During my time at Carleton I discovered a passion for Canadian history. Under the supervision of Norman Hillmer and Andrew Burtch, I refined that interest and began to focus on the Cold War and completed my master's thesis, titled "An (Im)Balance of Expectations: Civil Defence in Ottawa, 1951-1962." I am interested in the effects of the nuclear bomb on the cultural and social realities of Canadian society. Going beyond this I am interested in how Canadians conceptualize threat, and how fears and concerns about external dangers can reinforce and shape ideas of gender, race, citizenship, and class. Under the supervision of Jeffrey Brison I will examine how Canadian municipalities reacted to the prospect of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War, through their relationship with federal and provincial civil defence efforts, in the hopes of understanding how transnational conflicts can impact the daily realities of Canadian life.
Publications and Papers
- “Canada’s Presence in the World: A Discussion with the Right Honorable Joe Clark” Active History, (2014) http://activehistory.ca/2014/04/canadas-presence-in-the-world-a-discussi...
- “Sound and Fury: A Brief History of Ottawa Civil Defence under Charlotte Whitton, 1960-1962.” Lecture given at the Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum, Carp, Ontario, 21st June, 2016.
- “Finances and Frustration: A History of Civil Defence in Ottawa, 1951-1962,” Lecture given for the Historical Society of Ottawa at the Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum, Carp, Ontario, 28th June 2017.
- Steer, Colette. Interview with Andrew Sopko, Grad Chat, Queen’s University, 4 July 2017, http://www.queensu.ca/sgs/grad-chat.
- “The Seven (Trump)ets of the Apocalypse: Hawaii’s Nuclear Blunder and the Continuity of the Cold War,” Active History, 25th January 2018, http://activehistory.ca/2018/01/the-seven-trumpets-of-the-apocalypse-hawaiis-nuclear-blunder-and-the-continuity-of-the-cold-war/
- “Finances and Frustration: A History of the Failure of Civil Defence and Municipal-Federal Relations in Ottawa, 1951-1962,” Under Review, Urban History Review.
