Wilda Thumm

Wilda Thumm has recently completed an MA in History at the University of Guelph. She was the co-winner of the 2021 Edward Stewart Scholarship in Scottish Studies, recognizing an outstanding academic record as an incoming graduate student. Her research interests in this program were the history of sport, the history of Scotland, and histories of home fronts during wartime. Working within the Centre for Scottish Studies under the supervision of Dr. Kevin James she completed a research paper on women in sport in Scotland during World War I. Her on-site research in Edinburgh was assisted by a University of Guelph Graduate Travel and Research Fund, The Frank Watson Travel Scholarship, and the Ted Cowan Scholarship in Sottish Studies.

Wilda is staying on with the University of Guelph and beginning work on an MA in European Studies. Her move from the Department of History to the School of Languages and Literatures calls for a different research direction and she is investigating various possibilities. Her interests include: Jacobite literature, travel journals and publications relating to sport participation and spectatorship, identities and impressions created by travel, the home front during wartime, the relationship between sport celebrity and the press, and women in sports journalism.