Research Interests

Settler colonialism; public health; history of childhood; history pedagogy

Research Description

My SSHRC-funded research project examines the intersections of race and age in a settler colonial context, probing how ideas about childhood and adulthood influenced health policy pertaining to Indigenous people and settlers in northern Ontario between 1876 and 1951. My research demonstrates that settler colonialism wasn’t merely a context for the development of public health policy; instead, settler colonialism and public health were constitutive of one another. Public health policy weaves together notions about land, race, labour, age, and ability, drawing selectively from these concepts to structure and stratify societies. Public health policy in northern Ontario was a means of entrenching settler jurisdiction over Indigenous land, by governing Indigenous peoples’ and settlers’ movements and behaviours.