Africa
See Michael Ferguson in Middle East
Steven Serels
Steven Serels was awarded a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Social Studies and Humanities Research Council of Canada to be tenable at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, where he will work under the supervision of Dr. Roger Owen. His Postdoctoral Fellowship project, entitled Herding for Grain; Northeast African Pastoralists and the Red Sea World, 1818-1956, will reveal the historical forces underpinning food insecurity in the region. This project will illuminate the social, political and economic impediments that have historically undermined the subsistence economy of indigenous populations. Steven Serels’ research will focus on communities in modern day Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia who, over the course of the nineteenth century, became linked through the development of a common Red Sea grain market. This market linked pastoralists who depended on the market for their sustenance, Indian and Hadramauti merchants who sought to profit through trade, and Egyptian, British, French and Italian agents who exercised their control over ports in order to punish indigenous resistance towards, and encourage collaboration with, their colonial schemes. This research project will seek the answers to four key questions: 1) what were the terms of trade for pastoral products relative to imported grain, and how did they change over time?; 2) how did participation in trans-regional markets impact the social structure of pastoral communities?; 3) what role did local Muslim religious leaders play in mediating pastoralist participation in this market?; and, 4) how did pastoralists’ dependence on grain markets regulated by colonial governments impact their participation in imperial projects?
Steven Serels’s dissertation, entitled Feasting on Famines; Food Insecurity and the Making of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1883-1956, is the first in-depth analysis of the role of famine and food insecurity in the expansion and consolidation of British power in the Sudan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Steven Serels holds a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union in New York City and an M.A. in History from McGill University. His masters research paper, entitled Town Planning for Empire: British Colonial Planning and Re-Planning of Khartoum, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1898-1914, examined the intellectual resources brought to urban planning during the early years of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the ways in which the definition of authoritative knowledge shared by colonial administrators shifted as colonial state-building initiatives were abandoned in favor of economic development projects. He has received a number of awards, including a Doctor Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2010-2011), a Research Fellowship from the Indian Ocean World Centre (2007-2010); a Graduate Student Travel Award (2011) and a Graduate Research Travel Award (2011), both from the Faculty of Arts, McGill University; a Graduate Fellowship from the Centre for Developing Area Studies (2008); a Graduate Excellence Fellowship (2012), the McCall/MacBain Graduate Award (2010) and the Daisy A. Lartimer Memorial Prize in History (2007), all from the Department of History at McGill University. In addition, Steven received a four year full tuition scholarship from the Cooper Union (2001-2005).
Facil Tesfaye
Facil, who holds an undergraduate diploma in African Studies and PoliticalScience from Humboldt University, Berlin and an MA in Political Science from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), is undertaking a doctorate at the Indian Ocean World Centre in McGill”s Department of History and Classical Studies on “Statistical Practices & Human Rights Abuses in Rwanda and Zanzibar.” He has gained a number of scholarly awards including a Research Scholarship at the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST), Montréal (2005-6), a prize for academic excellence at UQAM (2006) IOWC/McGill fellowship (2007) and the McGill PhD fellowship (2008). He speaks fluent Amharic, English, French and German.
Facil has considerable experience as an organizer, teacher and researcher. His work experience includes attachments as a documentalist to the European Community delegation to Addis Abeba (1993-7). While studying in Berlin, he served on the administrative councils of the African Students Union (1999) and Ecumenical Centre for Foreign Students (2001-02), as well as helping to organize a conference on Religious Plurality in Ethiopia (“Religiöse Pluralität in Afrika ausgehend vom Beispiel Äthiopiens”) at Humboldt University. He has served as a Research Assistant to Professor Rainer Mackensen of the Department of Social Sciences, at the Technische Universität, Berlin (2003-4), and as a Tutor at the Centre Paolo Freire, Department of Political Science, UQAM (2007). In addition, he was a Teaching Assistant to Professors Gwyn Campbell and Matthew Schnurr, both of the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill University (2007-2008), as well as to Professor Jean-Pierre Beaud of the Department of Political Science, UQAM (2005-2006). He has presented papers at a number of international conferences.
facil [dot] tesfaye [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Facil Tesfaye)
Website
Tesfaye.CV.2010
[CV2010.doc - MS Word - 68.5 KB]
Ancient History
François Gauthier
François Gauthier holds a BA and MA from Université de Montréal. He is currently a PhD candidate in the department of History and Classical Studies at McGill and is working under the supervision of Professor Hans Beck. His present research is focusing on the political culture of the Roman Republic, the Romanization of Italy and the Peloponnesian War. Other fields of research and interests include the army of the Later Roman Empire, the Punic Wars, the Second World War and military history. Complementary experience comprises the study of Latin, Ancient Greek, German, Latin epigraphy and numismatics. He has worked as a teaching assistant for courses on Roman History at Université de Montréal and for Ancient History at McGill.
