac History and Archaeology; Late Antiquity
Latin America
Latin American history research concentrates on the 19th and 20th centuries. Areas of focus include Mexico’s political and cultural history, with special emphasis on the country’s relations with the rest of Latin America and its oil industry, as well as 19th-century Brazil, emphasizing independence, slavery, race, civic rituals, and military history. Graduate students also benefit from the resources of the Latin American Research Centre and the expertise of affiliated scholars.
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Amelia Kiddle
Latin American relations and politics
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Hendrik Kraay
Civic rituals; Slavery and race; Social, cultural, political, and military history of Brazil
United States
United States history research offers particular strengths in social, legal, political, and transnational history. Areas of expertise include legal history with attention to comparative Canadian and American approaches in the 19th century; seventeenth-century settlement and policy; religion and society in the South and the cultural history of disaster and its remembrance in the 19th century; and politics and urban life in the Civil War era, with a focus on how proslavery politicians mobilized voters.
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Lyndsay Campbell
Canadian and American legal, constitutional and social history; Transmission of legal ideas through texts and publishing
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Paul Chastko
Military/Diplomatic History; Political History; United States
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Beau Cleland
U.S. military and diplomatic history; Canadian history; Political history
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Ken MacMillan
Early modern Europe; Early modern England (legal and imperial); English Atlantic World, 1500-1800
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Jewel Spangler
American social and cultural history 1607-1820; American South; Early American religion
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Frank Stahnisch
History and Philosophy of the Neurosciences; History of Physiology; Medical Visualizations throughout History; Modern Public Mental Health
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Frank Towers
History of race, labour, and the U.S. South; Nineteenth century United States; Political history
Cultural History
The methods and approaches of cultural history inform the work of many department members who work on Canadian, European, U.S., and Latin American history.
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Marica Cassis
Byzantine and Syriac History and Archaeology; Late Antiquity
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Nancy Janovicek
Canadian Women's Movement; History and Ethics Policy; The Back-to-the-land Movement in the West Kootenays, British Columbia
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Amelia Kiddle
Latin American relations and politics
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Courtnay Konshuh
Medieval History; Early Medieval England; Early Medieval Scandinavia
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Hendrik Kraay
Civic rituals; Slavery and race; Social, cultural, political, and military history of Brazil
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David Marshall
Canadian social and intellectual history, particularly relating to religion; the history of popular culture in Canada; The issue of secularization
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Jewel Spangler
American social and cultural history 1607-1820; American South; Early American religion
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Glenn Wilkinson (Teaching)
Post war Britain; Military History; Guerrilla Warfare
Energy and Environment
Energy and environmental history are important areas of departmental expertise. Research explores environmental change and conservation in western and northern Canada; the history of the North American petroleum industry; the international repercussions of Mexico’s oil industry nationalization in 1938; and European and North American energy history after 1945.
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Paul Chastko
Military/Diplomatic History; Political History; United States
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George Colpitts
Conservation and preservation policies, fur farming; Environmental History; First Nations History; Canadian North; Western Canadian History
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Petra Dolata
European and North American energy history (after 1945); History and politics of the Canadian and circumpolar arctic
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Amelia Kiddle
Latin American relations and politics
Gender and Sexuality
Gender and sexuality history is a recognized area of strength in the department. Research includes feminist organizing in Canada as well as women and gender in western North America.
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Marica Cassis
Byzantine and Syriac History and Archaeology; Late Antiquity
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Nancy Janovicek
Canadian Women's Movement; History and Ethics Policy; The Back-to-the-land Movement in the West Kootenays, British Columbia
Indigenous History
This area of research includes the study of commodity exchange, particularly the fur trade, Indigenous history and the North, as well as immigration and ethnicity in Canada.
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George Colpitts
Conservation and preservation policies, fur farming; Environmental History; First Nations History; the Canadian North; Western Canadian History
Legal History
British and North American legal history is an area of strength in the department. Research covers comparative North American legal history as well as British and early modern European imperial legal history.
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Lyndsay Campbell
Canadian and American legal, constitutional and social history; Transmission of legal ideas through texts and publishing
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Ken MacMillan
Early modern Europe; Early modern England (legal and imperial); English Atlantic World, 1500-1800
History of Medicine
History of medicine includes research on the development of experimental physiology and laboratory medicine since the eighteenth century, as well as the historical relationship between the neurosciences and the philosophy of the mind.
