My research focuses on the history of science, technology, and medical research ethics in twentieth-century North America. With an eye to understanding the social dynamics of science, my published work examines the complex political and moral dimensions of state-sponsored research conducted at government, private, and academic institutions. In this light, I am currently studying the history of Canada’s National Research Council and gender-based discrimination encountered and overcome by women scientists in physics, biology, and chemistry between 1920 and 2000.
I have published extensively on the history of science and military-sponsored research in the context of Canada and the Cold War. My books include a forthcoming monograph on the history of science in northern Canada and the Canadian Arctic between 1945 and 1975, an edited collection of government policy papers written by the late nuclear physicist and military strategist George Lindsey, and a forthcoming co-edited volume on Canada’s defence economy and the military-industrial complex.
I hold a Ph.D. in History from Wilfrid Laurier University and the Tri-University Graduate Program in History. Before joining the Department of History at the University of Waterloo, I held successive postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Toronto (SSHRC), Western University (AMS), and St. Jerome’s University (Banting). In addition to my ongoing research, I am the Communications Director for the Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association and a Junior Fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
Education
- Ph.D. History, Wilfrid Laurier University
- M.A. History, Lakehead University
- B.A. (Honours) and B.Ed. History and English, Lakehead University
Research and Teaching Interests
- Canadian History
- U.S. History
- History of Science
- History of Medicine
- Cold War History
- History of Ethics
- Social History
- Gender History
Courses Taught
- HIST103 – Canada through Biography
- HIST205 – History of Western Sport
- HIST389 – Canada in World Affairs
- HIST422 – Cold War: Culture and Politics
Selected Awards and Honours
- Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Provost’s Support Grant for Banting Fellows, University of Waterloo
- AMS Postdoctoral Fellowship
- SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Vera Roberts’ Research Award, Canadian Association for the History of Nursing
- Northern Research Fund, Churchill Northern Studies Centre
- Dean’s Scholarship, Wilfrid Laurier University
- Doctoral Essay Prize, Tri-University Graduate Program in History
Publications
Monographs
- Frontier Science: Northern Canada, Military Research, and the Cold War, 1945–75. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (Under contract; anticipated 2023).
Edited Collections
- with Alex Souchen. Eds. Silent Partners: Historical Perspectives on Canada’s Military-Industrial Complex. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. (2023).
- Ed. The Selected Works of George R. Lindsey: Operational Research, Strategic Studies, and Canadian Defence in the Cold War. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019. 328 pp.
Journal Articles
- “The Weather Factory: Biophysicist Alan C. Burton and Military Research at the University of Western Ontario, 1945–70.” Scientia Canadensis. (Forthcoming 2022).
- “The Origins and Early History of Canada’s Cold War Scientific Intelligence, 1946-65.” International Journal. (Forthcoming 2022).
- with Jane Nicholas, “Synchronized Swimming in Ontario, 1920–50s: Gender, Beauty, and Sport.” Sport History Review 53, no. 1 (2022): 6–25. First published online September 2021.
- “Canadian Scientists and Military Research in the Cold War, 1947–60.” Canadian Historical Review 100, no. 3 (September 2019): 439–63.
- “Unlocking the ‘Eskimo Secret’: Defence Science in the Cold War Canadian Arctic, 1947–1954.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 26, no. 1 (2015): 191–223. Backdated and published July 2016.
- “The Development of Cold War Soldiery: Acclimatisation Research and Military Indoctrination in the Canadian Arctic, 1947–1953.” Canadian Military History 24, no. 2 (Summer/Autumn 2015): 127–55.
Book Chapters
- “‘Baptism by Fire’: Canadian Soldiers and Radiation Exposure at Nevada and Maralinga.” In The Nuclear North: Histories of Canada in the Atomic Age, edited by Susan Colbourn and Timothy Andrews Sayle, 153–77. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2020. Solicited.
- “The Future of the Arctic Council.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Arctic Policy and Politics, edited by Ken Coates and Carin Holroyd, 439–52. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Solicited.
- “Frontier Footage: Science and Colonial Attitudes on Film in Northern Canada, 1948–1954.” In Cold Science: Environmental Knowledge in the North American Arctic during the Cold War, edited by Stephen Bocking and Daniel Heidt, 61–74. New York: Routledge, 2019. Solicited.
- “Introduction.” In The Selected Works of George R. Lindsey: Operational Research, Strategic Studies, and Canadian Defence in the Cold War, by George R. Lindsey; edited by Matthew S. Wiseman, xv–xxxii. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
- “Afterword.” In The Selected Works of George R. Lindsey: Operational Research, Strategic Studies, and Canadian Defence in the Cold War, by George R. Lindsey; edited by Matthew S. Wiseman, 219–23. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.