Rebecca Beausaert

Education

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

Professional

• Assistant Professor of 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

• “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)

Courses Teaching (Winter 2026)