Education
University of Cambridge
Ph.D, Polar Studies, 2010
M.Phil, Polar Studies, 2006
University of Alberta
B.A. (Hons.), History, 2005
Academic Employment
Simon Fraser University
Assistant Professor, Department of History, 2014–
University of Maine
Assistant Professor, Department of History and Canadian-American Center, 2013–14
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Center for Historical Analysis Postdoctoral Fellow (January–August 2013) and Visiting Fellow (September–December 2012)
Project: “Networks of Exchange: Mobilities of Knowledge in a Globalized World”
University of British Columbia
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History, 2011–12
Publications
Monographs
A Thoroughly Modern Enterprise: Exploration in Northern Canada (in progress; under contract with UBC Press).
Edited volumes
Landscapes of Science. Toronto: Network in Canadian History and Environment, 2019. Open-access.
Made Modern: Science and Technology in Canadian History. Co-edited with Edward Jones-Imhotep. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018.
Special issue of Journal of Northern Studies (volume 9, no. 1, 2015) on transboundary approaches to northern environmental history. Co-edited with Peder Roberts.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
“Canadian History Blogging: Reflections at the Intersection of Digital Storytelling, Academic Research, and Public Outreach.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 27, no. 2 (2016): 1–39. Co-authored with Keith Grant, Stacy Nation-Knapper, Beth Robertson, and Corey Slumkoski. Open-access.
“The Maximum of Mishap: Adventurous Tourists and the State in the Northwest Territories, 1926-1948.” Histoire sociale/Social History 44, no. 99 (2016): 431–52.
Peer-reviewed book chapters
“Scientist Tourist Sportsman Spy: Boundary-Work and the Putnam Eastern Arctic Expeditions.” In Made Modern: Science and Technology in Canadian History, ed. Edward Jones-Imhotep and Tina Adcock. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018. 60–83.
“Introduction: Science, Technology, and the Modern in Canada.” In Made Modern: Science and Technology in Canadian History, ed. Edward Jones-Imhotep and Tina Adcock. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018. 3–36. Co-authored with Edward Jones-Imhotep.
“Many Tiny Traces: Northern Exploration and Antimodernism Between the Wars.” In Ice Blink: Navigating Northern Environmental History, ed. Stephen Bocking and Brad Martin. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2017. 131–77. Open-access.
“Toward an Early Twentieth-Century Culture of Northern Canadian Exploration.” In North by Degree: New Perspectives on Arctic Exploration, ed. Susan A. Kaplan and Robert McCracken Peck. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2013. 109–41.
Other scholarly publications
“Nations, Natures, and Networks: The New Environments of Northern Studies.” Journal of Northern Studies 9 (2015): 7–11. Co-authored with Peder Roberts.
“Northern Nations, Northern Natures.” Environment and History 20 (2014): 313–16. Co-authored with Peder Roberts.
“Northwest Passage.” Encyclopedia of Sustainability, vol. 8, The Americas and Oceania: Assessing Sustainability, ed. Sara Gabrielle Beavis, Michael Dougherty, and Tirso Gonzales. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2012. 210–14. Peer-reviewed.
“Auktoritet och expertis: Forskning, lokal kunskap och politik i Kanadas nordområden.” [“Expert authority in the early twentieth-century Canadian Arctic.”] Polarår: Ymer 2009: 105–27 (published as Christina Sawchuk).
“An Arctic Republic of Letters in Early Twentieth-Century Canada.” Nordlit 23 (2008): 273–92 (published as Christina Sawchuk).
Book reviews
Review of Andrew Stuhl, Unfreezing the Arctic: Science, Colonialism, and the Transformation of Inuit Lands. H-Environment Roundtable Reviews 9, no. 1 (2019): 4–10.
Review of Shelley Wright, Our Ice Is Vanishing/Sikuvut Nunguliqtuq: A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Climate Change. H-Net.org. September 2015.
Review of William F. Althoff, Arctic Mission: 90 North by Airship and Submarine. Isis 105, no. 1 (2014): 242–43.
Review of Laurel Sefton MacDowell, An Environmental History of Canada and Neil S. Forkey, Canadians and the Natural Environment to the Twenty-First Century. Canadian Historical Review 94, no. 4 (2013): 631–34.
Review of Janice Cavell, Tracing the Connected Narrative: Arctic Exploration in British Print Culture, 1818-1860. Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 47, no. 2 (2009): 253–55.
