Position

Professor and Head

Education

• Ph.D. University of New Brunswick
• M.A. Memorial University
• B.A. Memorial University

Contact

Department of History
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1C 5S7
Email: Jeff.Webb@mun.ca
Phone: (709) 864 8420
Office: AA-4019

Research Interests

History of Newfoundland and Labrador; History of Cultural Institutions; History of Social Societies and the Humanities

Research Record

Jeff Webb is a historian of Newfoundland and Labrador. His most recent research project is a forthcoming history of the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador titled The Cause of Art: Professionalizing the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador (Toronto: 2024). This is part of a larger research agenda to explore the cultural history of Newfoundland. Earlier installments included the history of radio broadcasting, The Voice of Newfoundland (Toronto: 2008) and the history of social science and humanities research Observing the Outports (Toronto: 2016). He has published essays upon a range of twentieth century aspects of political and social history, and several essays that address eighteenth century British policy toward the island and its fishery. Webb was also a producer and director on “The Films of Fogo Island,” a documentary video on the role that Memorial University’s media unit had in community economic revitalization.

Early in his career, Webb worked on two of the province’s most important archaeological sites (the sixteenth century Basque whaling station in Red Bay, Labrador, and the seventeenth century Beothuk community in Boyd’s Cove, Notre Dame Bay). His research methods include both archival and oral history.

Student Supervision

Jeff Webb teaches in Canadian and Newfoundland and Labrador History, as well as historical methods. He has recently supervised students working in areas ranging from legal history, the history of resettlement, public history and the history of sexuality.

Recent Publications

 Books

• J Webb, “The Cause of Art: Professionalizing the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador” (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2024)

• J Webb, Observing the Outports: Describing Newfoundland Culture, 1950-1980 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016).

• J Webb, The Voice of Newfoundland: A Social History of the Broadcasting Corporation of Newfoundland, 1939-1949 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008).

Articles

• “Palliser’s Act and the Bermudian-Newfoundland Fishery of 1788” Newfoundland and Labrador Studies (2023) 37:1.
• J Webb, “A Few Fabulous Fragments: Historical Methods in James P Howley’s The Beothucks” Histoire social/Social History 50: 101, 2017.
• J Webb, “William Knox and the 18^th-Century Newfoundland Fishery” Acadiensis 44:1 2015.