Graduate Students
PH.D. Candidates
Allison Bennett
Research Interests: History of War and Society; History of Gender and Sexuality; History of Medicine
Current Research: My doctoral research examines British, Australian, and New Zealand servicemen’s sexual encounters with civilian women in First World War Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Macedonia, and how these encounters and resulting cases of venereal disease were understood according to imperial perceptions of race, gender, sexuality, and health. In analyzing the nature of these wartime sexual encounters and how they were policed and managed, I show that these encounters stressed pseudoscientific ideas about race and male and female bodies; challenged the white heterosexual male and his imperial and military identity; and called into question servicemen’s veteran pensions.
Supervisor: Dr. Justin Fantauzzo
Kiersten Fage
BMus. Performance, University of Western Australia
B.A. (Honours) Music Studies, University of Western Australia
MMus. Historical Performance, McGill University
Research Interests: Cultural History, North Atlantic Slave Studies, Historical Musicology, Historical Sound Studies, Black Performance, American Studies, Material Culture Studies.
Current Research: My doctoral research investigates how enslaved and newly free peoples of North America engaged with musical instruments of European origin. Understanding musical instruments as part of the material culture of slavery, it asks how musical instruments held power and meaning within the context of North Atlantic Slavery and how performance on musical instruments of European origin are entangled in wider historical narratives of violence, resistance, colonialism, empire and broader ideas about race and social class. My research asks what performance on musical instruments of European origin can tell us about the lives of the enslaved and how these associated histories contributed to the development of early North American soundscapes.
Supervisor: Dr. Neil Kennedy
Stewart Lawrence
B.A. History, Sam Houston State University
M.A. History, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Research Interests: Social History, Swedish History, Labour History, Gender History, Economic History and the History of Industrialisation, Urban History
Current Research: My dissertation research focuses on the role of alcohol consumption in the formation of a working-class identity within the taverns of late nineteenth-century Stockholm. As part of my analysis, I focus on the “weapons of the weak” and “economy of makeshifts” employed by the lower classes as they attempted to carve out a living within the capital city’s transforming economy and shifting urban environment in the wake of industrialisation. This includes the stratification of the working class and its diverging culture, gender roles and gendered work, placemaking in working-class taverns and neighbourhoods, and the contested space of Stockholm’s Gamla Stan.
Supervisor: Dr. Stephan Curtis
Gene Long
B.A. History, Memorial University of Newfoundland
M.A. History, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Research Interests: Political History of Newfoundland and Labrador, Marginalized Peoples
Current Interests: Archival framing of the Labrador Boundary Decision of 1927
Supervisor: Dr. Sean Cadigan
Rodrigo De Oliveira Miranda
B.A.
Research Interests: Medieval Iberia, Fauna in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts
Current Interests: Tracing Environmental Change through Representations of Flora and Fauna in Medieval Iberian Illuminated Manuscripts
Supervisor: Dr. Sébastien Rossignol
Matt Papai
B.A. History, The Ohio State University
M.A. History, University of Alberta
Research Interests: Cultural History, Environmental History, Food/Alcohol, Tourism, and Public History.
Current Research: The focus of my research is the role of consumable products and commodities within the tourist experience, specifically the investigation of how certain consumable commodities have gathered tourist attention, and what these commodities represent to local populations. I am also interested in the ways in which specific foods and drinks contribute to the formation of cultural identity on national, regional, and local scales.
Supervisor: Dr. Dominique Brégent-Heald
Norman B. Potter
B.A. History, Mount Royal University
M.A. History, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Research Interests: American cultural history, Mexican-American relations, borderlands, Canadian cultural history
Current Research: Popular construction of the Calgary Stampede.
Supervisor: Dr. Dominique Brégent-Heald
M.A. Candidates
Ezekiel Abakah
B.A. History, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Research Interests: Environmental History, Mining History of Newfoundland and Labrador
Current Research: Impacts of mining pollution on Mine Workers and the Community of Buccans.
Supervisor: Dr. John Sandlos
Deborah Abegunde
B.A (Honours) History and Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Research Interests: Medieval History, European history, Anti-Feminism, Gender Studies.
Current Research: Medieval Women, Marriage and Misogyny
Supervisor: Dr. Sébastien Rossignol
Madhavi Kahapala Arachchi
B.A. History, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
M.A. Peace and Development Studies, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka
Research Interests: Medieval History, nationalism and Imperialism
Current Research: I am conducting research to explore European perspectives on Asia during 13th century, focusing on the accounts provided by William of Rubruck's travel report, to ensure the accuracy and comprehensiveness of these perspectives, I am cross-referencing them with Sri Lankan inscriptions from the same period. By examining both textual sources and archaeological evidence, this study aims to offer a nuanced understanding of how European perspectives on Asia evolved during the medieval era.