François Gauthier est titulaire d’un baccalauréat et d’une maîtrise en histoire à l’Université de Montréal. Il est présentement candidat au doctorat au département d’Histoire et Études Classiques de l’Université McGill et travaille sous la supervision du professeur Hans Beck. Ses recherches se concentrent présentement sur la culture politique de la République romaine, la romanisation de l’Italie et l’histoire de la Guerre du Péloponnèse. Ses autres intérêts et champs de recherche incluent l’armée de l’Empire romain tardif, les Guerres puniques, la Seconde Guerre mondiale et l’histoire militaire. Sa formation universitaire comprend l’étude du latin, du grec ancien, de l’allemand, de l’épigraphie latine et de la numismatique. Il a travaillé comme auxiliaire d’enseignement pour des cours d’histoire romaine à l’Université de Montréal et pour des cours d’histoire ancienne à l’université McGill.
francois [dot] gauthier3 [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Francois Gauthier)
CV François Gauthier [.pdf]
Alex McAuley
After completing his B.A. in Ancient History and Canadian History at McGill, Alex McAuley departed for the UK and completed his M.Sc in Classics at the University of Edinburgh, and has now returned to McGill as a doctoral candidate in Ancient History under the supervision of Prof. Hans Beck. Building on previous research and an enduring interest in ethnicity, identity, and nationalism, his doctoral dissertation examines how the ethnic identity of the Greeks of Mainland Greece responded to the much broader, multicultural, and pluralistic world that was emerged after the conquests of Alexander the Great.
Alex’s other principal field of research is the Seleucid Empire. He is the author of the ongoing Genealogy of the Seleucids project and website, which provides the research basis for articles on Seleucid royal women, royal ideology and practice, and dynastic marriage. The project and his ongoing research enjoy continued affiliation with the University of Edinburgh and the Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies. He has spoken at numerous conferences in Canada, Scotland, and England, and continues to collaborate with a network of colleagues based in Canada, the UK, and Europe. At McGill, he serves as an editorial and research assistant to Prof. Beck, has worked as a teaching assistant in Greek History and East Asian History, and is now a course lecturer in Latin.
In addition, he delves into the reception of the Classical World, the portrayal of Classics in Film and Cinema, and the History of Jazz.
alexander [dot] mcauley [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Alex McAuley)
CV Alex McAuley [.pdf]
Britain
Gregory Bouchard
I am writing my dissertation on David Hume's publishing career, focusing on the manner in which he presented his works as material commodities to his contemporary print marketplace. Hume lived several different lives: the failed professor, the essayist, the historian, the infidel, the statesman, and the staple of convivial gatherings. Most studies on Hume define him too narrowly, overlooking the social sphere tying his various lives together, and offering a skewed picture of the intentions behind his publications. My work has taken me to the National Library of Scotland where I have spent countless hours consulting Scottish newspapers and periodicals, the minute books of clubs like The Select Society and Belles-Lettres Society, Hume's manuscripts, and numerous other understudied sources. My work in Montreal has been funded in part by the McGill Hume Collection Research Grant, established by David and Mary Norton. I am actively engaged in presenting my research at conferences in North America and Europe. My teaching interests include Western Civilization with a classical liberal arts approach, early modern intellectual history, early modern Britain, and Scottish Enlightenment culture. In Winter of 2013, I will be teaching a special topics course at McGill on The Enlightenment.
Outside of academia, I have an active life as a music journalist, focusing especially on digital culture and researching music scenes in faraway places like Iceland and Barcelona. I am a co-editor for Midnight Poutine, recently named one of the top ten music music blogs in Canada by CBC 3. For the past three years I have served as a judge for Quebec's independent music awards (GAMIQ).
gregory [dot] bouchard [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Gregory Bouchard)
Marie-Luise Ermisch
Marie-Luise Ermisch, who holds a BA in History and International Relations from the University of British Columbia and an MA in History from McGill University, is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill. Her Master’s research paper examined the work of Edward Lancelot Threlkeld, missionary to the Aborigines in New South Wales, Australia in the 1830s. Building on her analysis of 19th-century humanitarian endeavors, Marie-Luise’s doctoral research focuses on the history of international development in the 20th-century. Specifically, Marie-Luise is examining the work of British-based non-government organisations that worked internationally with children in the 1950s and 1960s, organisations such as the British Red Cross, Christian Aid, Oxfam and Save the Children. Her research focuses on how children, both in Britain and abroad (primarily in sub-Saharan Africa), were incorporated into various British development initiatives relating to education, health and political campaigning. Marie-Luise’s research is based on archival work and oral history interviews, both of which were carried out in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Marie-Luise also has diverse experience in teaching, organizing and community work. In 2011 she completed a three month internship at the International Bureau for Children’s Rights (IBCR), working on their Human Trafficking and Prevention of Child Sex Tourism Projects. Since then, she has carried out assignments for the IBCR on a contractual basis. In 2008 and 2009 Marie-Luise worked with the Government of Uganda on the World Bank-funded Sustainable Management of Mineral Resources Project and as a Development Program Officer with the Ugandan Entebbe Women Association for community and environmental development projects. She also has much experience teaching, having taught the History of Britain in the 19th-Century as a sessional at McGill University and worked as a teaching assistant for a variety of classes (i.e. History of Colonial Latin America, History of Latin America post 1825, History of World War II and Introduction to the History of Modern Europe), while also being a certified English teacher with experience teaching children and adults both in Canada and abroad. For her publications and other work experience, please see her CV below.
