Dr. Michel Beaulieu
Dr. Michel Beaulieu is able to offer a unique perspective on Lakehead graduate programs. In addition to being a supervisor, he himself was a master's student at the university.
Dr. Beaulieu has long been acknowledged as the history department's "Northernist", as an active advocate for this often underestimated and understudied realm of Canada.
"It's about pushing the boundaries," he explains. "The North tends to get shortchanged in almost everything we do." He adds that many fail to recognize the history of Northern Ontario as a bonified field, yet the area has a fascinating past. "Because of its geographic location, every major event in Canadian history has a tie to Northern Ontario."
Keenly interested in how issues of labour relate to resource development, his current research involves comparing Canadian, Uruguayan, and Finnish workers in singe-industry towns.
"Helsinki's like a second home," says the well-travelled professor.
Under his supervision, students have been able to pursue some pretty unique research opportunities. One student visited six different towns to ask Northern Ontario residents about how their communities were adapting to a loss of industry. Another student travelled to Uruguay to learn about its forestry sector with local labourers. And Dr. Beaulieu's taken several graduates throughout the years to experience Ottawa's Library and Archives Canada.
In addition, his teaching style itself is quite distinct. Dr. Beaulieu encourages students to exchange information through what he refers to as a "kitchen table discussion". He strongly believes that academics need to "step down from their tower" and actually talk to people, which is occurring less and less what with the growing number of electronic documents.
"My family always migrated to the kitchen table to learn about past events and experiences and build relationships with friends and relatives...this is my underlying ethos of how I look at history and how relationships with the past are built - it's essentially a big kitchen table discussion."