The Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies congratulates Ph.D. graduate Dr. Donica Belisle on the success of her book Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada (UBC Press, 2011). The book grew out of research Professor Belisle conducted at Trent University during her Canadian Studies Ph.D. dissertation in 2007.
Winner of the Pierre Savard Award from the International Association of Canadian Studies, Retail Nation was shortlisted for the 2012 John W. Dafoe Book Prize and nominated for the 2012 Sir John A. MacDonald Prize, awarded by the Canadian Historical Association for significant contribution to an understanding of Canadian history.
Fascinated by the “roles that shopping, consumption, and retail have played in Canadians' lives,” Prof. Belisle is “interested in exploring consumption’s social, cultural, and political implications.” Examining histories of Canadian department stores, Retail Nation addresses the rise of mass production, distribution, and advertising, including, “the meanings of women's shopping experiences; the emergence of pink-collar retail jobs; and alternatives to, and protests against, mass consumer culture that have historically existed.”
The book also demonstrates “that although inequitable forms of mass retailing currently dominate the Canadian consumer landscape, numerous Canadians have worked hard to make Canadian consumer capitalism more enjoyable, democratic, and accountable.” Her academic work has well-acquainted her with struggles Canadian women have encountered around the process of consumption.
Prof. Belisle explained that during her research for Retail Nation she realized, “Canadian women's relationships with consumer capitalism required much more extensive investigation. My forthcoming book, Contesting Consumption: Women and the Rise of Canadian Consumer Society, explores conservative and progressive women's activisms around consumption. These include attempts to shape Canadians' spending habits through such conservative movements as censorship, temperance, and domestic science, as well as through more progressive initiatives including cooperatives, local markets, label campaigns, and boycotts.”
Contesting Consumption is being supported by a SSHRC Standard Research Grant. Belisle received a variety of grants and awards during her time at Trent, including SSHRC Doctoral and Postdoctoral funding, the 2007 Governor-General’s Academic Gold Medal, the Frost Centre Scholarship, Ontario Graduate Scholarships, the Symons Trust Fund for Canadian Studies Grant, and a Quaker Oats Scholarship.
Donica Belisle is now an assistant professor in Women's and Gender Studies at Athabasca University. Her ongoing commitment to interdisciplinary research is complemented by her current involvements as webmaster for the Canadian Committee on Women’s History and adjunct assistant professor of History at the University of Alberta. She is also the book review editor (English Language) for the journal, Labour/Le Travail.
Originally from Brandon Manitoba, Belisle studied at Trent from 2001-2007. Initially attracted by the “excellent Canadian Studies faculty and opportunities to pursue Canadian interdisciplinary research,” she soon discovered a collegial, supportive environment that encouraged her to excel. She attributes her positive experience at Trent to a variety of sources. Professors Bryan Palmer, Joan Sangster and Keith Walden are cited as being extremely supportive, and Prof. Belisle considers their excellence in teaching and research as “a constant source of inspiration.” Other fond memories as a student researcher have inspired Prof. Belisle’s gratitude toward Professors James Struthers, Julia Harrison, Margaret Hobbs, and Susan Wurtele. She feels Trent offered her a “great combination of exceptionally talented research faculty and a warm and supportive scholarly atmosphere,” and considers the university to be an “excellent place to pursue rigorous, interdisciplinary, and meaningful research.”
Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2012.