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  4. Mary Baxter

Mary Baxter

Lecturer

Teaching: Fall 2026-27

Course Code

Course Title
HIST 2182A Social History of Women in Canada

Specialization

Lecturer and PhD Candidate Mary Baxter is keenly interested in compiling transnational and comparative histories of the Great Lakes with a focus on the environment, natural resource exploitation and energy development. She also explores the history of information in the digital age with a particular focus on how we identify, value, view, and handle public information. As a journalist, she reports on social justice, environmental, rural, agricultural and water issues.

Research Interests

  • 2026-2027 marks year four of my PhD studies at Western, and my dissertation, a study of the history of offshore drilling in the Great Lakes, is underway. A Canada Graduate Doctoral Scholarship has made much of this work possible, as has an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, a North American Society for Oceanic History Bradford Fellowship, the department's Eleta Britton Graduate Scholarship in History and its generous travel and research funding support.
  • Through my work with Prof. Alan MacEachern on the history of the early years of the Meteorological Survey of Canada I have become intrigued with how we evaluate our surroundings and how the data we compile contributes to our conceptions of place.

Supervisors

Publications

Peer-Reviewed

Non-Reviewed

Selected Features

  • "Why nuclear power is making a comeback" Broadview Magazine, January/February 2026

  • "She helped build a national DNA database to bring Lindsey home," Broadview Magazine, August 2024; Silver winner, Best Feel-Good Story, consumer division, Canadian Online Publishing 2024 awards.

  • "How pro-life bias is limiting reproductive health care access in rural Ontario," Broadview Magazine, September 2023

  • “What’s in a name?”(Magazine title)/“Why descendants of Black settlers in Ontario fought to keep a controversial road name” (Online title) Broadview Magazine, January/February 2023 Feature winner, Canadian Christian Communicators Association 2023 awards; Best Multicultural Story winner, consumer division, Canadian Online Publishing 2023 awards.

  • "Wheatley explosion, 3-Part Series," Daily Commercial News, August 26 and 30 and September 1, 2022 and republished in The Chatham Voice, October 2022

  • “From trash to treasure: Turning former landfills into parks,” TVOToday, August 12, 2020

  • “Why Ontario’s wildlife rehab centres could become endangered species,” TVOToday, September 16, 2019

  • “Does Ontario have enough slaughterhouses?” TVOToday, August 28, 2019; Canadian Farm Writers Federation gold, daily news feature.

  • “How to save Lake Erie’s disappearing shorelines” TVOToday, July 22, 2019

  • “How an Anishinaabe anthropologist rescued her people’s long-lost stories,” TVOToday, June 29, 2018

  • Sarnia series on TVOToday: “Can Chemical Valley turn green?” January 18, 2018; “A Tale of Two Activists,” January 17, 2018; “How ready is Chemical Valley of a major accident?” January 16, 2018; “How safe is living in Chemical Valley? No one really knows,” January 15, 2018

  • “Taking on the mighty Phragmites Australis,” morelmag.ca, June, 2015. As accessed on Lambton Shores Phragmites Community Group, last accessed January 25, 2025

  • “Coyotes bad rap,” ON Nature, Fall 2017, 18-23

  • “Lyme disease: The painful and hard to diagnose infection," Better Farming magazine, May, 2011; International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Star Prize for Print Journalism, Canadian Farm Writers Federation gold, monthly press reporting, North American Agricultural Journalists honourable mention, special projects.

  • "Women's changing role on the farm," Better Farming magazine, May 2009; North American Agricultural Journalists second, special projects.

  • “Meet you at the creek: When an Ontario man questioned whether his father’s brain cancer had links to PCB contamination in his neighbourhood, he took on the province and rallied an entire community into action.” Reader’s Digest Canada, March 2011

  • With Robert Irwin and Don Stoneman, “Faith in Arlan Galbraith: Ontario’s Pigeon King,” Better Farming magazine, December 2007; Canadian Association of Journalists investigative journalism awards, magazine category, American Agricultural Editors, best team story, TABBI (Trade Association Business Publications International) bronze.

Community

Contributing Editor, NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment)

Member of the Great Lakes History Research Group

Member Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine Energy History Working Group

Conference Presentations

  • (Upcoming) "Energy Independence and Transnational Conflict: Oil and Gas Extraction in the Great Lakes during the Mid-20th Century," Association for Maritime Great Lakes History Conference, Thunder Bay, September 2026

  • "Divided Waters: The Early Years of Oil and Gas Extraction in the Great Lakes," Energy Prospectors' Expo - OPI 63rd Conference and Trade Show, June 4, 2026 "Divided Waters: The Early Years of Oil and Gas Extraction in the Great Lakes," presentation for the department's graduate student McCaffrey Seminar Series, February 26, 2026

  • Guest lectures on energy and natural gas development in Southwestern Ontario, History 2201, Canada's Past: A Critical History, Western University. January 2026 and January 2024.

  • “Border Gas: How early efforts to transport natural gas across the Canada-U.S. border influenced the fuel's development and use in the Great Lakes region and beyond,” New England Political Science Association 2025 Conference, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, April 24-26, 2025.

  • “Lake Erie’s Sand Sucker Crisis,” American Concrete Institute annual convention, Toronto, Ontario, March 30, 2025

  • "Sand mining's eroding influence at Point Pelee," Canadian Nautical Research Society-Société Canadienne pour la Recherche Nautique and the North American Society for Oceanic History conference, Brock University, St. Catharines, June 2024.

  • "How Agriculture and Aggregate Mining Shaped the Shores of Pelee Island," Canadian Historical Association, University of McGill, Montreal, June 2024

 

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