The Department of History and Classical Studies welcomes postdoctoral scholars.
Current Postdoctoral Scholars
Eva Alice Christine Ekholst, PhD in History, Stockholm University
I hold a postdoctoral fellowship at McGill funded by Wenner-Gren Foundations (Stockholm, Sweden). My main research interests concerns gender, sexuality, legal history and crime history during the Middle Ages. In my doctoral thesis For Each Criminal, a Punishment (Brill, forthcoming) I analyzed concepts of gender and legal responsibility in Swedish medieval law. I demonstrate that the various Swedish medieval laws depart from an implicit male legal subject and this influence the structure and function of the laws. The implicit male legal subject is presumed to be a free, land owning peasant who is the master of his household. All other social categories tend to be secondary both as possible victims and as perpetrators. One main aspect of the thesis is a discussion of the development of female legal responsibility. I argue that legal responsibility for women was introduced gradually in medieval Sweden. Legislators tended to place liability on women only for crimes they connected to female perpetrators and in particular for crimes that were considered very serious and which led to the death penalty. With the introduction of a law valid for the entire kingdom (replacing regional legislation), the criminal law has to some extent become gender-neutral. By the mid 14th century women had been introduced as possible perpetrators for almost all serious crimes while, respectively, men had been integrated in the law as possible perpetrators of femininely coded crimes such as witchcraft.
I am now pursuing a postdoctoral project under the supervision of Professor Nancy Partner. My postdoctoral research concerns medieval women's use of violence and is entitled Violent Women. Female Violence in Medieval law, Literature and Historical Writings. Violence tended to be closely linked to masculinity during the Middle Ages. But what happened if a woman used violence? Did she break societal and gender norms or did she in fact successfully adapt to a male norm? How physically violent women are described during the Middle Ages tend to vary depending on the type of violence used, the purpose of the violence and which social categories the women belong to. It also varies depending on the type and age of the historical source. I claim that descriptions of women using violence filled several different functions in the medieval society. It could serve as a warning by depicting violent women very negatively and as aberrations to their gender. However, it could also reinforce a violent male norm by idealizing the women. These positive descriptions often underline the women’s noble background and stress that their violence is justifiable (most often used for revenge). Lastly, female women could also be ridiculed, which was more often the case if the women came from a lower social group. My postdoctoral project examines these different aspects of medieval female violence and seeks to understand which functions it filled in the legal context, in historical writings and in fiction.
eva [dot] ekholst [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Christine Ekholst)
Jean-François Gauvin
I am currently a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University. Before accepting this position, I was a full-time Curator at the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University. For the past 10 years, I have studied instrumentation from the 17th to the 20th centuries. For my dissertation (Harvard, 2008) I focused the research on the relationship between artisans, savants and machines in early modern France. The dissertation is entitled Habits of Knowledge: Artisans, Savants and Mechanical Devices in Seventeenth-Century French Natural Philosophy. Since 2000, I have co-written and co-edited two prize-winning volumes as well as several articles and book reviews dealing with instruments and instrument making. For more information, visit my blog: jfgauvin2008.wordpress.com
jean-francois [dot] gauvin [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Email Jean-François Gauvin)
Mélanie Morin-Pelletier
Passionnée par l’histoire de la santé, l’histoire militaire et l’histoire des femmes, Mélanie Morin-Pelletier s’intéresse depuis plusieurs années aux soins infirmiers militaires. Pendant ses études à la maîtrise, elle a examiné le vécu et l’expérience de guerre des infirmières militaires canadiennes de la Grande Guerre (Briser les ailes de l’ange. Les infirmières militaires canadiennes, 1914-1918, Athéna Éditions, 2006). Sa thèse doctorale porte sur la réinsertion civile des infirmières vétérans torontoises et montréalaises et sur leur participation au développement des réseaux de soins de santé et de services sociaux de l’entre-deux-guerres. Titulaire d’une bourse postdoctorale du CRSH, Morin-Pelletier étudie maintenant les grandes oubliées de l’historiographie, les infirmières vétérans des Maritimes. Elle veut faire la lumière sur leur contribution à l’expansion des réseaux sociosanitaires et dévoiler l’héritage qu’elles ont légué à la société civile de l’entre-deux-guerres. Morin-Pelletier travaille sous la supervision de la Professeure Suzanne Morton.
