Supervision and Teaching

Over the past twenty years, Michel has taught dozens of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels for a number of institutions. Recent courses have included: A Liberal Nation? Canada 1935-57, Issues in the History of Northern Ontario, Material Culture and Historical Research, The Public Museum and Identity, and Work and War in Canada, 1930-50. A list of courses previously taught can be found by clicking here. 

As direct research training is an important part of undergraduate and graduate studies, each year Michel also supervises students as either part of his ongoing research projects or in his areas of expertise. Interested students are encouraged to contact him directly. Michel is a core faculty member and supervises and teaches courses in the following graduate programs:

Below are the current and past undergraduate and graduate projects Michel has supervised. Links have been provided to the profiles, when available, of former and current students (typically LinkedIn).

Current and Completed Doctoral Students:

Current and Completed Masters Students:
Theses (100-150 pages); Major Research Papers (50-70 pages)

  • In Progress. Bronwyn Chesterfield. Oral History of the 29th South Alberta Reconnaissance Armoured Regiment in Northwest Europe, 1944-1945. MA History Project (co-supervised with Michael D. Stevenson).
  • In Progress. Shylin Henits. Topic: Women, Work, and the Second World War. MA History Thesis. 
  • 2024. TaylorMae Laughton. "The First World War on the Home Front: Fort William and Port Arthur through The War Measures Act and the Conscription Crisis." MA History Major Research Paper (co-supervised with Michael D. Stevenson).
  • 2023. Christine Green. "A Case Study of Responses to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by Community Museums in Northwestern Ontario." MA History Major Research Paper.
  • 2023. Haileigh Riddell. "Eugenics in Canada: New Insight Through a Comparison of Two Eugenic Bodies." MA History Major Research Paper (co-supervised with Michael D. Stevenson).
  • 2022. Sierra Lemonius-Walker. “A Museum’s Role in Heritage Community and Citizenship: The Case of the Thunder Bay Museum.” MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2022. Richard Mullin-Cote. "The Thunder Bay Militia District and Canadian Defence Policy in the 1980s." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2021. Hanna Johnson. "A History of Swedish Lutheranism and Immigration to Port Arthur and Fort William, 1880-1914." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2021. Christopher Omeljaniuk. "French Canadian Labourers in the North West Company, 1783-1821." MA Major Research Project.
  • 2021. Mary Francis Maarup. "The Contribution of Women to the Social Service Sector at the Lakehead,1960-1990." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2020. Nicholas Duplessis. "'The CCF is not a 'Class Party'''': Labour, Politics, and their Unification at the Lakehead, 1944-1963." MA History Thesis.
  • 2019. Jasmine Hyslop. "The Port Arthur Mechanics' Institute: Education and Entertainment in a Northern Town." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2018. Brett Starrs. "An Analysis of Canadian Immigration Policy: A Case Study of Fort William and Port Arthur Through Print Media in the 1950s and 1960s." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2018. Greg Johnsen. "The Game Comes Here: The Origins of Organized Sport in Thunder Bay." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2017. Brandon Cordeiro. "Short Circuit: Ontario’s Electrical Utilities, Northern Ontario, and The Metabolic Rift, 1906-1998." MA History Thesis. 
  • 2016. Luana Buckle. "Foodway Transitions from Middle-Class Britain to Nineteenth-Century Ontario." MA History Major Research Project. 
  • 2016. Kyle Duckworth. "The Hunt for the Arctic: Re-Evaluating Arctic History and Mutiny." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2016. Richard Mastrangelo. "Echo and Features: Steep Rock Iron Mine and the Shaping of Corporate Culture." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2016. Amanda Oliveira“The Coming and Going of Eugenics in Alberta: A Discarded History, 1938-1972.” MA History Thesis (co-supervised with Michael Stevenson).
  • 2015. Aaron Macmillan. "Postwar Removal of Discriminatory Clauses from Immigration Policy, 1947-1976." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2015. Kimberly Shirley. "'To Die a ‘Canadian’:  How Nineteenth-Century European Immigrants Influenced the Culture of Death in Canada." MA History Thesis.
  • 2015. Nicholas Sottile. "One Trick Ponies: A Comparative Analysis of the Development of Two Single-Industry Towns in Northwestern Ontario." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2015. Ka Lun Wong. "Understanding the Dragon: Ethnicities of Chinese-Canadian Immigrants, 1858-1997." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2014. Jordan Lehto. "Queering the Postwar High School: Queer Male Youth at the Lakehead, 1945-1965." MA History Major Research Project (specialization in Women's Studies).
  • 2013. Denise Evans (née Munro). "Moral and Social Reform at the Lakehead: Conceptualized Anglo-Protestant Notions of Race, Class, and Gender within Two 1913 Social Surveys." MA History Major Research Project (specialization in Women's Studies).
  • 2013. Devon Tannahill"Rise of the Machine: The Making of The Video Game Industry and Military Simulation." MA History Thesis.
  • 2011. David Blanchard. "Terrace Bay and the North Shore's Post-war Economic and Cultural Identity, 1947-1967." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2011. Gordon Stover. "Thunder Bay's Response to Trudeau Government Policies." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2010. Chelsea Swearengen (née DeGagne). "Soldiers and Politicians: Civil-Military Relations in Fort William and Port Arthur, 1850-1938." MA History Major Research Project.
  • 2009. Nicole Durocher. “Imperialism or Social Reform: An Examination of Attention Paid to Immigrant Mothers in Port Arthur and Fort William in the Early Decades of the Twentieth Century.” MA History Major Research Project (co-supervised with Ernie Epp).
  • 2009. Steve Ross. "William Lyon Mackenzie King, Domestic Anti-Japanese Hostility, and Foreign Policy Determinants, 1907-1942." MA History Major Research Project (co-supervised with Jean-Yves Bernard).
  • 2008. Laura Nigro. "Female Discrimination or Cultural Maintenance?: The Hearing of Giovannina Ruberto-Martinie vs. the Italian Society of Port Arthur." MA History Major Research Project (co-supervised with Lori Chambers)

