The Department of History has a vibrant tradition of research and is a centre of study for the history of Newfoundland and Labrador, the North Atlantic world, and beyond. Beginning in the 1950s, the graduate program and the research of faculty members established the political and economic history of the self-governing colony, followed by sophisticated work on the social history of Newfoundland. It has been a vibrant and varied research field that engages with transnational themes, as would be expected of a place that was the site of an international fishery and that had a strikingly compelling political history. Currently, several faculty members are undertaking active research on the history of Newfoundland and Labrador from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.

As a part of Memorial’s mission to document the history and culture of the province, the History Department established and spun off the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Maritime History Archive. The former has been incorporated into The Rooms and houses government records and manuscripts that continue to support research into the history of the province. The MHA is housed on campus and is not only a major repository of the business records of the fishery but also one of the largest repositories of labour records in the world in the form of the Crew Agreements of the British Empire shipping industry. The Ewart Pratt Post-doctoral Fellowship in Newfoundland, Maritime, and Naval History is one of the ways the department continues to contribute to that research area.

As is fitting for a department housed in a place that was a principal node in the international economy, we have a long tradition of work on colonisation, slavery, and imperialism in the North Atlantic. Department members are engaged in work on capitalism, labour, and the environment in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the North Atlantic littoral. We are also working on the history of the North, a range of resource industries from fishing to mining, and urban and cultural history that ranges from Medieval central Europe to motion pictures. The memory of the Battle of the Somme remains alive in the province, and the history of war and society continues as an active area at Memorial. With links to other departments, including a cross-appointment with the Faculty of Medicine, our research makes use of a range of methods and draws upon other disciplines.

For a description of the research agendas of department members, see the faculty webpages.