The School is home to more than fifty full time professors as well as part-time staff and professors emeritus. The faculty excel at producing innovative and world-class research and in bringing the insights from that research into the classroom.
Eyitayo Aloh
Assistant Professor - Durham
Dr. Eyitayo Aloh is a graduate of the Canadian Studies Ph.D program at Trent University, Peterborough. His research focuses on humour and the representation/portrayal of Black/African Canadian Identity in Literature and Popular Culture, and how immigration plays a role in shaping this representation. He is particularly interested in how such representations are problematised in Political satires, humour and comedy productions in the mainstream Canadian media. Dr. Aloh has authored four Children's books, contributed to poetry and prose anthologies and is a regular writer and columnist for New Telegraph Newspaper, Nigeria. His research interest includes Cultural Studies (broadly defined but with a particular focus on Yoruba oral culture), postcolonial studies and its political/socio- cultural interpretations, Masculinity, Media and Communication Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies.
Mark Dickinson
Assistant Professor
Phone: 705 748 1011 x 6021
Email: mdickinson@trentu.ca
Dr. Mark Dickinson's classrooms are defined by collaboration, dialogue, experiential learning, and what Trent's founding President Tom Symons called "the terrible importance of having fun." Dr. Dickinson teaches a number of courses including "Hockey and Canada," "Canada The Land," "Magic, Myths and Monsters of Canada," and the "Windy Pine Summer Institute," a one-week exercise in community building and land-based learning held in the Haliburton Highlands every July. Dr. Dickinson received the Symons Award for Teaching Excellence in 2014 and the Faculty of Liberal Studies' Teaching Award from the Ontario College of Art and Design University in 2017. He is the author or editor of four books, most recently Canadian Primal: Poets, Places and the Music of Meaning (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021) and A School For Tomorrow: The Story of Canada World Youth (Cormorant Books, 2025). He has published articles in a variety of academic and nonacademic publications, including Philosophy, Activism and Nature; Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and Environment; The Walrus; and the Times of London. He has also lectured on environmental issues at institutions such as the Royal Geographical Society, the Edinburgh Zoological Society and the Auckland Zoological Society. He is currently researching the history of the Canadian Studies project at Trent and working on a manuscript about the protocols of land-based learning
Christopher Dummitt
Professor, Canadian Studies
Office: Champlain College S401
Phone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 7224
Email: cdummitt@trentu.ca
Website: www.christopherdummitt.com
Christopher Dummitt is a professor of Canadian history, specializing in Canadian political, cultural and intellectual history.
His scholarly work includes books on the Pierre Trudeau government’s criminal code reforms of the late 1960s, former prime minister Mackenzie King and his place in popular culture, the writing of history, and the history of masculinity.
He is a history popularizer and the creator of the online video series Well That Didn’t Suck: Untold Histories. Before that, he created two seasons of the podcast 1867 & All That.
As a political commentator he is a columnist at the National Post and also contributes to The Hub, the Literary Review of Canada and a number of other newspapers and media sites.
Currently he is writing a book on Canada from the 1960s to the late 1980s.
His book Unbuttoned: A History of Mackenzie King’s Secret Life was a finalist for a number of national awards including
- best book on Canadian politics from the Writers Trust
- Best scholarly book in Canada from the Canadian Federation for the Social Sciences and Humanities
- J W Dafoe Book prize
Caroline Durand
Associate Professor, History and Canadian Studies
Phone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 7109
Email: carolinedurand@trentu.ca
Research interests:
Québec history, from 1867 to the present, from social, cultural and political perspectives. Food history, 1880-1980. Particular interest for the history of popular music, the Quiet revolution, and women's history.
Selected publications:
“Rational Meals for the Traditional Family: Nutrition in Quebec School Manuals, 1900-1960,” in the collection Edible Histories, Cultural Politics, edited by Franca Iacovetta, Valerie J. Korinek and Marlene Epp. Forthcoming, University of Toronto Press, 2012.
“L’alimentation moderne pour la famille traditionnelle : Les discours sur l’alimentation au Québec, 1914-1945”, Revue de Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, no. 3, (2011), pp. 60-73.
“Entre exportation et importation : la création de la chanson québécoise selon la presse artistique, 1960-1980”, Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, vol. 60, no. 3 (2007), pp. 295-324.