marie-luise [dot] ermisch [dot] last [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Marie-Luise Ermisch)
Ermisch_cv_abbreviated.pdf
Justin Irwin
I hold a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters degree in History from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and I am currently a PhD candidate studying British history at McGill under the supervision of Brian Cowan. My research concerns the formation of a Baptist confessional identity between the Restoration of Charles II and the end of the reign of William III. Central to this research is the question of just what exactly it meant to belong to a particular religious group at the end of the seventeenth century, and how a self defined group is able to engage with a broader society through print, literature, and religious practice. I am also interested in the sometimes millenarian or utopian currents within religious and political dissent: the prospect of radical change held out by beliefs and ideologies has been an enduring concern of mine, and in this respect my choice of topics owes a certain amount to my reading of Christopher Hill’s World Turned Upside Down. Beyond the confines of my own thesis I have considerable interest in British political history, particularly in printed polemic between the Civil War and the Revolution of 1688, and in issues of religious conflict and toleration more broadly. My comprehensive exam fields included seventeenth century France and Atlantic History, and I have teaching interest in these fields, as well as in Early Modern Europe, the Reformation, and of course British history.
justin [dot] irwin [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Justin Irwin)
Vlad Solomon
Vlad Solomon, who holds a BA and MA in History from McGill University, is currently working on his doctoral thesis on the cultural and political impact of anarchism in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, under the direction of Professor Brian Lewis. Vlad’s research interests include British and European labour history, as well as the history of libertarian and left-wing political ideas in Britain and Europe and their relationship to cultural/artistic movements. He has worked as a teaching assistant for courses on modern Eastern Europe and medieval/early modern Western Europe. His other interests include modernist literature (especially works by Franz Kafka and Robert Walser), critical theory, and music (in particular 60s and 70s soul).
vlad [dot] solomon [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Vlad Solomon)
James Wallace
Much of my research to date has focused upon the history of gender and sexuality in Early Modern Britain, particularly during the long eighteenth 
century. I am currently developing my thesis topic, which will examine how the rhetorical construction of masculinity in Scotland interacted with a flourishing production and circulation of cheap print in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Through an examination of sources such as chapbooks, broadside ballads, and their accompanying woodcuts I also seek to interrogate the relationship between visual/oral and print culture and their role in defining normative and subversive categories of gendered behavior. Other research interests focus on the relationship between public sex and perceptions of public space in eighteenth-century British cities and how male prostitution interacted with/within an increasingly visible homosexual subculture in Early Modern Britain. I received my B.A from the University of Toronto in 2004, specializing in history, and subsequently obtained my MSc, in economic and social history from the University of Edinburgh in 2005. My oral comprehensive fields are on Early Modern Britain, nineteenth-century Britain, and Renaissance-Reformation Europe. Finally, I am also quite fortunate to have been supervised by both Brian Cowan and Brian Lewis who endlessly encourage my work.
james [dot] wallace2 [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email James Wallace)
Matthew Wyman-McCarthy
Matthew Wyman-McCarthy earned his Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University with a major in History. He also completed his Masters of Arts in History at Queen’s where his research focused on the Atlantic World and European intellectual history. Matthew is currently preparing his dissertation on the British abolitionist movement tentatively titled Rethinking the Empire, The Imperial Origins of British Abolitionism, 1775-1793. His thesis seeks to contextualize the emergence of antislavery within the broad rethinking of empire that occurred in Britain in the aftermath of the American Revolution. In particular, his work highlights parallels between abolitionism and other contemporaneous imperial developments such as calls to reform the British presence in India, the founding of missionary societies, and the establishment of colonies in West Africa and New South Wales. Overlaps between antislavery and these other issues help show how abolitionism was part of a widespread effort to make the British Empire a more moral and centralized undertaking. Matthew’s broader academic interests include slavery and the slave trade, Atlantic History, and the history of human rights. He has a passion for travel and ultimate Frisbee, and believes that the best conversations about research occur at the pub.
colin [dot] grittner [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Matthew Wyman-McCarthy)
Canada/Quebec
Colin Grittner
Colin’s interests centre upon ideas of politics, gender, citizenship, and electoral participation in nineteenth-century Canada. Before joining McGill’s Department of History and Classical Studies as a PhD candidate, he received a BHum and MA from Carleton University. His MA thesis, entitled “‘A statesmanlike measure with a partisan tail”: The Development of the Nineteenth-Century Dominion Electoral Franchise,” analyzes the legislative changes made to Canada’s federal electoral franchise law between 1867 and 1900. Colin’s current research builds upon his previous work by returning to the subject of nineteenth-century British North American and Canadian electoral franchise legislation. Through an examination of colonial, provincial, and municipal franchise laws, Colin’s dissertation explores how such legislation reflected the localized, contested, and interconnected nature of manliness and citizenship in Victorian Canada.