Supervisor: Dr. Sébastien Rossignol
Hanna Bostick
B.A History and Canadian Studies (Honours), Trent University
Research Interests: Indigenous history, gender and sexualities, religion, marriage, archival history, Canadian history, Newfoundland and Labrador history, colonialism
Current Research: Moravian Church and Indigenous Genders and Sexuality, and the effects of colonialism and spreading of the gospel on their culture
Supervisor: Dr. Kurt Korneski
Justin Crosby
B.A. History, Queens University
Research Interests: Medieval Europe, Proto-Nationalism in Medieval Europe
Current Research: Claims to Inheritance of the Roman Imperium in Medieval Central Europe
Supervisor: Dr. Sébastien Rossignol
Colin Forward
B.A. History, Memorial University
Research Interests: War and Society, Social History of World War One
Current Research: Social Treatment of Veterans’ Trauma after World War One
Supervisor: Dr. Justin Fantauzzo
Aleksander Jović
B.A. International Relations, Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Research Interests: War and Society, History of the First World War
Current Research: Malaria in the Serbian army on the Salonika front during the First World War
Supervisor: Dr. Justin Fantauzzo
Patrick Kennedy
B.A., LL.B., LL.M.
Research Interests: Medical History of Newfoundland and Labrador
Supervisor: Dr. Jim Connor
Eugene Knight
B.A. Chemistry, Princeton University
Research Interests: Medieval history, Monastic charters
Current research: How does the cartulary of Theuley reflect on the interaction of religion and the landed power structures near the abbey?
Supervisor: Dr. Sébastien Rossignol
Kevin McAleese
B.A. Archaeology, Simon Fraser University
Research Interests: Medieval North Atlantic, particularly the Norse expansion across the ocean to Vinland; relationships between Norse and Indigenous North Americans; North Atlantic climate change history; 18th c. Newfoundland & Labrador Colonial History; history/archaeology of all Newfoundland and Labrador’s ancient peoples.
Current Research: The history and archaeology of the conversion of pre-Christian Viking Age people into ideological Christians in the Baltic region in the 9th c. I use missionary accounts/biographies plus material culture recovered from well documented missionary sites.
Supervisor: Dr. Sébastien Rossignol
Bryan Marsh
B.A. History, Certificate in Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland
B.Ed. (Intermediate Secondary), Memorial University of Newfoundland
Research Interests: Newfoundland and Labrador History, Forest History, Transportation History, the Vietnam War, 19th and 20th Century World History.
Current Project: Tentative, “A Grim and Costly Business”: The Decline of the Pulp and Paper, and Pulpwood Harvesting Industry in Central Newfoundland 1959-2009.
Supervisor: Dr. Sean Cadigan
Abhishek Mishra
B.A. History (Honours), University of Delhi, India
Postgraduate Certificate in History, Newcastle University
Research Interests: Atlantic Economic History, Transatlantic Slave Trade
Current Research: Current Research: Financial and Economic Aspects of British Transatlantic Slave Trade
Supervisor: Dr. Neil Kennedy
Bryan Poirier
B.A. History, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Research Interests: Acadian Diaspora, Acadia, Traditional Folkmusic
Current Interests: Presence of African Diasporic People in Pre-Expulsion Acadia
Supervisor: Dr. Neil Kennedy
Samuel Primmer
B.A. History, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Research Interests: Modernization theory, Cultural History of Newfoundland and Labrador
Current Interests: Nationalist Modernity in the Design of the Gander Airport Lounge
Supervisor: Dr. Jeff Webb
Emma Rossiter
B.A. History (Honours), McGill University
Research Interests: Queer Theory, History of Sexuality in Canada
Current Interests: LGBTQ Identity and Community Formation in 1960-70s Newfoundland
Supervisor: Dr. Jeff Webb
Jessica Van Bussel
B.A. English Literature (British and Commonwealth), University of Exeter
Research Interests: War and Society, Treatment of Marginalized and Diasporic Soldiers in the First World War
Current Interests: Archival Traces and Correspondence of Diasporic Soldiers in the First World War
Supervisor: Dr. Justin Fantauzzo
Tayo Zubair
B. A. History, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
M.A. Peace and Development Studies, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Research Interests: Environmental History (specifically Mining History)
Current Research: Occupational Hazard and Workplace Safety in Mining Industry, Nova Scotia
Supervisor: Dr. John Sandlos