Review of John Sandlos, Hunters at the Margin: Native People and Wildlife Conservation in the Northwest Territories. Canadian Historical Review 90, no. 1 (2009): 182–84 (published as Christina Sawchuk).
Review of Graeme Wynn, Canada and Arctic North America: An Environmental History. H-Net.org. January 2008 (published as Christina Sawchuk).
Review of William Barr, Arctic Hell-Ship: The Voyage of the HMS Enterprise 1850-1855. Arctic 61, no. 1 (2008): 105–6 (published as Christina Sawchuk).
Review of William Barr, Red Serge and Polar Bear Pants: A Biography of Harry Stallworthy, R.C.M.P. Canadian Historical Review 87, no. 1 (2006): 158–60 (published as Christina Sawchuk).
Digital editorial work
“Canopy” (edited series). The Otter~La Loutre, Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), January 2019. 1 post; ongoing.
“Rhizomes” (edited series). The Otter~La Loutre, Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), September 2017. 7 posts; ongoing.
“Hope and Environmental History” (edited series). The Otter~La Loutre, June 2017. 6 posts.
“A Cold Kingdom” (curated/“found” series). The Otter~La Loutre, March 2016. 9 posts.
“(Un)Natural Identities” (edited series). The Otter~La Loutre, March–May 2016. 6 posts.
“When Blue Meets Green” (edited series). The Otter~La Loutre, November 2015. 5 posts.
“Landscapes of Science” (edited series). The Otter~La Loutre, January–July 2015. 5 posts.
Web-based publications
“Declining Declensionism: Toward a Critical Hopeful Environmental History.” The Otter~La Loutre, June 2017.
“Introduction: Hope and Environmental History.” The Otter~La Loutre, June 2017.
“A Blue(berry) Christmas: Sheldon Lake, Yukon, 1942.” Findings/Trouvailles, December 2016.
“A Cold Kingdom.” The Otter~La Loutre, March 2016.
“Greatest Hits in Canadian Environmental History” [part 1] [part 2]. The Otter~La Loutre, February 2016.
“Go South, Young Historian?” The Otter~La Loutre, June 2015.
“Why Should We Care About the Erebus (or Terror)?” ActiveHistory.ca, September 2014.
“Franklin Relics, Then and Now: Canadian Arctic Sovereignty on Display.” Findings/Trouvailles, The Champlain Society, May 2014.
“@TrapperBud and the History of Northern Canada.” Seeing the Woods, Rachel Carson Center, January 2014.
“Squaring Borders and Bioregions in Canadian History: Practical Strategies for Transboundary and Transnational Research.” The Otter~La Loutre, June 2013.
“From Exploration to Climate Change: Northern History in the Anthropocene.” ActiveHistory.ca, May 2013.
“Controlling Animals” (with Jennifer Bonnell, Susan Nance, and Jessica Wang). The Otter~La Loutre, March 2013.
Scholarly podcasts
“Episode 60: New Research in Canadian Environmental History.” Nature’s Past: Canadian Environmental History Podcast. April 9, 2018.
Major Grants, Fellowships, and Honours
Associate, L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History, McMaster University (2017–2020)
President’s Research Start-up Grant, Office of the Vice-President Academic, Simon Fraser University (2014)
Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis Postdoctoral Fellowship (2012)
Florida State University Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Environmental History and History of Science of the North (declined) (2012)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship (2010)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship (2008)
University of Cambridge Overseas Research Studentship (2006)
Cambridge Commonwealth Trusts Canada Graduate Scholarship (2006)
Sir James Lougheed Award of Distinction (2006)
Chris McMenemy Scholarship in Environment and Development (2006)
Mackenzie King Travelling Scholarship (2006)
Governor General’s Silver Medal (2005)
Dr. John MacDonald Medal in Arts (2005)
Awards, Prizes, and Minor Grants
Cormack Teaching Award, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Simon Fraser University (2018)
Awards to Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP) Publication Grant, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2018)
Single-Event Grant, University Publications Fund, Office of the Vice-President, Research, Simon Fraser University (2017)
University of Maine Humanities Initiative Next-Step Grant (2014)
Network in Canadian History and Environment Project Grant (2012)
Network in Canadian History and Environment Travel Grant (2011)
Prince Consort Trust Studentship (2009)
History of Science Society Travel Grant (2009)
Network in Canadian History and Environment Travel Grant (2009)
Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund Award (2006)
Invited and Public Talks
Roundtable panellist, “Does Confederation Matter? Canada and its Regions,” Annual Lecture Series, Department of History, Simon Fraser University, February 2017.