colin [dot] grittner [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Colin Grittner)
Daniel Lachapelle Lemire
Mes champs d'intérêts sont l'histoire de l'immigration canadienne, l'histoire du Japon moderne et l'histoire de la Chine moderne. De façon cohérente, mes recherches portent sur l'immigration japonaise au Canada, avec en particulier les questions d'identité et de diaspora dans un contexte transnational. Mon parcours a commencé à l'Université de Montréal par un baccalauréat combinant études de l'Asie de l'Est et histoire, suivi de plusieurs splendides années passées au Japon. J'y ai travaillé à titre de traducteur/interprète (français, anglais, japonais), d'attaché aux relations publiques, d'enseignant et de conférencier, en plus d'obtenir la sixième dan en iaido et la deuxième dan en kendo. À mon retour, j'ai obtenu ma maîtrise en histoire à McGill et j'y poursuis actuellement mes études au doctorat, sous la direction de M. John Zucchi, M. Thomas Lamarre et Mme Johanna Ransmeier. Ma dissertation de maîtrise était une analyse de l'historiographie des Canadiens japonais, dans le contexte de la diaspora japonaise. Dans ma plus récente publication, qui s'intitule "Historical 'Truth', State Building and Narratives: The Case of Nogi's 'Junshi'", j'ai déconstruit le mythe bâti autour du suicide du général Maresuke Nogi (1849-1912). Je garde donc un pied fermement planté de chaque côté du Pacifique.
Ma vraie vie se déroule à la maison, avec ma femme et ma fille.
My fields of interest are Canadian immigration history, modern Japanese history and modern Chinese history. Coherently, my research is focused on the Japanese immigration to Canada, with an emphasis on the issues of identity and diaspora, in a transnational context. My journey began at Université de Montréal with a bacchelor's degree combining East Asian Studies and History, followed by many splendid years spent in Japan. I worked there as translator/interpreter (French/English/Japanese), public relations attaché, teacher and speaker, while obtaining a sixth dan in iaido and a second dan in kendo. Back home, I received an M.A. in History at McGill, where I am currently enrolled as a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. John Zucchi, Prof. Thomas Lamarre and Prof. Johanna Ransmeier. My Master's research paper was an analysis of the historiography on Japanese Canadians in the context of the Japanese diaspora. In my most recent publication, which is entitled "Historical 'Truth', State Building and Narratives: The Case of Nogi's 'Junshi'," I deconstructed the myth built around the suicide of general Maresuke Nogi (1849-1912). I thus keep one foot firmly planted on each side of the Pacific.
My real life happens at home, with my wife and daughter.
daniel [dot] lachapellelemire [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Daniel Lachapelle Lemire)
Sonya Roy
I am specialized in early twentieth century Canadian and Quebec history. I am particularly interested in the history of masculinity, immigration, socialpolicy, ethno-cultural relations, and racism. Based on etiquette manuals published in Quebec, my Master’s dissertation explored the codes and stakes of male seduction and uncovered important links between seduction and the construction of masculine identity. My doctoral thesis is on single men in Montreal during the Depression of 1930s, a particularly difficult period for these men who were broadly excluded from government aid policies. My study focuses on the values and moral postures that defined these discriminatory policies and examines the assistance procedures instituted by civil authorities, philanthropic organisms, mutual societies, unions and political parties. I analyse the impact of notions of class, religion, ethnicity, gender, citizenship and age on the organization and distribution of assistance. Specifically, I look to highlight the power relations between different social actors and single men who, in an effort to assert their rights and assure their survival, increasing respond through gestures of conciliation, contestation and resistance. I have also developed an interest in the history of taxation. The first results were presented at the 2009 Meetings of the Canadian Historical Association in my paper « "Avez-vous un chien, un Vieux garçon ou une automobile?": Le cas montréalais de la taxe des célibataires, 1918-1923 ».
Je suis spécialisée en histoire du Québec et du Canada du début du 20e siècle. De manière générale, je m’intéresse à l’histoire de la masculinité, de l’immigration, des politiques sociales, des relations interethniques et du racisme. En me basant sur des manuels de savoir-vivre publiés au Québec, mon mémoire de maîtrise portait sur les codes et les enjeux de la séduction masculine et visait à approfondir le lien entre la séduction et la création d’une identité masculine. Ma thèse de doctorat porte sur les hommes célibataires à Montréal pendant la crise économique des années 30, période particulièrement difficile pour ces hommes généralement exclus des politiques d’aide gouvernementales. Mon étude s’attarde aux valeurs et aux normes morales qui ont défini ces politiques discriminatoires et examine les démarches d’aide instaurées par les autorités civiles, les organismes philanthropiques et d’assistance mutuelle, les syndicats et les partis politiques. J’analyse l’impact qu’ont eu les notions, de classe, de religion, d’ethnicité, de genre, de citoyenneté et d’âge sur l’organisation et la distribution des secours. Plus particulièrement, je compte mettre en lumière les rapports de pouvoir qui s’installent entre ces différents acteurs sociaux et les hommes célibataires, qui pour faire valoir leurs droits et assurer leur survie multiplient les gestes de conciliation, de contestation et de résistance. J’ai aussi développé un intérêt particulier pour l’histoire de la taxation. Les premiers résultats ont fait l’objet d’une communication dans le cadre du Congrès de la Société historique du Canada
de 2009 : « "Avez-vous un chien, un Vieux garçon ou une automobile?": Le cas montréalais de la taxe des célibataires, 1918-1923 ».
