Rebecca Beausaert

Education

• Ph.D., York University, 2013
• M.A., Western University, 2006
• B.A. (Hons), Western University, 2005

Professional

• Assistant Professor/Francis and Ruth Redelmeier Professor in Rural History, University of Guelph, July 2025-present
• Adjunct Professor, University of Guelph, 2013-2025
• Co-founder/co-director, What Canada Ate, 2018-present
• Contract Teaching Faculty, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2014-present
• Part-Time Instructor, Seneca Polytechnic Institute, 2015-2025
• Part-Time Faculty, King’s College at Western, 2016-2021
• Sessional Lecturer, University of Toronto Mississauga, 2020
• Sessional Instructor, Brock University, 2013-2017
• York University, Teaching Assistant, 2007-2012
• Western University, Teaching Assistant, 2005-2006
• Research Assistant, York University, 2007-2012
• Researcher and Social Media Coordinator, Woodstock Museum, National Historic Site, 2013-2018
• Research Assistant, Annandale National Historic Site, 2003-2006

Research

• Rural and small-town Ontario in the 19th and 20th centuries
• Food and agriculture
• Sport, leisure, and popular culture
• Women and gender
• British Empire and the Commonwealth
• Legal studies
• Health and medicine
• Local and community studies
• Museums, public history, and social memory

Publications

Books

Pursuing Play: Women’s Leisure in Small-Town Ontario, 1870-1914. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2024. https://uofmpress.ca/books/pursuing-play

Refereed Journal Articles

“Not Guilty, but Guilty: Race, Rumour, and Respectability in the 1882 Abortion Trial of Letitia Munson,” Ontario History 106, no. 2 (Fall 2014): 165-190.

“‘Young Rovers’ and ‘Dazzling Lady Meteors’: Gender and Bicycle Club Culture in Turn-of-the-Century Small-Town Ontario,” Scientia Canadensis: Canadian Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine 36, no 1 (2013): 33-61.

“‘Foreigners in Town’: Leisure, Consumption, and Cosmopolitanism in Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Tillsonburg, ON,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 23, no. 1 (2012): 215-247.

“Why was the U.S. Civil War one of the ‘bloodiest wars of all time’?” The Mirror 25 (2005): 47-59.

Chapters in Refereed Edited Collections

“‘Both silly and loose’: Deconstructing Female Criminal Behaviour in Oxford County, Ontario, 1871-1914,” in Ontario Since Confederation: A Reader, 2nd Edition, eds. Lori Chambers, Edgar-Andre Montigny, Dimitry Anastakis, and James Onusko, 37-68. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2024.

“Not Guilty but Guilty? Race, Rumour, and Respectability in the 1882 Abortion Trial of Letitia Munson,” in Abortion: History, Politics, and Reproductive Justice after Morgentaler, eds. Shannon Stettner, Kristin Burnett, and Travis Hay, 55-73. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2017.

Non-Refereed Journal & Magazine Articles

"Pedalling Towards Equality? Gender and Bicycle Clubs in Small-Town Ontario," Intersections (Canadian Historical Association) 7, no. 3 (2024): 25-26. 

“The 19th Century Bicycle Craze in Ontario,” Better Farming (March 2019): 117.

“‘Happy Homes Make Happy Hearts’: Women, Families, and Domestic Leisure in Elora, ON, 1870-1914,” Wellington County History 25 (2012): 7-19.

Blog Posts

“‘A Very Pretty Canadian Winter Scene’: Ice Skating in Turn-of-the-Century Small-Town Ontario,” NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment) “Winter in Canada” Series, 14 February 2024, https://niche-canada.org/2024/02/14/a-very-pretty-canadian-winter-scene-ice-skating-in-turn-of-the-century-small-town-ontario/

“From Kitchen to Kiln: Women’s Culinary Labour on Ontario Tobacco Farms, 1950s- 1970s,” NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment), 4 August 2020, https://niche-canada.org/2020/08/04/from-kitchen-to-kiln-womens-culinary-labour-on-ontario-tobacco-farms-1950s-1970s/

[Co-author with Kesia Kvill, Maggie McCormick, and Lisa Ashton], “6 history lessons for eating through COVID-19 pandemic,” Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, 16 April 2020, https://arrellfoodinstitute.ca/history-lessons-for-pandemic/

“Red Crosses and White Cotton: Memory and Meaning in First World War Quilts,” Active History, 4 July 2017, https://activehistory.ca/2017/07/red-crosses-and-white-cotton-memory-and-meaning-in-first-world-war-quilts/