Donald Nerbas 
Don Nerbas holds a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University. His research interests span into a variety of areas, including the development of political and economic elites in Canada during the 19th and 20th centuries, the history of capitalism and regional economies, and the social history of ideologies. He recently completed a dissertation at the University of New Brunswick that examines the shifting accumulation and political strategies of Canada’s big bourgeoisie from 1917 to 1947, a period of political and economic crisis that significantly impaired the political effectiveness of wealthy Canadians intent on restoring the old order. He is in the process of preparing his dissertation for publication as a book. He has also published articles in the Canadian Historical Review, Acadiensis, Manitoba History, and the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association.
At McGill University, Don will pursue a postdoctoral project under the supervision of Professor Suzanne Morton. The project will examine the political economy of the post-Second World War “Golden Age” in Canada within the transnational context of the Cold War. The postdoctoral research will explore the economic, political, and ideological factors that caused the rise and fall of the so-called “Golden Age,” a paradoxically dynamic yet stable phase of capitalist expansionism that ran from the end of the 1940s to the early 1970s – and was felt throughout the advanced capitalist world. Emphasizing the dynamic interaction between ideologies, politics, and economic forces, the project sets out to tell the story of how Canadian capitalism and the country’s capitalist class adjusted and, for a time, prospered during the postwar period. While illuminating developments in a distinct era of Canadian capitalism, this research also promises to offer some much-needed historical perspective on contemporary public policy questions as we experience yet another period of economic crisis with uncertain outcomes.
don [dot] nerbas [at] unb [dot] ca (Email Don Nerbas)
Leslie Tomory
After originally studying aerospace engineering, Leslie Tomory completed his PhD at the University of Toronto on the history of the gaslight industry 1780-1820. His revised thesis will be published as a book entitled Progressive Enlightenment: The Origins of the Gaslight Industry 1780-1820 by MIT Press in early 2012. The book argues that the gas industry was representative of new trends that formed a second wave of industrial development in the Industrial Revolution. Specifically, the industry was based on technology that drew heavily from contemporary science, a characteristic more commonly associated with the late 19th century; that the industry used management structures and practices associated with complex businesses that incorporated large scale technologies; and that the the industry relied on extensive financing through capital markets, the first case of a new technology to do so. The book also explores a variety of other themes, including why Britain industrialized before the rest of Europe, the role of coal in its industrialization, and the effects of the Enlightenment's ambition of having science render a service to society. He has also published a number of journal articles on these and other subjects in Annals of Science, History of Science, British Journal for the History of Science, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, Ambix, and Technology and Culture.
Leslie's research interests include the interaction between science, technology and business in the Industrial Revolution throughout Europe, as well as the history of pneumatic chemistry. Currently a Mellon postdoctoral fellow, he is exploring how early industrial infrastructure networks, such as water supply systems, canals, and gas networks, were built and stabilized.
See here for details about research publications.
ltomory [at] gmail [dot] com (Email Leslie Tomory)
Funding Opportunities
Information on Post-doctoral Fellowship Opportunities can be found on the Faculty of Arts Website; in particular, note the Banting, Mellon, and Tomlinson Fellowships, as well as the links to SSHRC and FQRSC fellowships
Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships
Application Deadline: October 17, 2010
The Faculty of Arts will be conducting an internal competition to select its Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship applicants. Applicants and prospective supervisors must complete all parts of the Banting application EXCEPT the sections on Institutional Synergy and Letter of Endorsement, Research Environment, and Professional Development. Please e-mail applications to our office at ADR [dot] arts [at] mcgill [dot] ca by midnight on Sunday, October 17. Please attach all documents to the e-mail as a single PDF file.
