Rural History Roundtable
Photograph: Large group eating meal after raising barn, Stephen Sylvester Main collection, University of Guelph Library, Archives, and Special Collections, Agricultural History (XA1 MS A230 #214)
The Rural History Roundtable is a speaker series that has been in operation since 2002. It hosts scholars of international repute and provides a venue for graduate students to present their latest research. It is vertically intergrated drawing into its fold undergraduates, graduates, post-docs, faculty, archivists, alumni, and other members of the public.
All are welcome to attend!
Our second roundtable of Winter 2026 will take place virtually on Thursday, February 12 from 3:30-5:00pm EST over Zoom. To view the Zoom presentation, please register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/public-health-in-rural-alberta-settler-colonialism-as-structure-1919-71-tickets-1980278177336?aff=oddtdtcreator. Attendees are encouraged to register before the event date to ensure the Zoom link is received before the event starts.
Presenter: Emily Kaliel (Ph.D. candidate, Department of History, University of Guelph)
Title: "Public Health in Rural Alberta and Settler Colonialism as a Structure, 1919-71"
Description: During the interwar period, the Alberta government established several public health programs to support its growing rural population. This presentation explores which populations the provincial government considered as the public worthy of receiving such care, and to which areas of the province the government extended said services. In doing so, it demonstrates how the provincial government prioritized settler communities, particularly the infants and children of settler communities, in strategic locations. Building on the work of Patrick Wolfe, this presentation shows how two rural public health programs in particular – the District Nursing Program and Full-Time Health Units – operated as part of the structure of settler colonialism, whereby these programs contributed to a system that supported the establishment and naturalization of settler presence on prairie land.
Questions? Please contact:
Dr. Ben Bradley
ben.bradley@uoguelph.ca
Dr. Rebecca Beausaert
rbeausae@uoguelph.ca
For a list of past Rural History Roundtable speakers, see here.
