Laurier expert alert: Canada Day and summer holidays

June 26, 2020
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – July 1 is Canada Day. Wilfrid Laurier University has several experts available to speak about Canadian history and culture, as well as topics related to summer holidays.

History

Kathy Absolon-King is an associate professor in the Indigenous Field of Study in the Faculty of Social Work and director of the Centre for Indigegogy. She has a background in Indigenous studies and Indigenous holistic social work practice and can speak about Indigenous people’s history in Canada, wholistic healing, Indigenous teaching and learning and Indigenous knowledges and culture. She is Anishinaabe from Flying Post First Nation. Contact: kabsolon@wlu.ca

Tarah Brookfield, associate professor in Youth and Children’s Studies and History, is an expert on Canadian history since Confederation, and has specific interests in political and social history, and well as the history of childhood and women’s history. Contact: tbrookfield@wlu.ca

Cynthia Comacchio is a professor in the Department of History. She is an expert on the history of childhood, gender and families in Canada in the late 19th to 21st centuries and the social and cultural impacts of war in Canada. 

Kevin Spooner, associate professor of History and North American Studies, is an expert on Canadian and American culture, identity and history; Canadian-American relations; and Canada’s history of peacekeeping and foreign policy. Contact: kspooner@wlu.ca

Karen Stote is an assistant professor in the Women and Gender Studies program. Her research has focused on colonialism and the history of Indigenous-settler relations in Canada. For her first book, An Act of Genocide: Colonialism and the Sterilization of Aboriginal Women, she documented the coerced sterilization of Indigenous women in Canada within the larger context of colonialism, the oppression of women and the denial of Indigenous sovereignty. In her most recent research project, she is studying the coerced sterilization of Indigenous women in Saskatchewan from 1970 to 2015 and the formation of family planning policy and practice in that province. Contact: kstote@wlu.ca

Barrington Walker is Laurier’s associate vice-president of equity, diversity and inclusion and a professor in the Department of History. Walker is leading the creation of a university-wide EDI strategy and providing expertise, guidance, mentorship and support to faculty and staff working toward EDI-related goals. Walker has written about and taught Black Canadian history, race, law and immigration; Canadian social history; African-American history, especially in the American South; and relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in North America. He has written one book, Race on Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario’s Criminal Courts, 1858-1958, and edited two others, History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential Readings and The African Canadian Legal Odyssey: Historical Essays. He holds a doctorate in history from the University of Toronto. 

Ann Marie Beals is a PhD student in the Community Psychology program who is studying the experiences of mixed Indigenous-Black communities in Canada and ways to integrate those experiences into high school curricula. For the Proclaiming Our Roots project, led by Assistant Professor Ciann Wilson, they helped gather and share Indigenous-Black people’s stories in arts-based forms, such as digital storytelling. Beals is available to speak about the history of Indigenous-Black communities in Canada. Read more about their research. Contact: beal0950@mylaurier.ca

Children’s summer holidays

Carolyn FitzGerald, assistant professor in Laurier’s Faculty of Education, is an expert in mental health in education. She is available to speak about how the pandemic may impact the mental well-being of children and youth and what parents can do to help their children during these uncertain times. FitzGerald’s research focuses on the mental health of pre-service teachers, teachers and school administrators, as well as ways in which educators can offer effective programs to respond to the mental health needs of Ontario’s children and youth. Read FitzGerald's suggestions for how to build resiliency in children during the pandemic. Contact: cafitzgerald@wlu.ca

Julie Mueller, associate professor and associate dean in the Faculty of Education, is available to speak about the importance of keeping children active while at home; the many sites and apps available to broaden their learning online (e.g., virtual field trips to museums, zoos and historical sites); the need for critical evaluation of information children hear and see; and the social connections they are able to make through digital platforms and social media. An expert on digital technology and learning, as well as physical activity and learning, Mueller is also a former elementary school teacher. Contact: jmueller@wlu.ca

Parks and beaches

Mary-Louise Byrne, professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, is an expert on beach and dune systems and management, particularly in protected areas on the Great Lakes. Her main research sites are at Point Pelee National Park, Pinery Provincial Park, Sandbanks Provincial Park and Sauble Beach. She is available for comment on how Ontario beaches are changing. Contact: mlbyrne@wlu.ca