The following scholars have developed research agendas on the history of human rights.

Click here for an up-to-date list of recent publications.

Graduate Students

• Matt Baglole, University of New Brunswick

Matt Baglole is currently working on his dissertation titled "To Remedy the Accidents of Birth": Rights Activism in Halifax, 1960-1982."  It is essentially an attempt to link the activism of three communities (Black, Women and Gay & Lesbian) to the content of Canadian human rights legislation and discourse.  The dissertation looks at social movement dynamics (mobilization; claims and resources; and tactics) and seeks to link them to the specific rights initiatives introduced between the Bill and Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Its central contention is that rights are not universal but the products of specific historical struggles. 

Matt Baglole is a doctoral candidate at the University of New Brunswick. 

• Michel Gagné, Concordia University.

Michel Gagné is a teacher of History and French and has taught at the secondary and Cégep (collegiate pre-university) levels.  He is also an M.A. candidate at Concordia University.

• Jonathan Nordland, Provincial Archives of Alberta

Jonathan Nordland is a Masters of Arts Candidate in the Archival Studies program at the University of Manitoba.

Canadianists

• Stephanie Bangarth, University of Guelph

Stephanie Bangarth's research interests include the issue of 'race' in North American history, law and politics, immigration and ethnicity and in the history of social movements in modern Canadian history.  In 2003 she completed her dissertation, titled, "The politics of human rights: Canadian and American advocacy groups and the 'defence' of the internment of North America's citizens of Japanese ancestry."  Some of Dr. Bangarth's recent publications include "Religious organizations and the 'relocation' of persons of Japanese ancestry in North America: evaluating advocacy."  American Review of Canadian Studies (forthcoming, Fall 2004) and "'We are not asking you to open wide the gates for Chinese immigration': the Committee for the Repeal of the Chinese Immigration Act and early human rights activism in Canada."  Canadian Historical Review (Vol. 84, 3, September 2003): 395-422.

Stephanie Bangarth is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at King's University College, University of Western Ontario.

• Michael Behiels, University of Ottawa

Michael Behiels received a SSHRC Standard Research Grant in 2004:  The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: origins, framing and adoption, 1960-82.  For more information on Dr. Behiels click on: www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/history/prof_behiels.html 

Michael Behiels is a Professor of history at the University of Ottawa.

• Linda Cardinal, University of Ottawa, www.crfpp.uottawa.ca

Linda Cardinal is interested in the political culture of rights in Canada.  Her interest in the study of human rights arises out of her work on the politics of language in Canada and Europe.  Some of the issues she is currently examining includes modernity and identity Québec, Ireland and United Kingdom; governance of minority languages, Canada-Europe; women and minorities; and citizenship debates.  

Linda Cardinal is a professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa and the Chaire de recherche sur la francophonie et les politiques publiques.

• Dominique Clément, University of Alberta

Dominique Clément is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta.

• George Egerton, University of B.C.

George Egerton's research interests include twentieth century international organizations (League of Nations); twentieth century British, American, and Canadian foreign policy; modern Canadian religious history; and, the history of piano technology.  He has published extensively on the intersection of religion, politics and jurisprudence in Canada since 1945 with a focus on human rights issues.  He has also taught a graduate course on human rights in Canada.  

George Egerton is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of British Columbia.  

• Larry Hannant, University of Victoria & Camosun College

Larry Hannant has a long-standing interest in human rights, going back to his 1993 PhD dissertation on the origin of the Canadian security screening system. A revised version of it was published in 1995 by the University of Toronto Press as The Infernal Machine: Investigating the Loyalty of Canada's Citizens.  His current research is on the Doukhobors in Canada, in particular the policing of the Sons of Freedom group of Doukhobors in the years from 1920 to 1985. He received a SSHRCC Standard Research grant in 2001 for this study. He has also introduced a course on the history of human rights at Camosun College. In addition he has taught courses on different aspects of human rights at the University Victoria.

Larry Hannant is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Victoria and an instructor at Camosun College.

