The Tri-University Graduate Program in History combines the faculty and resources of three of Canada’s premier universities, University of Guelph, University of Waterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier University. With over seventy graduate faculty in the program, we are one of the largest History graduate programs in the country and able to provide courses and supervise research across the widest possible range of areas. At the same time, through small seminars, close student-professor relationships, and teaching assistantships and scholarships held at one of our three participating campuses, we provide the atmosphere and collegiality of a smaller, more intimate program.
News
2025-26 TUGSA co-presidents announced
Recently, Tri-U students held their annual election. Aidan Hughes, PhD candidate at Guelph, Brian Gibbs, PhD student at Laurier, and Vera Zoricic, PhD candidate at Waterloo became the 2025-26 co-presidents. They organize events and encourage community-building among Tri-U students. Check out their bios.
Dr. Deuxberry opens a window into international relations in the Pacific Rim, interwar period
Zachary Deuxberry, PhD, successfully defended his dissertation, "A Window into International Relations in the Pacific Region: The Institute of Pacific Relations during the Interwar Period 1925-1937," at Wilfrid Laurier University on August 5, 2025.
Dr. Rebecca Beausaert is new Francis and Ruth Redelmeier Professor in Rural History at Guelph
The Tri-U History Program announces that Dr. Rebecca Beausaert was appointed as Assistant Professor and the Francis and Ruth Redelmeier Professor in Rural History at the University of Guelph beginning July 1.
Dr. Beausaert is a specialist in Canadian social and cultural history and holds a Ph.D. in History from York University. She has strong connections to the Tri-U program, having been an adjunct professor at the University of Guelph and part-time faculty member at Wilfrid Laurier University for over ten years.
Events
The Strange Tale of Alexander Henry, a Con Artist, and the Struggle for the Northwest
Dr. Mark Humphries, Laurier History Department presents, The Strange Tale of Alexander Henry, a Con Artist, and the Struggle for the Northwest.
Friday, February 6. 3:00 pm
Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada, 232 King St N, Waterloo.
Alexander Henry is famous as the first English trader to venture into the Northwest after the fall of New France in 1760 where he survived an attack at Michilimackinac, helped found the North West Company, and mapped the foothills of the Rockies. His story was published as a popular memoir in 1809 and helped shape historians' views about the early history of the Northwest and relations between Britain, the United States, and the Indigenous Peoples who lived there down to the present. But...new discoveries show that Henry didn't write the book: it was fabricated by an English children's author and con artist named Edward Augustus Kendall who stole Henry's journals and made-up most of the text. In sorting truth from fiction, we see Kendall consciously constructing a version of history that he hoped would resonate with audiences on the eve of the War of 1812 as tensions grew between Britain and the United States over the future of Western North America.
Light refreshments will be offered.
Organized by the Wilfrid Laurier History Department Events Committee.
Nova Scotia and the Imperial Strategies of Highland Scots
Join Professor Karly Kehoe, St. Mary's University, for this Scotland-Canada Academic Partnership annual lecture.
Dr. Kehoe's talk explores the legacy of colonial privilege by looking at patterns of Scottish Highland settlement in Nova Scotia. Catholic Highlanders made use of the spectrum of advantages inherent in the White European settler experience despite facing significant persecution at home. Examining their connections with the process of empire building builds a deeper understanding of the complexities of colonization and helps us to think about Scottish History’s connection with Canada’s reconciliation process.
This talk will be presented virtually, so register on Eventbrite.
Public Health in Rural Alberta and Settler Colonialism as a Structure, 1919-1971
Join the Tri-U's own Emily Kaliel, PhD candidate in history at the University of Guelph, who will give a talk entitled, "Public Health in Rural Alberta and Settler Colonialism as a Structure, 1919-1971."
Kaliel explores which rural populations the Alberta government considered to be a "public" worthy of interwar public health programs.
The event will be held on Zoom. Register for the link on Eventbrite.
If you have any questions, contact Rebecca Beausaert or Ben Bradley.