Students

Julianne (Hofstede) Beauchemin graduated from the University of Victoria with an Honors B.A. double major in English and History. Her thesis focused on sexuality in Western Europe from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century. Another highlight of her studies was presenting her research project at the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award Fair. Her interest in historical sites was piqued when she worked with Point Ellice House Museum in Victoria, researching their collection of books from the First World War. Being in a historic space doing research that would be displayed for public invigorated Julianne and solidified her interest in working in museums.

These interests led Julianne to work at the Gibbons Museum in Alberta for two summers, where she planned and ran public programs, conducted research, and created displays. She also worked part time at the Fort Saskatchewan Heritage Precinct as an interpreter and program assistant, where Julianne ran field trip activities, led public tours, and designed an escape room program specific to the historic Northwest Mounted Police Fort on site.

Pursuing an M.A. in Public History at Western is a natural extension of Julianne’s interests. She is thrilled to dive deeper into the field and hone her skills to support her future career, which she hopes will involve programming for a museum or historic site.

Morgan Garratt holds a B.A. (Honours) in History with a Minor in Political Studies from Queen’s University. Throughout her studies, she had the opportunity to partake in a range of internships and community-based projects.

At Bellevue House National Historic Site, Morgan developed a new Parks Canada Xplorers booklet, gaining hands-on experience in heritage educational programming. At the Queen’s University Archives, she reviewed and processed archival records from the City of Kingston Planning Department and contributed to a collaborative initiative to improve public access to the Kingston 2SLGBTQIA+ Collection. She also worked with a research and design team to create a travelling exhibit and interactive activities showcasing and preserving the history of Kingston’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community. These experiences connected strongly with Morgan’s passion for inspiring youth interest in history, ensuring heritage is accessible, and preserving the histories of underrepresented communities in Canada. Morgan also volunteered for many years at the Bell Homestead National Historic Site delivering tours, designing temporary exhibits, and assisting with community outreach and marketing initiatives. Most notably, Morgan helped develop a museum mascot and co-wrote and illustrated the children’s book Melly and the Missing Coral, which introduces readers to the Bell family and the site’s artifacts.

As she continues her education, Morgan is excited to expand her skills into all aspects of the public history field and contribute to projects that make history engaging, accessible, and inclusive. 

Brooke Graham graduated from Brandon University with an Honours B.A in Public History and a Minor in Native Studies. Her undergraduate work centered around Indigenous History, Canadian history, settler colonialism, settlement history and public history. As an Indigenous person, a band member of Peguis First Nation, Brooke has a passion for supporting Indigenous communities in discovering and preserving their local histories and using public history methodology to make their history more accessible to their community and their members.

Brooke has always been driven to support her community in Thompson, Manitoba. A member of her local museum Board of Directors, she has helped support the museum’s reopening and improve its accessibility. A highlight of her volunteer work was discovering over ninety oral history tapes documenting the creation of Thompson, which she digitized so these stories could be preserved and made accessible for future research.

During her undergraduate studies, Brooke gained invaluable academic and professional experiences, including presentations at the Brandon University Senior Colloquiums and at the Canadian Historical Association’s Annual Meetings in 2025 and 2026. Brooke is excited to discover what the public history MA field at Western will offer her and, equally, what she can contribute to the program.

Brianne Machan graduated with distinction from Huron University College with an Honours Specialization in History and a Minor in Book History. She is enthusiastic about collaborative research and community engagement within history and heritage spaces. Throughout her undergraduate career, Brianne worked at the Huron Letterpress Studio to facilitate public history events and volunteered at the Mooretown Museum Letterpress Studio. Through various guest lectures in these roles and many other opportunities within the community and academic field, Brianne has developed a love for public speaking and learning alongside her community.

Professionally, Brianne has worked for Lambton County Archives, Shared Histories Canada and as a Research Assistant on various public history projects which required research work in places such as England, Nova Scotia, Ohio, and Michigan. She was also accepted as the only undergraduate student in Rare Book School’s History of Typography course at the Newberry Library. Brianne has also worked at the Sarnia and District Humane Society's rescue farm since 2020. Her research interests include Canadian human-animal relationships, and with the support of Huron University’s CURL Fellowship, Brianne worked with the Town of Aurora Museum to create a website about Happy Woodland Pet Cemetery (HWPC), the oldest one in Canada. With CGRS-M SSHRC support, Brianne is continuing her research on HWPC, focusing on the Canadian women who founded and advocated for the cemetery and animal rights.

Larissa McCabe graduated with distinction from Huron University College with a B.A. Honours Specialization in History and a Minor in English. During her undergraduate career, she had the opportunity to work with the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History (Uncle Tom's Cabin) to create an interactive map of black abolitionists and black settlers of the free black community, Dawn Settlement. She also had the chance to travel to London, England to research Victorian British criminal history and the differences in evidence given for pleads of insanity between men and women. One of the most proud moments of her undergraduate experience was being the recipient of the Duncanson Family Scholarship in History, awarded for the highest average in first year history.

