Cheryl Desroches, Ph.D.Adjunct Professor

My recently completed doctoral thesis utilized a comparative approach in an examination of the role of government policy in the establishment of institutions such as asylums, prisons, jails, workhouses and hospitals in Upper Canada/Ontario and Nova Scotia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the completion of my doctoral thesis in August 2008 I have begun to explore the situation of those individuals who used state funded institutions for the needy in the 18th – 20th centuries. In addition, I have also begun to investigate the relationship between the military and society during the colonial period in Atlantic Canada.

University Degrees:

• Ph.D. (Queen’s University)
• M.A. (University of Ottawa)
• B.A. Honours (University of Ottawa)

Research Interests:

• Colonial history
• Government policy
• The history of medicine, technology and society

Courses Taught:

• HEI 102 - Canadian History
• HIST - History of the Modern World
• HIST 260 - Canadian History
• MECH ENG 333X - History of Engineering, Science and Technology
• HIST 280 - History of Women in North America

Recent Publications:

• A Review of - The Lady Lumberjack: An Annotated Collection of Dorothea Mitchell’s Writings (Thunder Bay: Lakehead University, 2005).  Michel S. Beaulieu and Ronald N. Harpelle, Editors. Ontario History, November Issue, 2007.
• An Assessment of the Influence of the Media on the Public’s Perception of the Military 155-210. Opinion Polls as a Measure of Public Perception - A Cautionary Tale, 211-228. In From the Outside Looking In: Media and Defence Analyst Perspectives on Canadian Military Leadership. Editor, Colonel Bernd Horn. Kingston: Canadian Defence Academy Press, 2005.
• Everyone in Their Place: The Formation of Institutional Care for the Elderly in Nineteenth Century OntarioIn the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association/Revue de la Societe historique de Canada, 15 (1) 2004, 49-70