Media Release

For Immediate Release

June 1, 2009

Saint Mary's Prof wins national history award

Dr. John Reid

Dr. John Reid has been awarded the 2009 Canadian Historical Association (CHA) Clio Prize for the Atlantic Region.

The Clio Prizes are awarded annually by the CHA to recognize meritorious publications and exceptional contributions by individuals or organizations to regional history. The 2009 awards was announced last week at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences held at Carleton University.

Dr. Reid won the award for his book called Essays on Northeastern North America: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The book, with contributions by Emerson W. Baker, was published in 2008 by the University of Toronto Press.

The publisher’s note about the 272-page book says Dr. Reid provides “a fresh perspective on the region and offers a deeper understanding of North American history.”

In examining the history of northeastern North America in the 17th and 18th centuries, the book considers the relationship between native inhabitants and colonial settlers as a defining characteristic of Acadia/Nova Scotia and New England -- a relationship shaped by wider continental and oceanic connections.

Topics examined in the book include colonial habitation, imperial exchange, and aboriginal engagement, all of which were pervasive phenomena of the era. Dr. Reid argues these were complicated processes that interacted freely with one another, shaping the human experience at different times and places.

For more information about the book, please visit the publisher’s website.

Background

About John Reid

John Reid was born in Scotland and grew up in the north of England. After completing his Bachelor of Arts, he moved to Newfoundland to study at Memorial University. His M.A. thesis dealt with the 17th-century history of Maine. During doctoral studies at the University of New Brunswick (UNB)  in Fredericton, he extended this study to include a comparison with the history of Acadia and Nova Scotia. By the time he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1976, he had already taught for a year at UNB in Saint John.

A year at St. Thomas University followed, then eight years at Mount Allison University, before he moved to Saint Mary’s in 1985. Since then, his teaching has been divided between the Department of History and the interdisciplinary program in Atlantic Canada Studies.

Dr. Reid’s main research interest is in the history of northeastern North America during the 17th and 18th centuries, focusing especially on Acadia/Nova Scotia and northern New England. In the book that came out of his doctoral thesis, Acadia, Maine, and New Scotland: Marginal Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, he argued that the history of these three colonies showed the limitations of European power in northeastern North America and the resilience of aboriginal societies.

As well as writing scholarly books and articles, Dr. Reid communicates the results of his research through teaching courses in the Department of History at Saint Mary’s (in areas such as the history of Atlantic Canada, the early modern history of North America, and the relationship between history and biography) and through teaching in the area of the culture of Atlantic Canada in the interdisciplinary Atlantic Canada Studies program. He has supervised graduate theses in both History and Atlantic Canada Studies. He has also testified as an expert witness in a number of court cases involving aboriginal and treaty rights, including the Donald Marshall case.

Dr. Reid is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, elected in 2004. He has also served on the Council of the Canadian Historical Association, and on the Editorial Board of the Canadian Historical Review. He has also participated in the editorial processes of the Oxford Companion to Canadian History and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and is presently a member of the editorial boards of three Canadian history journals.

 At Saint Mary’s, he is a former chair of the Senate Research Committee and a current member of the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.

About the CHA

The Canadian Historical Association/Société Historique du Canada is a bilingual scholarly organization dedicated to research in all fields of history.

Founded in 1922, the CHA/SHC oversees a vigorous publication program; lobbies governments, archives, and museums in Canada and elsewhere on issues relating to the preservation and availability of historical records; organizes an annual conference in which historians showcase their research; supports graduate students pursuing degrees in history; and offers a number of prizes to recognize and promote excellence in historical scholarship.

With members from across Canada and around the world, the CHA/SHC serves professional historians and is open to anyone with an interest in history.

For more information about the Canadian Historical Association and the Clio Prize, please visit: http://www.cha-shc.ca/english/activ/prizes_prix/clio.cfm

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For More Information:

Blake Patterson
Public Affairs Officer
Saint Mary's University, Public Affairs
(902) 420.5514
E-mail: blake.patterson@smu.ca
www.smu.ca