Position

Assistant Professor

Academics

Ph.D. Memorial University of Newfoundland

M.A. Memorial University of Newfoundland

B.A. Sam Houston State University

Contact

Department of History

Memorial University of Newfoundland

St. John's, NL A1C 5S7

Email: sblawrence@mun.ca

Room: AA-4006

Phone: (709) 864-7524

Research Interests

Dr. Stewart B. Lawrence is an early-career historian of late nineteenth-century northern Europe with a unique emphasis on the Scandinavian countries and particularly Sweden. His MA and PhD dissertation focused on the role of Stockholm’s taverns in working-class life and its centrality as a nexus for finding work, socializing, and acclimating to the urban environment as people arrived from all over Sweden in search of a new life in the capital city. This analysis employed thousands of documents from Sweden’s archives as well as late nineteenth-century newspapers as Stockholm’s social divisions became more pronounced and conflict ensued based on class perceptions and misconceptions.

Urbanization and the Conditions of the Working Class

Lawrence’s most extensive work revolved around Stockholm’s working class and their relationship with this city. Although workers were similar in many senses (white, Lutheran, and outwardly heterosexual) the homogeneity of this group created an ideal case study. It enabled Lawrence to focus on the unique struggles of in-migrants to the city and the shared struggles they faced there. This included inadequate housing, chronic underemployment, and high food costs that made it difficult for many working-class families to survive. What followed was an exploration of their agency and their quiet and nearly imperceptible “weapons of the weak” as they fought back at the police, city officials, foremen, and anyone else who tried to subdue them. 

Port Cities and the Lives of Sailors

Since focusing on in-migration to the city of Stockholm and the economic and social conditions that persisted there throughout the end of the nineteenth century, Lawrence’s research interests have gravitated towards coastal studies and Stockholm’s role as a port city. The growing internationality of this city and its rising importance in the Baltic and Atlantic arenas ensured ships from many countries arrived in port and took Swedish sailors with them when they left. Lawrence currently works on the Swedish Sailors Project with Dr. Julia Stryker and they aim to unravel the complex identities developed by Swedish sailors aboard British vessels between 1850 and 1914 using the crew agreements housed in the Maritime History Archive at Memorial University.

Publications

“Swedish Sailors Project: Collective Identities on Board and Ashore.  Stories from the Atlantic Canadian Shipping Project and the Maritime History Archive.” With Dr. Julia Stryker. (In Progress)

“Children of their City: Migration, Resistance, and the Construction of a Working-Class Identity in Late Nineteenth-Century Stockholm.” PhD Diss. Memorial University of Newfoundland, November 2024.

“The Dreaming Boy and the Waking City: Alcohol Consumption and the Construction of a Working-Class Identity in Late Nineteenth-Century Stockholm.” MA Thesis. Memorial University of Newfoundland. December 2019.

“Portrait of a Woman: The Utilization of Women in Fascist Propaganda during the Years of the Nazi Occupation.” The Measure: Undergraduate Research Journal of Sam Houston State University. 2018.