Larissa spent her summers working at Annandale National Historic Site in Tillsonburg, Ontario. Her work included running summer camps, publishing historical articles for the newspaper, giving tours, and helping create exhibitions. Her skillset and work experience there inspired her to pursue a Public History M.A. at Western University, where she hopes to continue sharing her love of history with others.

Molly Richardson graduated from the University of Western Ontario with an Honours B.A. in History. Her passion for history fostered an interest in highlighting women’s voices and experiences from the past. During her undergraduate degree she travelled to Oberlin College to collaborate on a Digital Archive of Black Female Authorship for the Centre for Undergraduate Research Learning (CURL) Conference. She also developed a project that explored local women’s history in a podcast project that combined archival research with narrative construction to uncover the history of the Blackburn Sisters in London, Ontario, and their significance as female writers in the nineteenth century.  

Molly’s current research interest centres on women’s history and the ways public history can bring overlooked stories to wider audiences. She is currently working on a public history project researching women sentenced to capital punishment in Ontario, contributing to a digital public history website, and the development of a physical exhibit in partnership with local institutions. 

As a student in Western’s M.A. in Public History Field, Molly is looking forward to expanding her research and curatorial skills through community projects and collaboration with her peers. Following her studies, Molly plans to pursue a career in the museum field, creating opportunities for audiences to engage with diverse and often overlooked histories.

Abby Salvatore graduated from Carleton University with an Honours B.A. in History, specializing in the dominions of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War, particularly the day-to-day experiences of soldiers on the front lines.

Her time working for Veterans Affairs Canada as an interpretive guide at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial and the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in Northern France, across three sessions between August 2022 and December 2024, was a major factor in this focus. Abby gained a hands-on approach to public history by giving guided tours to visitors from all over the world, using a wide array of historical sources to create training and tour material for later sessions, and understanding the longer legacies and impacts of Canadians and Newfoundlanders and their contributions to the war efforts. During her time in Northern France, she developed an even deeper passion for public history, especially alternative forms of presenting history and making it accessible to wider audiences.

Abby also worked as a research assistant for Capital History, an Ottawa-based public history organization, on its Elgin Street project. The project uncovered lesser-known and overlooked histories connected to places in Ottawa’s National Capital Region, including stories from the city’s 2SLGBTQI+ community. These stories were presented through traffic boxes with QR codes, offering the public an accessible way to explore the history around them.

These experiences cemented Abby’s belief that everyone deserves access to history. As a graduate student, she hopes to continue developing innovative approaches to public history, focusing on making history accessible, meaningful, and relevant to wider audiences and future generations.

Hazel Scott Pankratz holds an Honours B.A. in History from Trent University and an M.A. in History from Wilfrid Laurier University. She is currently on a one-year hiatus from her Ph.D. in History at the University of Western Ontario, where her research focuses on human-machine interaction during the First World War. Over the course of her graduate studies, she has worked as a teaching assistant at Laurier and Western, served as an executive of Western’s History Graduate Student Association and as a departmental steward for PSAC Local 610, has presented at the Canadian Military History Colloquium, and has given public lectures at the Guelph Civic Museum and the Osgoode Township Museum in Vernon, ON.

Hazel’s work in public history began as part of a collaborative undergraduate project between Trent University’s Department of History and Branch 52 (Peterborough) of the Royal Canadian Legion to develop an online exhibit showcasing Peterborough’s experience in the First World War. She also spent three summers working at Fort York National Historic Site in Toronto, where she was a member of the Fort York Guard and conducted historical demonstrations of War of 1812-era foot drill, musketry and artillery. More recently, she assisted in the development of a walking tour on the naturalist history of London’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Her academic and professional background has furnished her with a passion for historical education, and as an M.A. student in the Public History Field she is excited to explore a career in heritage and continue to share stories from the past in a way that is engaging and accessible to all.

Alexis Westlake graduated from Mount Allison University with a B. A. Honours in History and Minors in Latin and Museum & Curatorial Studies. As an undergraduate, she was fascinated with the “forgotten” or “anecdotes” of history. She was also curious about the history of immigration, the history of entertainment, religious history, and women’s history. One of her research projects involved comparing through oral histories her Dutch immigrant family’s arrival to Canada with the general experience of Dutch immigrants.

In her work as a student and intern archivist with the Mount Allison University Archives, she processed a large variety of materials covering vastly different topics. Among her highlights at the archives were publishing “Archiving Archives: How Mount Allison preserves the past for the future” in the Mount Allison University Record, and being interviewed for the CBC podcast This is New Brunswick about her work on processing the Rick MacLean fonds, which focused on the Canadian serial killer Allan Legere.

It is through both her undergraduate studies and her work in the archives that Alexis has come to have a deep love for the public history field. As an M. A. student at Western, she is looking forward to learning more about the use of history in an increasingly digital world.