so_roy [at] msn [dot] com (Email Sonya Roy)
Daniel Simeone
In the area of 19th century Canadian and Quebec history, Daniel explores the concept of bankruptcy in 1840-1900 Montreal. At the intersection of economic, social, intellectual, and cultural history, bankrtupcy helps to bring out the links between the morality of contractual relations, the material reality of merchants, and the process and application of law during the period of the construction of the regulatory state.
Daniel begun his doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. Suzanne Morton in 2010, after having received the masters degree, at McGill,under the direction of Dr. Jarrett Rudy. He holds a masters of mathematics from McGill, and has a background in Computer Science and Theatre Studies.
Dans le domaine de l'histoire du 19e siècle canadien et québécois, Daniel explore le concept de la faillite à Montréal entre 1840 et 1900. La faillite se trouve à l'intersection de l'histoire économique, sociale, intellectuelle et culturelle. Les liens entre la moralité des relations contractuelles, la réalité matérielle des petits commerçants, et le processus de l'application des loi pendant la construction du pouvoir d’État font partie d'une histoire riche à découvrir.
Daniel a commencé ses études doctorale sous la direction de Dre Suzanne Morton en 2010, après l'obtention d'une maîtrise, à McGill, sous la direction de Dr Jarrett Rudy. Il détient une maîtrise en mathématiques de l'université McGill, et a également un background en informatique et en art dramatique.
daniel [dot] simeone [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Daniel Simeone)
Glenn Walker
Glenn Walker’s specialization is nineteenth century Canada, particularly ecology, land use, surveying, land re-distribution, agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing. He is interested in most aspects of nineteenth century material culture and rural life, including craftworks, tools, housing, architecture, domestic furnishings, tourism, and leisure. His thesis, “The Changing Face of the Kawarthas” focuses on how evolving patterns of land use and new material practices reshaped the landscape and ecology of south-central Ontario between the 1830s and the start of the twentieth century. Glenn is also engaged in public history, recording community memories through museums and oral history
glenn [dot] walker [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Glenn Walker)
China
Wenyi Huang
I am a doctoral candidate in the Department of History under the supervision of Prof. Griet Vankeerberghen. 
In 2012, I completed my comprehensive fields in Chinese History (500 BCE-500 CE), Republican Roman History and Historical Archaeology. My dissertation project focuses on frontier crossers in early medieval China, from approximately the third to the sixth century CE. Through case studies on frontier crossers, I examine the social/political history of frontier crossers, frontier policies and contemporary perceptions of frontiers.
More broadly, I am also interested in the historical geography and religious history of pre-modern China, and also in border studies.
I received my M.A. in Chinese Literature from Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taiwan. After graduation, I worked as an editor for one year at Eslite Reader Magazine and for five years on a research project on Taiwanese opera at Academia Sinica.
Ira Hubert
My fields of interest in McGill’s doctoral program, begun in 2012 under the supervision of Dr. Lorenz Lüthi, are 20th century international relations (with an emphasis on the post-1945 period), modern Chinese history, and modern Middle East history. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, I earned my honours B.A. in political science and M.A. in Islamic & Near Eastern studies from Washington University in St. Louis. I then spent three years in Washington, D.C. writing on international security issues for the U.S. Department of Justice, followed by a year of independent study based in Guilin and Beijing, China.
My dissertation research will focus on variation and change in China’s diplomatic engagement with the countries of the Arab Middle East during the Cold War years. Seeking to contribute to new narratives concerning Sino-Arab state relations, some of my related mid-20th century interests include international cooperation against perceived ideological threats (from both Western and ‘nonaligned’ perspectives); anti- and post-colonial nationalisms; and cultural diplomacy. Tangentially, I am also interested in historiographical efforts to situate events of political and social upheaval in post-1945 America in international context.
ira [dot] hubert [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Ira Hubert)
Qian Zhang
I was born in Ningbo, China, one of the earliest treaty ports opened by the British after the First Opium War (1839-1942). In 2004, the British came again. This time they merely opened an overseas campus: the University of Nottingham at Ningbo. The university required all of its Chinese students to have an English name. Making the most of this Western attempt to modify my oriental identity, I selected Napoleon, once the archenemy of the British. In spite of my rebellious nature, I managed to earn my Bachelor’s Degree (Hons) in International Studies there in 2008, followed by a first-class Master’s Degree in International Relations and World History in 2011.
