I grew up in Hamilton, Ontario and completed my first two degrees (a B.A. in history and a B.S.W. in social work) at McMaster University. Both degrees nurtured an interest in the historical and intersecting structures of inequality, the history and functioning of the welfare state, labour history, and women’s history.
When I began my M.A. research at the University of Toronto, I was initially interested in the history of domestic violence but soon became intrigued by the relationship amongst unemployment, violence, and masculinity. I thought that a close analysis of the Great Depression, an era of high unemployment and inadequate social welfare, would be a good opportunity to research these issues. Supervised by Dr. Sylvia Van Kirk, I began researching the experiences of women in the Great Depression.
Continuing to my Ph.D. at Queen’s University where I worked with Dr. Karen Dubinsky, I soon realized that the story of the depression–particularly its impact on family life–had yet to be fully told. After graduating from Queen’s in 2002, I taught for two years at Nipissing University (North Bay, Ontario) where I taught Social Welfare, Canadian History, and Gender Studies. In 2004, I moved to Simon Fraser University to teach women’s and gender history in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies . At SFU I have served as Department Chair, Undergraduate Chair, and Graduate Chair. I also served as Dean pro tem and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs, Teaching and Learning, and Student Experience in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Book Launch: Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities, Montreal 2010. Left to right: Katrina Srigley; Lara Campbell; Barbara Lorenzkowski; Sonia Cancian