Note that as these are extremely competitive fellowships (only 70 will be awarded in all fields across all of Canada), supervisors should choose their nominees with care. In keeping with the intention of the call for applications, supervisors should not nominate current McGill graduate students to hold a Banting at McGill. The Banting fellowship program is open to both national and international students. The Faculty of Arts will select approximately 3-5 applications to forward to the national competition.
Once applicants have been selected, the Dean's office will work with prospective supervisors and their units to craft the Institutional Synergy, Research Environment, and Professional Development sections of the application. Once completed, we will send the full applications to GPS to obtain the Institutional Letter of Endorsement. GPS will provide applicants with this letter in time to meet the final Banting application deadline of November 3. Because we are holding a Faculty-level competition, all applications forwarded by Arts will received institutional endorsement.
Please consult the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship website for details on the fellowship, and please refer to the GPS document on Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship Applications Sponsored by McGill for general information on the responsibilities of the applicant, supervisor, and other university offices.
Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowships in the Humanities and Related Social Sciences at McGill University
Three Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships will be awarded for the academic year 2011-2012 to promising young scholars. The stipend for each fellow is $45,000 (plus benefits), in addition to a research allowance of $8500. The Fellowship is renewable once. Each fellow will teach an undergraduate course in both fall and winter terms and may be asked to give a public presentation on his or her research. Fellows will be provided with office space and are expected to be on campus making use of McGill’s resources, particularly during the academic year.
To apply: All applicants must be in contact with a full-time faculty member in the Faculty of Arts in advance to identify an appropriate supervisor for their work. The deadline to contact a proposed supervisor is Friday, October 29, 2010. Since each supervisor can only endorse one Mellon fellowship application, an application can only proceed once endorsement from a proposed supervisor has been obtained. Applicants will be notified of this decision by Friday, November 5, 2010.
Deadline for Completed Applications: Monday, November 22, 2010
Arts Mellon Postdoc Information
[ArtsMellonPostdoc.pdf - PDF - 18.58 KB]
Arts Mellon Postdoc Information
Tomlinson Postdoctoral Fellowships 2011-2012
The Tomlinson Postdoctoral Fellowships are for new postdoctoral scholars accepted into a postdoctoral research position at any department at McGill University.
Value: $30,000, renewable annually based on satisfactory progress, to a maximum tenure of 2 years for postdoctoral level. Website
Departmental Deadline: November 1, 2010. [NOTE: Tomlinson Postdoctoral Fellowship Application and supporting documents should be sent to
Graduate Coordinator, History Dept., McGill University, Leacock 608, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2T7]
SSHRC
Canadian residents who qualify for Social Science and Humantities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship can find more information at the website. Deadline: October 6, 2010.
FQRSC
Residents of Quebec are also qualified to apply to Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture. Website Deadline: October 13, 2010
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Quebec Studies, Université du Québec à Trois Rivières (UQTR)-McGill University 2011-2012
McGill University and the Université du Québec à Trois‐Rivères are pleased to announce the creation of a postdoctoral fellowship in Quebec Studies for the amount of $30000 ($6000 will be added for a course assignment). The research orientation must be in environmental history. The fellowship is for a duration of one year, and will be divided between a 6-month stay at McGill University at the Quebec Studies Program (http://www.mcgill.ca/qcst/) and another 6 months at Université du Québec à Trois‐Rivières in association with the Canada Research Chair in Environmental History (http://www.cieq.uqtr.ca/crc_hec/index.html). The fellowship must be completed during the academic year 2011-2012.
See Postdoctoral Fellowship in Quebec Studies [.pdf] for more information.
General information concerning McGill regulations and resources for postdoctoral scholars can be found at the Postdoctoral Website