Thinking about graduate study in History? Attend our informational session to find out about Brock’s Master of Arts program in History. Join us virtually on Thursday, September 25, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Find us on ExperienceBU here.
Alexandra Macdonald, a postdoctoral fellow in the History Department, is collaborating with St. Catharines heritage site The Brown Homestead to grow and process flax and transform it into linen using techniques developed in the eighteenth century. The partnership will provide an exciting opportunity for community members to take part in the process on Saturday, October 4, as part of Ontario Culture Days 2025.
Photo: Macdonald (left) and Jessica Linzel (History BA 2018, MA 2021), The Brown Homestead director of research and collections (Brock News)
Read the full story: Historical textile research cultivates connection to the past
For event details: History postdoc Alexandra Macdonald to host flax demonstration on Oct. 4
Join History Department postdoctoral fellow Alexandra Macdonald for a very special hands-on demonstration at The Brown Homestead. Dr. Macdonald will show participants how to work with flax using processes related to her research and developed in the eighteenth century.
This drop-in event, part of Ontario Culture Days 2025, is on Saturday, October 4, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Brown Homestead is located at 1317 Pelham Road in St. Catharines. It is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!
Learn more about Dr. Macdonalds’ work here.
Planning to major (or minor) in History? Thinking about it? Or just interested in learning more?
Join us to talk with faculty and current students about our 1st-year course offerings, our degree programs (including the History/Concurrent Education BA and the History Co-op program), and more! And enjoy a slice of pizza, too.
We’re excited to meet you! All are welcome.
Check us out on ExperienceBU here.
Brock History Department faculty members Jessica Clark, Olatunji Ojo, and Tami J. Friedman (behind the camera) were on hand to greet students in the Faculty of Humanities at Smart Start, July 31, 2025. They distributed informational materials and swag and had great conversations with enthusiastic majors and prospective majors.
History alumnus Jared Shawcross (BA 2020, MA 2021), acting heritage interpretation officer with Parks Canada, recently appeared on Breakfast Television to give a hands-on introduction to HMCS Haida, a destroyer used during World War II and the Korean War. The ship is now a national historic site stationed in Hamilton (Ont.) Harbour.
(Jared appears at about 4:56, but it’s worth watching the whole thing.)
This news comes to us from History alumna (and Jared’s partner) Katherine Foran (BA 2019, MA 2021), who reports that Jared successfully “built connections through his Co-op placements that brought him to the career he has today.” Katherine is currently a Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Guelph.
Well done, Jared!
For more information about visiting the ship site: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/on/haida
The History Department is delighted to welcome new Social Science and Humanities Research Council postdoctoral fellow Alexandra (Ali) Macdonald. She comes to us from the College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia), where she recently completed her Ph.D.
Dr. Macdonald’s research focuses on material culture in the British Atlantic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her scholarly interests, which draw on her background in both history and art history, include using period-specific methods and ingredients (such as original dyes and pigments) to recreate historical crafts. She has received various fellowships to support her work, including a recent postdoctoral fellowship at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library (Winterthur, Delaware) where she worked with conservationists to recreate indigo vats and analyse embroidery made in Connecticut in the eighteenth century.
During her two-year postdoc at Brock (January 2025 to December 2026), Dr. Macdonald will work with Dr. Jessica Clark on a project that draws on multiple research methods – the history of the senses, material culture studies, and the history of labour and the body – to examine the complex and often fraught history of indigo and other dyestuffs in the eighteenth and nineteenth century British world. The project is entitled “Imperial Sensorium: Bodies, Industrialization, and the Dye Industry, 1750-1850.”
History MA student Gary Gardell will speak on lacrosse in St. Catharines from the 1870s to the 1920s.
All are welcome.
The Isle of Man Post Office recently announced a new series of stamps, The Age of the Sea Kings, created in collaboration with Brock History professor Andrew McDonald and Manx artist Juan Moore.
Read the full story: Stamp of approval: Research delivers medieval sea king history to the world – The Brock News