Pecha Kucha-style talk on northern trapping, Labour/Le Travail Fun Day, Simon Fraser University, November 2014.
Pecha Kucha talk on representations of the Arctic, Downtown Bangor Public Humanities Day, May 2014.
“Drawing battle lines: Fur trappers versus the state in northern Canada,” Alice Stewart Lecture, University of Maine, April 2014.
“Environmental Authority in the Canadian Arctic,” Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Coalition, University of Maine, December 2013.
“Landscapes of nostalgia and development: Tensions in northern fieldwork in the interwar era,” UBC Polar Club, University of British Columbia, March 2012.
Colloquium, Workshop, and Seminar Organization
Co-convener, Burrard Environmental History Group, 2017–.
Co-organizer, “Northern Nations, Northern Natures,” KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, November 2013.
Co-convener, Networks of Exchange seminar reading group, Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2012–13.
Co-organizer, 2011 Scott Polar History Colloquium, hosted by the Circumpolar History and Public Policy group of the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, March 2011.
Co-organizer, “The Inhabited Arctic: New Cartographies in the Study of Arctic Governance and Exploration,” hosted by the Circumpolar History and Public Policy group of the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, June 2009.
Co-organizer of the McMenemy Seminar, Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, 2007–08.
Co-organizer, “Unmasking Voices, Unmasking Places: Knowledge, Governance, and Agency in Arctic Canada,” hosted by the Circumpolar History and Public Policy group of the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, April 2007.
Conference Panel Organization
“Hope and Environmental History: A Prospectus for Research” and “The Pedagogy of Hope: Teaching Hope in the Environmental Classroom,” Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, March–April 2017.
“Canadian History Blogging: A Conversation Between Editors,” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, May–June 2016.
“Taming the ‘Wild’ Arctic: Managing Animals and People in Northern Nations,” Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, March 2015.
“Controlling Circulating Natures and People in the Modern Arctic,” Meeting of the European Society for Environmental History, August 2013.
Roundtable on “Borders and (Bio)Regions in Canadian History,” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, June 2013.
“Controlling Animals? Human and Animal Agency in North America,” Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, April 2012.
“Memory, Commemoration, and Northern Canadian Travel and Exploration in the Twentieth Century,” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, May 2012.
Conference Papers
“A damaged thing with feathers: Ascensionist narratives in the Anthropocene,” Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, March–April 2017.
Roundtable panellist, “Canadian History Blogging: A Conversation Between Editors,” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, May–June 2016.
“How (not) to know the Arctic: The trials and tribulations of the Arctic Manual,” Cold Science: Arctic Science in North America During the Cold War, 1945-1991, April 2016.
“Environmental Expertise on the Canol Project: Four Theses,” Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, March–April 2016.
“Scientist tourist sportsman spy: Boundary work in Eastern Canadian Arctic exploration,” Science, Technology, and the Modern in Canada, April 2015.
“Pinning down ‘birds of passage’: Mobility and game management in the Northwest Territories, Canada,” Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, March 2015.
“The Maximum of Mishap: Adventurous Tourists and the State in the Northwest Territories,” Landscape, Nature, and Memory: Tourism History in Canada, October 2014.
“’Uncle Willie’s Joke Book’: The Imperfect Environment of the Arctic Manual,” Meeting of the European Society for Environmental History, August 2013.
Roundtable panellist, “Squaring Borders and (Bio)regions in Canadian history,” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, June 2013.
“‘One must know the wild animals as a mother knows her child’: Strategies of control in fur trapping discourses,” Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, April 2012.
“Moose trails, rabbit trails, and birds of passage: Northern fur trapping and modern networks of exchange,” RCHA Networks of Exchange seminar, March 2012.
“‘Alas for those who never sing!’: Commemorative practices and lost histories of twentieth-century northern Canadian exploration,” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, May 2012.
“To be, or not to be a northern scientist? The Scientists’ and Explorers’ Ordinance and problems of definition, 1925–1939,” International Polar Year Conference 2012: From Knowledge to Action, April 2012.
“Many tiny traces: Mapping nostalgia and memory in George Douglas’s North,” Mapping Northern Spaces: Memory, Abandonment, Oblivion, March 2012.
