Research Description

I am currently engaged in three research projects. The first is a research assistantship with the (Re-) Claiming the New Westminster Waterfront Project. As a result of this work, I am authoring two chapters of a public history book about Local 502 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in New Westminster, BC. Second, buoyed by a project I did for a graduate seminar on Oral History methods here at SFU, I am conducting interviews about the history of Vancouver’s gay community from the 1970s-1990s (this project is ongoing – please let me know if you or someone you know has knowledge and stories they would be willing to share about this topic). Finally, my thesis research is about religious divisions within the labour movement in early twentieth century Newfoundland. My research has revealed Irish-Catholic support for a radical, largely Protestant-backed fishermen’s union in a political context where Catholicism and organized labour were long thought to have been at odds with each other. These findings interrupt narratives about sectarianism and Irish-Catholic conservatism. They also demonstrate the various ways in which people drew upon their ethno-religious identity as well as the politics of class to make decisions about engagement with radical politics.

Working Dissertation Title

“Rogues among rebels: the relationship between Irish-Catholics and the Fishermen’s Protective Union of Newfoundland, 1908-1934.”

Publications

Forthcoming 2016:  Chapter 4 “Transformation, Expansion and Conflict, 1960 – 1979,” and Chapter 5, “Continuity and Contradiction in the Container Age, 1980 – 2010” in Longshoring on the Fraser: History and Stories of Local 502 (Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing).

“Review of Nationalism in Stateless Nations: Images of Self and Other in Scotland and Newfoundland by Robert C. Thomsen,” Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 29, no. 2 (Fall 2014): 318-321.

"Asymmetry-lite? The Constitutional Status of the 'Terms of Union' for British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador", Mapping Politics, 1(1), 8-20.

Courses Taught

HIST 102 “Canada since Confederation” - Fraser International College  (Spring 2016)

Teaching Assistantships

HIST 146: “Africa since the Transatlantic Slave Trade” (SFU) – Fall 2015

HIST 102W; “Canada since Confederation” (SFU) – Summer 2015

HIST 115: “Introduction to the History of Sexuality” (SFU) – Fall 2014

HIST 102W: “Canada since Confederation” (SFU) – Spring 2014

HIST 101: “Canada to Confederation” (SFU) – Fall 2013

POLI 101: “Introduction to Canadian Government” (UBC) – Spring 2008

POLI 335: “Comparative Federalism” (UBC) – Fall 2007

POLI 304: “British Columbia Politics” (UBC) – Fall 2007

Awards

Cook Conference Scholarship, 2015

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) MA Graduate Scholarship, 2014-2015

SFU Graduate Fellowship, 2014

Minor Travel and Research Grant, 2014

William and Jane Saywell Award, 2014

Institute of Social and Economic Research Award, 2014