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Research Interests

Dr. Wardhaugh is a political and regional historian of late nineteenth and twentieth-century Canada whose research interests include federalism, the Prairie West, rural/small town, and the Métis.

He has just completed a biography of W.C. Clark (federal deputy minister of finance, 1932-1952) and an edited collection on Manitoba’s premiers. He has taken over authorship of the Origins and Destinies Canadian history textbooks.  His next projects include a book on the Rowell-Sirois Commission (the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations) and a book on the small town Prairie West.

Dr. Wardhaugh teaches courses on all aspects of Canadian history. He was nominated for the Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2004 and 2005, and won the award in 2008.

Teaching Philosophy

My pedagogical approach in a university classroom is based around very simple concepts. Ultimately, I seek to communicate and then to engage with students so that I can translate what I hope is my sufficient learning and passion for the subject. This objective is more difficult to achieve than it appears. In order for communication (and then to go one step further for engagement) to occur, the barriers must come down. I attempt to lower these barriers through offering the students a welcoming, energetic, stimulating, and most importantly, respectful atmosphere in which to learn. If I fail to communicate with my students, I have failed to teach them.

I seek to have my students question the course content. The analytical component is critical for success. I want them to critically and creatively evaluate and analyze the information presented. My passion for history is impossible to conceal and I seek ways of sharing this sentiment. I strongly encourage discussion and debate; I urge students to be critical of historical issues and to analyze the past in ways in which they are not accustomed. It is essential that history be tied to the present so students will recognize the importance and usefulness of studying the subject.

If I have succeeded, students will leave my class feeling they have learned important information about Canadian history but also feeling confident in raising questions pertaining to this history. I want them to be excited by the subject, something I believe essential for the learning process. That excitement and passion serves as the crucial building blocks required to move on to further objectives. Once students have become engaged with the subject, they have the opportunity to embrace it on a deeper, more critical and analytical level.

Publications

Monographs

Behind the Scenes: The Life and Work of W.C. Clark (Toronto) University of Toronto Press, 2010)

Mackenzie King and the Prairie West (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000).

Description

In analyzing Mackenzie King's treatment of the prairies, Wardhaugh creates a comprehensive view of the process of western alienation, at the same time clarifying the differing political interests of the three prairie provinces.

Textbooks

Origins: Canadian History to Confederation. Seventh Edition (Toronto: Nelson, forthcoming 2011)

Destinies: Canadian History Since Confederation. Seventh Edition (Toronto: Nelson, forthcoming 2011)

Editions

Manitoba Premiers of the 19th and 20th Centuries, co-edited with Barry Ferguson, (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 2010).

Winner of the 2010 Margaret McWilliams Award

History, Literature and the Writing of the Canadian Prairies (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2005).

Description

The Canadian Prairie has long been represented as a timeless and unchanging location, defined by settlement and landscape. Now, a new generation of writers and historians challenge that perception and argue, instead, that it is a region with an evolving culture and history. This collection of ten essays explores a more contemporary prairie identity, and reconfigures "the prairie" as a construct that is non-linear and diverse, responding to the impact of geographical, historical, and political currents. These writers explore the connections between document and imagination, between history and culture, and between geography and time.

Towards Defining the Prairies: Region, Culture, and History (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2001).

Description

Toward Defining the Prairies highlights recent approaches to thinking about the Prairie West. Bounded by pieces from well-known historian Gerald Friesen and Governor-General's Award-winning writer Robert Kroetsch, these 13 essays are as diverse as the region itself. In their examination of different aspects of Prairie history, literature, climate, society, culture, and identity, they help to provide a new understanding of this place and of the complexities of its definition.

Book Chapters

'W.L.Morton, Margaret Laurence, and the Writing of Manitoba', Alvin Finkel, Sarah Carter and Peter Fortna (eds.), The West and Beyond: New Perspectives on an Imagined Region (Edmonton: University of Athabasca Press, 2010).

'John Bracken,' co-authored with Jason Thistlewaite, Robert Wardhaugh and Barry Ferguson (eds.), The Premiers of Manitoba (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, forthcoming 2010).

'Brian Mulroney and the Prairie West,' Raymond Blake (editor), Examining the Legacy: The Era of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007).

'Reconsidering Rowell-Sirois and Rethinking Canadian Federalism,' co-authored with Barry Ferguson, Ian Peach (ed.), Constructing Tomorrow's Federalism (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2007).

'Productivity and Popular Attitudes Toward Welfare Recipients in Saskatchewan, 1970-1990,' Fiona Douglas and Gloria Geller (eds.), Redefining Productivity for Social Development and Well-being (Regina: co-published by the Social Policy Research Unit (SPR), Faculty of Social Work, University of Regina and Canadian Plains Research Centre, 2007).

'From Behind the Scenes: W.C. Clark and the Canadian Department of Finance, 1932-1952,' Andrew Hiscock and Muriel Chamberlain (eds.), Engaging the Enemy: Canada in the 1940s (LLandybie, Carmarthenshire: Dinefwr Press Ltd., 2007).

'Bush Parties and Booze Cruizes: A Look at Leisure in a Prairie Small Town,' Raymond Blake and Andrew Nurse (eds.), The Trajectories of Rural Life (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 2003).

'Balancing Both Sides of the Ledger: J.W. Dafoe and Mackenzie King', John English and Ken McLaughlin (eds.), Mackenzie King, Citizenship, and Community (Toronto: Robin Brass Studio, 2003).

'Gateway to Empire: Imperial Sentiment in Winnipeg, 1867-1917,' Colin Coates (ed.), Imperial Canada, 1867-1917. (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1997) 206-219.

Articles

'"Impossible Conditions of Inequality": John W. Dafoe, the Rowell-Sirois Royal Commission, and the Interpretation of Canadian Federalism,' co-authored ith Barry Ferguson, Canadian Historical Review (December 2003) 551-584.

'Productivity and Popular Attitudes Toward Welfare Recipients in Saskatchewan, 1970-1990' Prairie Forum (Fall, 2003) 195-218.

'A Real Time and Place: Douglas Durkin's The Magpie,' Prairie Fire (Vol. 20, No. 2, No. 87, July 1999) 58-67.

'"Awaiting the Return of Common Sense": Mackenzie King and Alberta,' National History (Winter 1998) 262-271.

'A Marriage of Convenience?: Mackenzie King and Prince Albert Constituency,' Prairie Forum (Fall 1996) 177-200.

'Cogs in the Machine: The Charles Dunning-Jimmy Gardiner Feud,' Saskatchewan History (Spring 1996) 20-29.

'The "Impartial Umpire" Views the West: Mackenzie King and the Search for the New Jerusalem,' Manitoba History (Spring 1995) 11-22.

'Region and Nation: The Politics of Jimmy Gardiner,' Saskatchewan History (Fall 1993) 24-36.

Master's and Doctoral Level supervisory privileges

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• e-mail: rwardhau@uwo.ca