Roundtable panellist on Arctic fieldwork and Arctic history, 2011 Scott Polar history Colloquium, March 2011.
“Bona Fides and Indiscretions: Defining Scientists and Explorers in the Interwar Canadian North,” Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society, November 2009.
“The Scholarly Arctic: Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s Encyclopedia Arctica,” Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE) Northern Environmental History Workshop, June 2009.
“Toward a Public History of Arctic Exploration,” The Inhabited Arctic: New Cartographies in the Study of Arctic Governance and Exploration, June 2009.
“‘Call it a sanctuary’: Science, State, and the Thelon Game Sanctuary,” Annual Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society and Institute of British Geographers, August 2008.
“Amateur explorers and the ‘opening’ of the Canadian North,” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, June 2008.
“An early twentieth-century Canadian culture of Arctic exploration,” North by Degree: An International Conference on Arctic Exploration, May 2008.
Roundtable panellist on conservation and development, BOREAS Workshop “Heading North, Heading South: Arctic Social Sciences Research in a Global Dialogue,” March 2008.
“Correspondence networks and the new Canadian Arctic exploration,” Arctic Discourses 2008, February 2008.
“The legend of John Hornby: Death and memory in the Canadian North,” McMenemy Seminar, May 2007.
“‘Jungle Trails and Smooth Networks’: Convergence and Divergence among Explorer-Scientists and the Canadian Government in the Interwar Period,” Unmasking Voices, Unmasking Places: Knowledge, Governance, and Agency in Arctic Canada, April 2007.
“John Hornby: the mythical construction of an Arctic (anti)hero,” Oxford University World History Graduate Workshop, March 2007.
Media Appearances
Tim Edwards, “From the West Into the Wilderness,” Up Here Magazine, August 2015.
“History Talks” (roundtable about the Northwest Passage), Newstalk 106-108 FM (Ireland), December 2013.
“The Trailbreaker,” CBC Yellowknife, November 2013.
“Qulliq,” CBC Iqaluit, November 2013.
“History prof thrilled by N.W.T. trapper journal on Twitter,” CBC News North, November 2013.
Teaching Experience
Simon Fraser University (2015–)
I currently design and teach undergraduate courses on Canadian and environmental history.
University of Maine (2013–14)
Designed and taught undergraduate courses on Canadian studies and the history of exploration, and a graduate course on global environmental history.
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey (2013)
Designed and taught an undergraduate course on the global history of exploration.
University of British Columbia (2011)
Designed and taught an undergraduate course on Canadian history.
University of Cambridge (2007–09)
Led seminars in the Social Sciences and Humanities Strand of the MPhil in Polar Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute. Set and marked assignments and led tutorials for the senior undergraduate course “The Human Geography of the Arctic Regions” in the Department of Geography.
Academic Service
I have served as a peer reviewer for SSHRC, the University of Chicago Press, the University of Alaska Press, the Hakluyt Society, Environmental History, Polar Record, The Northern Review, Canadian Journal of History, and Scientia Canadensis.
Member, Nominating Committee, Canadian Historical Association (2018–20)
Member, Samuel P. Hays Fellowship Committee, American Society for Environmental History (2017–)
Member, Clio Prize (The North) jury, Canadian Historical Association (2016–)
Undergraduate Program Committee, Department of History, Simon Fraser University (2016–17)
Executive board member, Network in Canadian History and Environment (2015–)
Advisory board member, Polar Studies series, University of Nebraska Press (2015–)
Advisory board member, Scientia Canadensis (2015–)
Appointments Committee, Department of History, Simon Fraser University (2015–18)
Tenure and Promotions Committee, Department of History, Simon Fraser University (2015–16)
Co-editor, niche-canada.org (2014–)
Graduate Program Committee, Department of History, Simon Fraser University (2014–15)
Editorial board member, Findings/Trouvailles, The Champlain Society (2013–17)
Geddes Simpson Lecture Committee, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Maine (2013–14)
Graduate Committee, Department of History, University of Maine (2013–14)
Twitter administrator (@NetsofExch), Networks of Exchange seminar, Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey (2012–13)
Assistant administrator and regional representative, Northern Research Network (2007–10)
Postgraduate representative (Scott Polar Research Institute), Graduate Student-Staff Consultative Committee, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (2005–08)
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Updated February 2019.