As the nation celebrates Canada History Week, it’s a fitting time to highlight Dr. Caroline Durand, a faculty member at Trent since the fall of 2011 in the History and Canadian Studies departments, who recently celebrated the launch of her first book, Nourrir la machine humaine
Professor Durand’s new booklooks at how nutrition has contributed to the modernization of Quebec in a period marked by industrialization, urbanization, two world wars, and a major economic crash.
"I am very proud of my first book,” said Prof. Durand. “I am especially happy that my book is part of a bilingual series of Studies on the History of Quebec, which include works by several prominent historians. I feel privileged to be in such great intellectual company.”
Prof. Durand comments that her new book makes her research accessible to not only other historians but also to experts of other disciplines, and more broadly, to anyone interested in food. She hopes it will provoke reactions and questions about the food we eat. She brought parts of this research into the classroom at Trent, in her course "Food in History" and hopes that other instructors in Canada will find useful content for their own courses.
Prof. Durand’s current research focuses on food and nutrition since 1945, and looks at the impacts and interactions of multiple phenomenon’s that changed food habits and policies on nutrition in Canada such as the creation of a provincial welfare state in Quebec, the increasing presence of women in the paid workforce, and a raising concern for environmental questions.
Read more about Prof. Durand’s new book here at Radio Canada.
Posted on Monday, July 6, 2015.