Under the supervision of Professor Lorenz Luthi, I am currently engaging in three fields of study at McGill: 20th Century International Relations with emphasis on the post-1945 period, 20th Century Chinese History, and the Political/Intellectual History of the Global South. I have a general interest in China’s interactions with its neighboring countries, particularly those it has confronted on the battlefield. My research for my doctoral dissertation will center on the 1962 Sino-Indian Border Conflict, with reference to its origins, development, and consequences. That short war is fascinating because it constitutes a historical wedge that divided China and India, two of the continent’s largest countries, leading once close friends to construct one of the most militarized borders in the world. I hope an inquiry into this shared past can shed light on the way ahead for the two countries.
qian [dot] zhang [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Qian Zhang)
See also Wee Siang Margaret Ng in Medical History.
Continental Europe
Margaret Carlyle
I am a doctoral candidate in History at McGill University, having completed a double honours B.A. at the University of Winnipeg in 2005 followed by an M.A. in 2006 also at McGill. My Master’s research paper looked at Aotourou, an eighteenth-century Tahitian brought to Paris in 1769 by the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. Examining Aotourou’s natural knowledge tradition has led to my interest in the history and philosophy of science. My current work focuses on gender and female practitioners of science in eighteenth-century France, specifically the ways in which women’s marginalised position outside the official sites of scientific production did not result in women’s outright exclusion from participation in them. Women practitioners were forced to adopt novel strategies in order to partake in scientific debate in a variety of capacities: publicly and privately, officially and unofficially, openly or behind-the-scenes. Often overlooked as ‘invisible assistants,’ not enough work to-date has taken into full account the contributions women have made to the construction of modern science, not simply as assistants to male producers of knowledge, but as practitioners and thinkers themselves, with individual worldviews, agendas, and biases that provided the contexts for their science-in-the-making. Besides reading on these topics, I love anything by Colette, I. Murdoch, B. Brecht, G. Greene, and I. McEwan. My other interests include swimming, volleyball, cooking, music-listening, travelling, arts & crafts, and trying to convince people that kale is good for you and can taste good too!
Étudiante au doctorat en histoire à l’Université McGill, j’ai complété une double licence à l’Université de Winnipeg en 2005, suivie d’une maîtrise en 2006, également à McGill. Mon projet de maîtrise retraçait l’histoire d’Aotourou, un Tahitien ramené à Paris en 1769 par l’explorateur français Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. En examinant les connaissances naturelles d’Aotourou, je me suis intéressée à l’histoire et la philosophie des sciences. Mon projet actuel concerne le genre et la contribution féminine aux sciences dans la France du siècle des Lumières. Je vise surtout à démontrer comment la marginalisation des femmes des sites ‘officiels’ de production scientifique ne les a nullement empêchées de s’y impliquer de plusieurs façons innovatrices. Afin d’y participer sans la reconnaissance des structures masculines, les femmes scientifiques ont dû adopter des stratégies particulières dans des milieux autant publics que privés, officiels que non officiels, ouvertement ou secrètement. Souvent perçues comme des ‘assistantes invisibles,’ les femmes scientifiques demeurent un sujet nécessitant des recherches plus approfondies. En plus de contester la perception des femmes comme de simples assistantes des scientifiques masculins, je veux également dévoiler la nature de leurs contributions. Ce sont d’abord des femmes dynamiques qui se sont lancées dans des projets scientifiques. L’examen de leurs travaux nous révèle qu’elles ont développé des idées, des visions du monde, des objectifs et des présuppositions qui leurs sont propres, tout en s’inscrivant dans un contexte intellectuel et social particulier. En plus de me consacrer à ces recherches, je m’intéresse à la littérature et en particulier à Colette, I. Murdoch, B. Brecht, G. Greene, et I. McEwan. Mes intérêts et loisirs sont variés et incluent la natation, le volley-ball, la cuisine et gastronomie, la musique, les voyages et les arts. Je vise, enfin, à déboulonner les graves préjugés contre le chou frisé, ce légume sain et potentiellement délicieux!
margaret [dot] carlyle [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Margaret Carlyle)
Anna Dysert
Anna Dysert is a doctoral student in the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill University under the supervision of Prof. Faith Wallis. She holds a BA in Classics (McGill), an MA in Medieval Studies (Toronto), and an MLIS in Archives (McGill). She specializes in manuscript studies and the history of the book with particular attention to the production and transmission of scientific and medical texts. Anna is also involved with digital humanities initiatives, including digitization and electronic editing of medieval manuscripts. She is interested in the physical attributes of the manuscript book and will pursue her work in codicology and paleography as the 2010-2011 recipient of the Newberry Library/Ecole nationale des chartes Exchange Fellowship in Paris. In addition to her studies, she has experience working in archives and rare books cataloguing. Outside the university, she is an active musician and an amateur printer on an old iron handpress.