Current and Completed Honours Thesis and Public History Project Students:

  • 2023. Dylan Dicarlo. "A Comprehensive History of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, 1936-2023: A Four-Part Podcast Series." Public History Project (co-supervised with C. Nathan Hatton).
  • 2021. Randi Pert. "Renditions of Our Past: Comparing Landscape Paintings of Nineteenth-Century Northwestern Ontario - Exhibit Project Description Paper." Public History Project (co-supervised with C. Nathan Hatton).
  • 2021. Benjamin Deley. “Exploring Thunder Bay’s History at War First-hand: A digital vignette/direct to internet series project.” Public History Project (co-supervised with C. Nathan Hatton).
  • 2020. Taylor Arsenault. "Northern Tracks: An Analysis of the Developmental History of Alaska." Northern Studies Honours Thesis.
  • 2020. Jeffrey Christman. "Arms of the Dominion: Canadian Military Rifles from 1855-1955" (proposed museum exhibit). Public History Project.
  • 2019. Christine Green. "Reframing Canadian History Through A Northwestern Ontario Regionally Based Lens: Regionally Based Grade Ten Canadian History Lesson Plans." Public History Project.
  • 2019. Katerina Fesithauer. "The Sykes-Picot Agreement: Why it Matters" (proposed museum exhibit). Public History Project. 
  • 2018. Mackenzie Normandeau. "Education Kits on Indigenous History and Industrial Thunder Bay." Public History Project.
  • 2018. Jayne Alexander. "Thunder Bay's Great Depression: A Photographic Exhibit." Public History Project.
  • 2018. Mathew Jollineau. "Script for a Dramatization of The North West Company in Rebellion."  Public History Project.
  • 2018. Megan Sanders. "Alumni Association of Lakehead University Processing and Finding Aid Project." Public History Project.
  • 2010. Gabriel Harpelle. "Anarchy in Quebec: A Survey of the Anarchist Movement, 1864 to 1960." History Honours Thesis.