Michelle A. Hamilton

- Professor

image of Michelle A. Hamilton
PhD, University of Western Ontario, 2004
Telephone: 519-661-2111 ext. 84973
Email: mhamilt3@uwo.ca
Office: Lawson Hall 2216
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:30-3:30pm

Research Interests

I am a Public Historian interested in historical and contemporary issues surrounding museums and heritage, repatriation, social memory and commemoration, cultural identity and issues of representation, usually in regards to Indigenous peoples in Canada. I am also interested in the history of Indigenous communities in Ontario and am currently researching the relationship between southwestern Ontario reserves and cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

From 2005-2008, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Guelph, and with its 1891 Census of Canada project, researching the enumeration of Indigenous peoples in Canada, particularly the links between census-taking, race, and the regulation of Indigenous communities by the Department of Indian Affairs. I am the director of Hear, Here London, a SSHRC-funded audio documentary project that externalizes oral histories to the street. In 2020, I began working with the Journal of the Plague Year project out of Arizona State University to document the Canadian experience of the Covid-19 pandemic through this rapid-response digital archive. As of 2021, I am collaborating with the Vision SoHo Alliance to curate interactive historical signage for its block of affordable housing.

Teaching Experience

I teach public history, material culture, cultural landscapes, the history of museums, and social memory for undergraduate and graduate students. My pedagogical approach emphasizes experiential, community-based, and collaborative learning. Over the past decade, my students have collaborated with many cultural and heritage organizations to produce museum and virtual exhibits, oral histories, popular publications, historic preservation reports, audio documentary and walking tours, and social media products. I welcome inquiries from MA and PhD students interested in public history. 

Select Publications

Books 

Dr. Oronhyatekha: Security, Justice, and Equality (2016) With K. Jamieson. Dr. Oronhyatekha: Security, Justice, and Equality. Toronto: Dundurn Press.
Franz Boas as Public Intellectual: Theory, Ethnography, Activism (2015) Franz Boas as Public Intellectual:  Theory, Ethnography, Activism. Eds. R. Darnell, M. Hamilton, R. Hancock, J. Smith. Lincoln:  University of Nebraska Press.
Collections and Objections: Aboriginal Material Culture in Southern Ontario (2010) Collections and Objections: Aboriginal Material Culture in Southern Ontario. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Book Chapters

(2019) With M.F. Dove. “Public Service or public service?: Public History in Canada.” What is Public History? Ed. P. Ashton, J. Lalzarliana and A. Trapeznik. Bloomsbury.  

Journal Articles

(2021) With A. Beaujot. “Hear, Here: Oral History, Gentrification, and Memory Politics.” International Public History 41 (1): 55-66.

(2017) “Canada’s First Indigenous Physician? The Story of Dr. O (1841-1907).” Canadian Journal of Surgery 60, 1: 8-10. 

Awards and Distinctions 

2022 Community Heritage Investment Grant, London Heritage Council, for publication of Life and Death at Woodland Cemetery.

2018-20 SSHRC Connection Grant, Hear, Here SoHo: Making Public Oral Histories of Marginalized Peoples 

2020 Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, Public Education and Engagement Award, for Hear, Here SoHo (with Ariel Beaujot)

2020 Canadian Society of Digital Humanities, Outstanding Contribution Award for Hear, Here SoHo (with Ariel Beaujot)

2018 Vice-Provost (Academic Programs) Award for Excellence in Collaborative Teaching (with Mike Dove)

2017 Ontario History Society Joseph Brant Award for Dr. Oronhyatekha 

2013-20 SSHRC Partnership Grant for the Franz Boas Papers Documentary Editing Project

2013 SSHRC Connection Grant for the Annual Meeting of the National Council of Public History/International Federation for Public History

2011-16 SSHRC Standard Research Grant, for Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian Census research project

Public History Experience

I have worked in the public history field for over 30 years, including at various museums across Canada such as the Museum of Ontario Archaeology (London), the Aylmer and District Museum, the Woodland Cultural Centre (Six Nations of the Grand River) and the Glenbow Museum (Calgary), in curatorial, interpretative, and collections management capacities. Locally, I have sat on various committees of Museum London, Fanshawe Pioneer Village, London Heritage Council, and the Museum of Ontario Archaeology. At the provincial level, I was a board member for the Ontario Heritage Trust (2018-21). Internationally, I sat on the Board of Directors of the National Council on Public History (2010-13), co-chaired its 2013 Annual Conference Program Committee, chaired its Professional Development Committee (2010-15), sat on the Curriculum and Training Committee (2018-21), and am now on the Program Committee for the 2025 annual conference to be held in Montreal. I have also acted as a consultant for the JP Metras Museum at Western, the Barker Veterinary Museum at the University of Guelph, the Mississaugas of the Credit Nation, the Moccasin Identifier Project, and Know History Historical Services. I am currently a member of the Ontario Museum Association's Indigenous Collections Working Group, and with Prof. Shelley McKellar, I manage the Medical Artifact Collection at Western.