• Matthew Hayday, Mount Allison University

Matthew Hayday's research interests focus on the development of Canadian identity politics since the Second World War. A key aspect of his research focusses on the development of language rights in Canada, particularly the rights of official language minority communities. He has published a book and a number of scholarly articles on the role played by social movements and state actors in the development of Canadian language rights at both the federal and provincial levels of government. A list of his recent publications can be found at .

Matthew Hayday is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Guelph (profile).

• John Hobbins, McGill University

John Hobbins is a Law Librarian at McGill University.

• Greg Kealey, University of New Brunswick

Greg Kealey's areas of specialization are social and labour history.  Some of his more notable publications in this field include "State Repression of Labour and the Left in Canada, 1914-20: The Impact of the First World War," Canadian Historical Review (Vol.73, No.3, 1992): 281-314, and, Workers and Canadian History (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995). His research in progress includes two books, The History of the Canadian Secret Service and State Repression of Labour and the Left in Canada, 1914-1922.

Greg Kealey is Vice-President [Research] at the University of New Brunswick.

• Ross Lambertson, Camosun College

Ross Lambertson is an instructor in the School of Arts and Science at Camosun College.

• Laurel Macdowell, University of Toronto 

Laurel Macdowell is a Professor of history at the University of Toronto.

• Dominique Marshall, Carleton University

Dominique Marshall is currently exploring two topics related to human rights: "The Child Welfare Committee of the League of Nations, the Declaration of Children's Rights," and "Canada -The History of Children's Rights and of Humanitarian Aid to Africa from 1900 to 1965."  She is the author of Aux origines sociales de l'État-providence: familles québécoises et politiques sociales touchant les enfants entre 1940 et 1950 (Montreal, Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1998) and offers a course on the international history of humanitarian aid.

Dominique Marshall is a Professor in the Department of History at Carleton University (profile).

• David McNab, York University

David T. McNab is a Métis public historian who has worked for more than a quarter century on Aboriginal land and treaty rights issues in Canada. He has also been a claims advisor for Nin.Da.Waab.Jig., Walpole Island Heritage Center, Bkejwanong First Nations since 1992. In addition to almost sixty published articles, David has published Earth, Water, Air and Fire: Studies in Canadian Ethnohistory (editor) (1998) and Circles of Time: Aboriginal Land Rights and Resistance in Ontario (1999) as well as the co-edited  Blockades and Resistance: Studies in Actions of Peace and the Temagami Blockades of 1988-89 (2003) all with WLU Press. His latest co-edited book (with Ute Lischke) is entitled Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and their Representations which was published earlier this year with WLU Press. 

David McNab is an Associate Professor of Native Studies in the School of Arts and Letters in the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies at York University, in Toronto.

• Janet Miron, Trent University

Janet Miron is editing a book on the history of human rights in post-confederation Canada. It will examine different episodes and themes related to the history of human rights within a chronological framework. Highlighting many critical moments in Canadian history, the work will delineate the multitude of forms discrimination took both in times of peace and war, and the very slow evolution of Canada’s commitment to protecting and enhancing human rights. Some of the key themes include immigration and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, disability, and state formation. This will be the first edited collection to concentrate on the history of human rights in Canada and, as such, will make an important contribution to the existing historiography.

Janet Miron is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Trent University.

• Carmela Patrias, Brock University

Carmela Patrias is a Professor in the Department of History at Brock University.

• James Walker , University of Waterloo

James Walker's research interests include Canadian Blacks, Race Relations, Africa and Human Rights. He is the author of The Black Loyalists (UTP, 1992) and "Race”, Rights and the Law in the Supreme Court of Canada (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997), and has written many articles on the history of human rights law and human rights activism in Canada.

James Walker is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Waterloo (profile)

Non-Canadianists

• Marc Epprecht, Queen's University

Marc Epprecht is an Associate Professor in the Development Studies Program and the Department of History at Queen's University (profile).

• Pamela Jordon, University of Saskatchewan

Pamela Jordon is an Assistant Professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan.

• Gary Teeple, Simon Fraser University

Gary Teeple is a Professor of Sociology at Simon Fraser University.