anna [dot] dysert [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Anna Dysert)
J. Luke Ryder
After completing a Master’s Degree in World History at Northeastern University, I began doctoral study in East-Central European history at McGill under the supervision of Professor James Krapfl in 2010. My thesis research focuses on the former Czechoslovakia during the period 1938-1948, examining the relationship between the processes of collaboration and resistance under Fascism and Nazi occupation, and the foundation of Czechoslovak communist regime in the postwar period. My approach seeks to employ a broad range of methodologies, including trauma and memory studies, to probe more generally the effects of mass conflict on the formation of communal and national identities in the twentieth century. I have a strong interest in education in the humanities and social sciences, and I consider teaching history a central aspect of my training at McGill. Finally, as befits an historian of East-Central Europe, I am an eternal student of languages, Czech, Slovak and German in particular.
john [dot] ryder [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email J. Luke Ryder)
Japan
See Daniel Lachapelle Lemire in Canada/Quebec.
Latin America
Laurent Corbeil
Je m'intéresse généralement à tout ce qui touche l'histoire des Amérindiens sur tout le continent américain, mais je me spécialise en histoire du Mexique. Pendant ma maîtrise (UdeM), j'ai étudié les relations entre les Tzeltales – Indiens des Hautes terres du Chiapas – et l'État mexicain postrévolutionnaire au milieu du 20e siècle. Pour mon doctorat, mon attention se portera sur les relations inter-amérindiennes en Nouvelle-Espagne, plus précisément dans la ville minière de San Luis Potosí au 17e siècle. Mon objectif sera de mieux comprendre les modalités d'interaction entre groupes amérindiens distincts. Je m'attarderai donc aux questions des mariages, des baptêmes, des confréries religieuses, des relations économiques, des crimes et violences, des relations de pouvoir, etc. J'espère ainsi mieux comprendre comment cette société coloniale s'est construite elle-même, au-delà des catégories préétablies par les Espagnols.
I'm interested in everything that has to do with Native history on the whole American continent, but I specialize in Mexican history. My M.A. thesis (UdeM) focused on the relations between the Mexican post-revolutionary State and the Tzeltales – a native group from Chiapas highlands – in the mid-20th century. For my PhD, I am now studying the relations between native groups who lived together in the mining city of San Luis Potosí in the 17th century. I will thus pay attention to marriages, baptisms, religious confraternities, economic relations, crimes and violence, power relations, etc. I hope to understand how, despite the official Spanish categories, this colonial society constructed its own self.
laurent [dot] corbeil [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Laurent Corbeil)
Saul Guerrero
I used to be a chemist (Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela, 1974) with a Diplôme d’Ingénieur in Polymer Engineering (Ecole d’Application des Hauts Polymères, Strasbourg, France, 1977) and a Ph. D in Polymer Physics (Bristol University, 1980). After nearly seven years teaching in the Materials Science Department of the Universidad Simon Bolivar I switched profession and became a Business Development Manager in Petrochemicals and then an International Supply and Marketing Manager for fuel products for the Venezuelan State Oil Company PDVSA. When life became unpredictable I sought guidance in the study of History and completed an M.A. in Global History at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, in 2009. Thanks to the support of a Peter Cundhill Fellowship I am presently a doctoral candidate in the History Department at McGill, under the supervision of Prof. Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert. I am applying my knowledge of chemistry, and a curiosity about correlations that should exist in sets of numerical data that reflect chemical processes, to study the extent of the human and environmental damage caused in the New World by the refining of silver using mercury. For the 250 years that roughly comprise the Early Modern Era an average of at least 480 tons of mercury in various forms were lost every year to the environment, mainly around mining sites in what is today Bolivia, Peru and Mexico. The scale of this historical collateral damage, and the contrasting silence in the historiography, is what has drawn me to this subject. Away from my research, what I most enjoy at present is just taking care of my grandchild Manuela every chance I get.
Geoffrey Wallace
My research focuses on the history of food in the Maya region of Central American and Mexico, the environmental history of the Yucatán peninsula, and the medical history of the Spanish colonies. My fields of interest are colonial Latin America, environmental history, and the medical history of early modern Europe.
I hold an honours degree in history from the University of Alberta (2009) and a MA from the University of Toronto (2011). My undergraduate research focused on the history of the colonial Spanish and indigenous experiences of agriculture in the unique geography of the Yucatán peninsula. My master’s thesis explored the pan-Latin American phenomenon of ritual ‘de-baptism’ and the more general appropriation of baptismal rituals in colonial indigenous communities.
My current doctoral project, under the supervision of Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, is a history of food in Colonial Yucatán. Through digital mapping, ethnohistorical records, and Spanish sources, I hope to demonstrate the extent to which Spanish crops, livestock, and foods entered into the agricultural regimes, rituals, spirituality, and ultimately the dinner plates of the indigenous Maya, while also seeking a greater understanding how Spanish settlers adapted to and accommodated Yucatán’s unique geography and pre-existing indigenous palate.
geoffrey [dot] wallace [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Geoffrey Wallace)
Middle East
Michael Ferguson 
Michael’s research focuses on questions of identity, marginalization, and minorities in the late Ottoman Empire and early republican Turkey. For his doctoral thesis, he aims to uncover the history of emancipated African slaves in Izmir around the turn of the twentieth-century. Little is known about this seemingly lost branch of the global African diaspora and through studying it he aims to add to the literature on the rich diversity of the late Ottoman experience. More generally, Michael is interested in the history of the Muslim World including the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa.
