Katherine McKenna

- Associate Professor (Joint Appointment with Women's Studies)

image of Katherine McKenna

PhD, Queen's University, 1987
Telephone: 519-661-2111 ext. 84979
Email: kmckenna@uwo.ca
Office: Lawson Hall 3246
Office Hours: On-line by appointment

Research Interests

Professor McKenna is a specialist in 18th and early 19th century history of women and gender in the North Atlantic. She also researches in the area of violence against women and children and is developing new work on East African colonial women's and gender history.

Select Publications

Books

(2009) Editor. Labourers on the Rideau Canal, 1826-1832: From Work Site to World Heritage Site. Ottawa: Borealis Press, 2009. 135 pp.

(2003) with Audra Bowlus et al, (second author). The Economic Costs of Child Abuse in Canada. Ottawa: The Law Commission of Canada, 2004. 172 pp.

(2002) edited with June Larkin (first author). Violence Against Women: New Canadian Perspectives. Toronto: Inanna Press. 504 pp.

(1994) A Life of Propriety: Anne Murray Powell and her Family, 1755-1849.(Publication funded by the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme)
- Nominated by McGill Queen's Press for the 1994 Governor General's Award in non fiction.
- Laura Jamieson Prize, 1995, Honourable Mention, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women for the best Canadian feminist non-fiction book published in 93-94.
- J.J. Talman Award, 1995, Honourable Mention, Ontario Historical Society. Awarded to the best book on Ontario's social, political or economic history published in the previous three years. Certificate of Commendation, Toronto Historical Board, 1995

Book Chapters

(2017) "Class, Race and Gender Roles in Early British North America" in Nancy Janovicek and Carmen Nielson, eds. A Companion to Canadian Women’s and Gender History. University of Toronto Press, 2017 (forthcoming).
(2016) "Violence Against Women in Canada" in Feminist Issues: Race, Class and Sexuality 6th Edition, Nancy Mandell and Jennifer Johnson, eds., Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2016. 201- 228.
(2016) "Women's Agency in Upper Canada: Prescott's Board of Police Record, 1830-1850" in Tamara Myers, Lara Campbell and Adele Perry, eds. Rethinking Canada: The Promise of Women's History. 7th ed Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2016, 163-79. Reprint
(2016) "Women's Agency in Upper Canada: Prescott's Board of Police Record, 1830-1850" in James Opp and John C. Walsh, eds. Home, Work, and Play: Situating Canadian Social History, 3rd ed. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2015, 4-17. Reprint
(2010) "Women's Agency in Upper Canada: Prescott's Board of Police Record, 1830-1850" in James Opp and John C. Walsh, eds. Home, Work, and Play: Situating Canadian Social History, 2nd ed. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2010, 4-16. Reprint
(2009) "Working Life at the Isthmus, Rideau Canal, 1827-1831" in Katherine M.J. McKenna, ed. Labourers on the Rideau Canal, 1826-1832: From Work Site to World Heritage Site. Ottawa: Borealis Press, 2009, 45-96.
(2007) "'The Union Between Faith and Good Works': The Life of Harriet Dobbs Cartwright, 1808-1887." in Elizabeth Jane Errington and Cynthia R. Commachio, eds. People, Places and Times: Readings in Canadian Social History Vol. 1 Pre-Confederation. Toronto: Nelson, 2007, 421-30. Reprint.
(2000) "Mary Brant Konwatsi'tsiaienni Degonwadonti: 'Miss Molly', Feminist Role Model or Mohawk Princess?" in Nancy L. Rhoden and Ian Steele, eds. The Human Tradition in the American Revolution. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc, 2000, 183-202.

Refereed Journal Articles

(2016) “‘My own character is thank God above suspicion’: Soldier’s Wives With the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment and Social Values in Mid Nineteenth-Century British North America.” Social History/Histoire Sociale. 49, No. 100, (2016) 475-502.
(2011) “E. Cora Hind’s Feminist Thought: “The Women’s Quiet Hour” in the Western Home Monthly, 1905-1922.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association. 22, No. 1, (2011) 69-98. Conference proceedings from annual meeting, submitted by invitation.

(2009) “The Economic Costs of Violence Against Women” in A Parliamentary Response to Violence Against Women: Conference of Chairpersons and Members of Parliamentary Bodies Dealing with Gender Equality. 2-4 December 2008, Geneva. Geneva: Interparliamentary Union, 2009, 75-8.

(2005) “Women’s History, Gender Politics and the Interpretation of Canadian Historic Sites” Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal. Vol. 30, No.1 (2005) 21-30.

(2003) “Women's Agency in Upper Canada: Prescott's Board of Police Record, 1830-1850” Social History/Histoire Sociale. Vol 36, No.72 (2003) 347-70. (Winner of the Canadian Historical Association 2005 Hilda Neatby Award.)

Research Reports

(2005) with Tanis Day and Audra Bowlus, (second author) Measuring the Economic Costs of Violence Against Women: An Evaluation of the Literature. Brief prepared for the Division for the Advancement of Women of the United Nations, October, 2005. 66 pp.