Jonathan Greene
Associate Professor, Canadian Studies
Phone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 6004
Email: jgreene@trentu.ca
Whitney Lackenbauer
Canadian Research Chair
Phone: 705 748 1011 x 7390
Office: 205 Kerr House, Traill College
Email: pwhitneylackenbauer@trentu.ca
Website: www.lackenbauer.ca
Research: As Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in the Study of the Canadian North, Lackenbauer’s current research program focuses on how Canada can and should balance its sovereignty, security and stewardship responsibilities in the North in ways that protect national interests and values, promote sustainable development and healthy communities, and facilitate circumpolar stability and cooperation. His other interests include modern Canadian and circumpolar history; political studies; military history / war and society; and Indigenous-state relations in Canada.
Recent Publications:
People, Politics, and Purpose: Biography and Canadian Political History. UBC Press, 2023. (Edited with Greg Donaghy)
Northern Nationalisms, Arctic Mythologies, and the Weight of History: Selected Writings by Shelagh Grant. Frost Research Centre Press, 2023.
“It is necessary that they should understand that they are under the Law”: The Murder Trials of Sinnisiak and Uloqsak, 1917. Frost Research Centre Press, 2023. (Edited with Grace Chapnik.)
The Joint Arctic Weather Stations: Science and Sovereignty in the High Arctic, 1946-72. University of Calgary Press, 2022. (With Daniel Heidt)
The Canadian Armed Forces’ Eyes, Ears, and Voice in Remote Regions: Selected Writings on the Canadian Rangers. North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network, 2022.
Operation CANON: Rescuing Canon John Turner in the Canadian Arctic, 1947. Arctic Operational Histories series no. 10. Antigonish: Mulroney Institute on Government, 2022.
The Canadian Rangers @ 75: Key Documents, 1947-2022. Documents on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty and Security (DCASS) no.19. Calgary: Arctic Institute of North America, 2022.
Heather Nicol
Director: School for the Study of Canada
Full Professor (School for the Environment)
B.A. (Toronto), MES (York), PhD (Queens)
Office: Kerr House 201, Traill College
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext 6024
Email: heathernicol@trentu.ca
Research and Teaching Interests
Political and regional studies emphasizing borders and borderlands and the circumpolar North
Heather Nicol's research is focused upon exploring the dynamics that structure the political geography of the circumpolar North, with a specific focus on the North American Arctic and Canada-US relations. Her work is focused upon cross-border relations, tensions, geopolitical narratives and mappings of power and sovereignty. She is currently exploring both the history of circumpolar geopolitics, security and borders in relation to globalization and post-global paradigms.
Selected recent publications:
Authored Books:
Heather N. Nicol (2015). The Fence and the Bridge. Kitchener Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press.
Edited Books:
P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Heather N. Nicol. 2017. Whole of Government through an Arctic Lens (co-edited, Mulroney Institute of Government, 2017)
P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Heather Nicol and William Greaves. 2017. One Arctic: The Arctic Council and Circumpolar Governance. Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, 2017.
Dwayne R. Menezes and Heather N. Nicol. 2019. The North American Arctic: New Trends in Regional Security. London: University College London Press. Submitted for editorial review.
Heather N. Nicol and P. Whitney Lackenbauer. 2017. A Networked North. Waterloo: Centre for Federalism and Public Policy.
 Lassi Heininen and Heather Nicol. 2017. Climate Change from a Northern Point of View. Waterloo: Centre for Federalism and Public Policy.
Book Chapters and Articles:
Heather Exner-Pirot, Maria Ackren,Natalia Loukacheva,Heather Nicol, Annika E. Nilsson, Jennifer Spence. 2019. Form and Function: The Future of the Arctic Council. The Arctic Institute. February 2019
Heather N. Nicol. 2019. The U.S. Chairmanship: Round Two: Methods and Protocols. Doug Nord ed., Leadership for the North: The Influence and Impact of Arctic Council Chairs. Springer.
Heather N. Nicol. 2019. Trade, Trump, security and ethics: The Canada-US Border in continental perspective. Anssi Paasi et al. Borderless Worlds For Whom? London and New York: Routledge.
Heather N. Nicol. 2017. Rescaling Borders of Investment: The Arctic Council and the Economic Development Policies. Journal of Borderlands Studies.
Heather N. Nicol. 2017. From Territory to Rights: New Foundations for Conceptualizing Indigenous Sovereignty. Geopolitics. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2016.1264055