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

Research Interests: Medieval History

Current Research:

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