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Frank Stahnisch
History and Philosophy of the Neurosciences; History of Physiology; Medical Visualizations throughout History; Modern Public Mental Health
Military/Diplomatic
Military and diplomatic history is a particular strength of the department, representing one of the strongest concentrations in Canada and the English-speaking world. Research covers Canadian military history, especially Canada’s involvement in the First and Second World Wars; British military and diplomatic history and the history of intelligence; twentieth-century Soviet military history; the armed forces of nineteenth-century Brazil; Chinese and East Asian military history; the history of war and society in Africa, particularly Southern Africa; and the global history of the oil industry. The department offers MA and PhD supervision in a range of national military and diplomatic histories as well as international and comparative topics. Graduate students benefit from close collaboration with the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies.
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David Bercuson
Modern Canadian political, military and diplomatic history; Strategic studies
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Beau Cleland
U.S. military and diplomatic history; Canadian history; Political history
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Paul Chastko
Military/Diplomatic History; Political History; United States
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Alexander Hill
The Soviet Union and Military/Diplomatic History
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Amelia Kiddle
Latin American relations and politics
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Courtnay Konshuh
Medieval History; Early Medieval England; Early Medieval Scandinavia
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Hendrik Kraay
Civic rituals; Slavery and race; Social, cultural, political, military history of Brazil
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Timothy Stapleton
African history and military history
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Glenn Wilkinson (Teaching)
Post war Britain; Military History; Guerrilla Warfare
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David Wright
Chinese military history; Mongols, the Mongol conquest of China, and the Mongol world empire; North American journalists and missionaries in China, 1858-1949; Possible connections between Asian Xiongnu and the European Huns; Premodern Chinese foreign relations and frontier administration; Qing Taiwan; World history
Political History
Political history is an area of strength in the department. Research encompasses the history of politics, political movements, and political ideas across a wide range of contexts.
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David Bercuson
Modern Canadian political, military and diplomatic history; Strategic studies
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Paul Chastko
Military/Diplomatic History; Political History; United States
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Beau Cleland
U.S. military and diplomatic history; Canadian history; Political history
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Warren Elofson
18th-century British history; Canadian agriculture; Edmund Burke; Rockingham Whigs
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Alexander Hill
The Soviet Union and Military/Diplomatic History
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Nancy Janovicek
Canadian Women's Movement; History and Ethics Policy; The Back-to-the-land Movement in the West Kootenays, British Columbia
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Amelia Kiddle
Latin American relations and politics
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Courtnay Konshuh
Medieval History; Early Medieval England; Early Medieval Scandinavia
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Hendrik Kraay
Civic rituals; Slavery and race; Social, cultural, political, and military history of Brazil
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Ken MacMillan
Early modern Europe; Early modern England (legal and imperial); English Atlantic World, 1500-1800
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Jewel Spangler
American social and cultural history 1607-1820; American South; Early American religion
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Frank Towers
History of race, labour, and the U.S. South; Nineteenth century United States; Political history
Religious History
History of religion is another area of expertise in the department. Research includes 19th- and 20th-century Canadian religious history as well as the religious history of the U.S. South.
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Marica Cassis
Byzantine and Syriac History and Archaeology; Late Antiquity
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David Marshall
Canadian social and intellectual history, particularly relating to religion; the history of popular culture in Canada; Issue of secularization
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Jewel Spangler
American social and cultural history 1607-1820; American South; Early American religion
Social History
The methods of social history inform the scholarship of many department members who work on Canadian, U.S., European and Latin American history.
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Marica Cassis
Byzantine and Syriac History and Archaeology; Late Antiquity
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George Colpitts
Conservation and preservation policies, fur farming; Environmental History; First Nations History; Canadian North; Western Canadian History
-
Nancy Janovicek
Canadian Women's Movement; History and Ethics Policy; The Back-to-the-land Movement in the West Kootenays, British Columbia
-
Hendrik Kraay
Civic rituals; Slavery and race; Social, cultural, political, and military history of Brazil
-
Ken MacMillan
Early modern Europe; Early modern England (legal and imperial); English Atlantic World, 1500-1800
-
Jewel Spangler
American social and cultural history 1607-1820; American South; Early American religion
-
Frank Stahnisch
History and Philosophy of the Neurosciences; History of Physiology; Medical Visualizations throughout History; Modern Public Mental Health
-
Frank Towers
History of race, labour, and the U.S. South; Nineteenth century United States; Political history
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Glenn Wilkinson (Teaching)
Post war Britain; Military History; Guerrilla Warfare
