About me
I am a white settler scholar based in Nova Scotia, and my research examines the social, economic, and cultural networks that shaped Atlantic Canada from the late eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century, with a particular focus on the ways regional development was entangled with broader Atlantic and global systems. Throughout my work, I explore how local institutions, commercial infrastructure, and governance practices were linked to transatlantic flows of people, goods, and capital, highlighting the interplay between regional particularities and British imperial dynamics. Legislative records are an important staple within my scholarship because legislation reflects the political sensibilities of the legislators, if not the polity, that passes it. Legislation contains considerable detail about the social, cultural, and economic characteristics of societies and offers opportunities for comparative and transnational research.
I approach history as a study of place and relationships. My scholarship emphasizes how global forces—empire, capitalism, migration, and environmental change—were experienced on the ground in Atlantic Canada. Through this lens, I highlight the social, ecological, and political dimensions of maritime life, demonstrating how regional histories of Atlantic Canada illuminate broader questions about settler colonialism, governance, and the making of modern Canada.
I completed my PhD in History at Dalhousie University in 2025, where my dissertation examined the intersections of science, governance, and resource regulation in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century New Brunswick, with particular attention to the Bay of Fundy region and Wolastoq river valley. My research explored how imperial scientific knowledge, environmental observation, and local administrative practices shaped policies surrounding fisheries, natural resources, and economic development. By situating colonial governance within broader Atlantic and imperial frameworks, the dissertation demonstrates how seemingly local regulatory practices were deeply embedded in global networks of knowledge, commerce, and power.
Building on this work, my recent publications and public scholarship have focused on Atlantic Canadian history, Loyalist studies, environmental governance, and the material dimensions of empire. I have contributed peer-reviewed articles unpacking the settler-colonial origins of the University of New Brunswick, as well as short essays published on the Acadiensis Blog and NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment). In addition, my ongoing digital humanities project—the Saint John Customs House Index—extend my research by making legislative and economic records more accessible to scholars and the wider public. Together, these projects reflect my broader commitment to connecting archival research, digital scholarship, and public history.
My publications
Articles and chapters
“Governance,” in York-Sunbury Historical Society, Fredericton 1848: The Celestial City – La Cité céleste (Fredericton: Fredericton Region Museum, 2025)
“Land Rich, Cash Poor: The Settler Colonial Beginnings of the University of New Brunswick, 1785–1829.” Acadiensis 52, no. 2 (Fall 2023 [published May 2024]): 11–44
“The Sixties Scoop & New Brunswick’s Indigenous Welfare Schemes.” Silhouettes no. 21 (Spring 2022): 9–13
Blogs, short essays and public scholarship
“‘The Tang of Ocean Spray’: A Brief History of Dulse in New Brunswick.” NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment, 18 Aug. 2025
“Elizabeth and Defiance: Asserting New Brunswick’s Jurisdictional Powers and Prowess in the Bay of Fundy.” Acadiensis Blog, 19 Nov. 2024
“A Tale of Two Solitudes? Historians, Archivists, and New Brunswick’s Indian Day Schools.” Acadiensis Blog, 5 July 2021
“Chemists, Canoes, and New Brunswick’s History of Science.” Acadiensis Blog, 22 Feb. 2021
“Loyalist Quarantine and the British North American Legislative Database.” The Loyalist Gazette LVIII, no. 2 (Fall 2020): 11–16
“From Olive Branch to Policing Stick: The Fishery and the Constitutional Transformation of the 1778 Taxation of the Colonies Act.” NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment, 24 Sept. 2020
“Settler Science in New Brunswick: The Brydone Jack Observatory and the Invention of European Sovereignty.” Borealia, 10 Sept. 2020
“History is Not a Shield for George Duncan Ludlow.” Acadiensis Blog, 30 Mar. 2020