“Quilting for a Cause: Rural Women’s Voluntarism in the First World War,” Rural Women’s Studies Association, 9 December 2015, https://ruralwomensstudies.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/quilting-for-a-cause-rural-womens-voluntarism-in-the-first-world-war/

Awards/Grants

• 2023: Canadian Historical Association Teaching Prize (Early or Alternative Career – Canadian History)
• 2023: Scholarly Book Awards (ASPP), Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
• 2018-2019: Dorothy Duncan Award for Public History (for “Oxford Remembers: Oxford’s Own” project), presented by the Ontario Historical Society
• 2015: Sessional & CLA Teaching Excellence Award, College of Arts, University of Guelph
• 2012: CUPE 3903 Ph.D Completion Fund, York University
• 2011: Ramsay Cook Fellowship for Canadian History, York University
• 2010: United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada (UELAC) Award, UELAC Toronto branch
• 2010: Faculty of Graduate Studies Bursary, York University
• 2009: Ramsay Cook Fellowship for Canadian History, York University
• 2006-07: Entrance Scholarship, York University

Academic Curated Exhibits

• "Kitchens of the Future: Food, Technology, and Convenience Culture in Cold War Canada." With Ashley Shifflett McBrayne. Physical exhibit of cookbooks and artifacts in McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph, Summer/Fall 2025.
• “Cooking Up History: 30 Years of the Culinary Historians of Canada.” With Melissa McAfee and students in HIST*3240. Physical exhibit of cookbooks in Exhibit Gallery, Archival and Special Collections, with complementary online exhibit on “What Canada Ate,” University of Guelph, Winter 2024.
• “The Business of Food in Canadian History.” With Ashley Shifflett McBrayne and students in HIST*3240. Virtual exhibit of culinary ephemera on “What Canada Ate,” University of Guelph, Winter 2023.
• “Memories of Home: Immigrant Culture and Cooking in Canada.” With Ashley Shifflett McBrayne and students in HIST*3240. Virtual exhibit of cookbooks on “What Canada Ate,” University of Guelph, Fall 2022.
• “Healthy, Happy, Wholesome: Cooking and Wellness in Canadian History.” With Ashley Shifflett McBrayne and students in HIST*3240. Virtual exhibit of cookbooks on “What Canada Ate,” University of Guelph, Winter 2022.
• “‘From Our Mothers’ Kitchens’: Cooking in Rural Canada.” With Melissa McAfee and students in HIST*3240. Virtual exhibit of cookbooks on “What Canada Ate,” University of Guelph, Winter 2021.
• “‘Eat and Enjoy’: A Tribute to Norene Gilletz.” With Melissa McAfee and students in HIST*3240. Virtual exhibit of cookbooks on “What Canada Ate,” University of Guelph, Winter 2020.
• “More Than Just Maple: A Collection of Canuck Staples.” With Melissa McAfee and students in HIST*3240. Virtual exhibit of cookbooks on “What Canada Ate,” University of Guelph, Winter 2018.
• “Tried, Tested, and True: A Retrospective on Canadian Cookery, 1867 to 1917.” With Melissa McAfee and students in HIST*3240. Physical exhibit of cookbooks in McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph, Winter 2017.

Non-Academic Curated Exhibits

• "From Soldier to Civilian: Oxford's Own Goes to War.” Physical/virtual exhibit of text and artifacts. Woodstock Museum National Historic Site, Woodstock, ON, 2018.
• “’Where Honor Leads We Follow’: ‘Oxford’s Own’ Goes to War.” Physical exhibit of text and artifacts. Woodstock Museum National Historic Site, Woodstock, ON, 2017.
• “Patriotism and Production: Fighting the War from the Home Front.” Physical exhibit of text and artifacts. Woodstock Museum National Historic Site, Woodstock, ON, 2016.
• “Reaction and Recruitment: Oxford Goes to War.” Physical exhibit of text and artifacts. Woodstock Museum National Historic Site, Woodstock, ON, 2015.
• “Oxford in the Age of Innocence.” Physical exhibit of text and artifacts. Woodstock Museum National Historic Site, Woodstock, ON, 2014.
• “On Broadway: A Pictorial History of Tillsonburg’s Main Street.” With Hayley Andrew. Physical exhibit of photographs, text, and artifacts. Annandale National Historic Site, Tillsonburg, ON, 2005.

Courses Teaching (Fall 2025)

HIST*3370*DE: Canada and the First World War

Courses Teaching (Winter 2026)

HIST*3240: Food History