Prior to beginning his PhD at McGill University, Michael attained a B.A. in History from Carleton University (2004) and a M.A. in Islamic Studies from McGill University (2006). Following the completion of his M.A., Michael spent the 2006-2007 academic year teaching English in a top-ranked private high school in Istanbul, Turkey while at the same time improving his Turkish language skills and continuing his research.
Michael is the recipient of the Joseph Armand Bombardier SSHRC fellowship and has recently contributed a chapter on the history of emancipated African slaves on Crete in the late Ottoman period in an upcoming volume edited by Ken Cuno and Terrence Walz.
When not working on his thesis, Michael greatly enjoys cooking Mediterranean-style food. He is also interested in environmental issues, such as the fate of the temperate boreal rainforests of western North America and the dangerous state of world-wide fishing stocks.
michael [dot] ferguson [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Michael Ferguson)
Website
Sarah Ghabrial
My research interests include: Modern regimes of colonial law and legal pluralism; French imperialism (Second Empire and Third Republic); Islam, law, and modernization in the Middle-East and North Africa; Histories of gender, sexuality, and the family in the MENA; secularism and citizenship.
Under the supervision of Malek Abisaab, and with support from the SSHRC, my thesis, tentatively entitled “Le ‘fiqh francisé’?: Law reform and women’s litigation in colonial Algeria (1860-1930),” presents a social history of legal pluralism in Algeria during a period when law became a highly contested site of assimilationist policy. This project follows two tracks: first, by tracing the impetus and orientation of various reform schemes of the colonial administration, most notably those pressing for the codification of Muslim family laws; and second, by examining how these shifts and contests both in colonial governance and the wider Mediterranean theatre were lived and negotiated by colonized women as litigants in a local tribunal near Algiers.
When not eye-deep in the above, I devote any spare time to work on equity initiatives in Canadian public education. For the past eight years I’ve been a founding member and co-organizer of an advocacy group working toward the incorporation of violence-prevention and anti-oppression education into official curricula. I am happy to say that our efforts came to fruition in winter, 2013, with the achievement of our first major goal: the introduction of a Gender Studies course in the Ontario secondary-school social sciences curriculum.
sarah [dot] ghabrial [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Sarah Ghabrial)
Mark Sanagan
I’m a doctoral candidate specializing in the history of the modern Middle East. I did my undergraduate degree in the University of Toronto’s Visual Studies program and received an MA from McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies in 2006. My Masters thesis explored the intersections of sexuality and violence with competing narratives of nationalism in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I benefitted greatly in writing that thesis from a fellowship given to me by the Institute of Islamic Studies that allowed me to conduct research throughout the occupied Palestinian territories in the summer of 2006. I was also the recipient of the Institute’s Cedrik Goddard Memorial Award in my graduating year.
My research interests focus primarily on the British Mandate in Palestine, and the historiography of the conflict. My dissertation, while in its initial stages, will examine the hunt for – and eventual death of – Izz ad-Din al-Qassam. This particular story will act as an entry point to broader discussions on British imperial policing, counter-insurgency policies and indigenous collaboration on the one hand, and collective memory and nationalist myth-making on the other. While my research focuses on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the modern Middle East in general, I have been fortunate enough to lecture and work as a teaching assistant on topics such as African history, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolution.
I spend my free time with my family that includes an amazing partner, young twins and a Boston terrier named Otis.
mark [dot] sanagan [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Mark Sanagan)
See also Ira Hubert in China.
Medical History
Margaret Wee-Siang Ng
I am currently writing my dissertation, "Childbirth in Late Imperial China: Medical Texts and Social Realities,” in which I compare childbirth practices recommended in male-authored medical texts with those represented in literary 
sources (novels, legal cases, vernacular Chinese religious writings) within the context of social practices in Qing China (1644-1911), with the aim of learning about what happened in the birth chambers. I am working under the supervision of Prof. Robin D.S. Yates. My other two fields are in the history of medicine, following the thematic thread of medicine for women from the Greco-Roman medical tradition, up to the Medieval and Renaissance periods, and into early modern Europe, and Japanese cultural history, with emphasis on gender issues in modern and contemporary Japan. I received a B.A. in English Literature and History from Trent (Ontario, Canada), and after my M.A. from McGill, I worked for Oxford University Press in Singapore for a short period and subsequently slogged in the non-profit sector in Yokohama, Japan for several years. I now labor with delight in exploring details on anything that is from yesterday.
tuzhi [at] yahoo [dot] com (Email Margaret Wee-Siang Ng)
United States
See Emrah Sahin under Middle East.