Meaghan Beaton
Meaghan Beaton
Graduated: 2001
Currently: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, Western Washington University
CV: BA History, Carleton, 1998 / MA, Atlantic Canada Studies, Saint Mary鈥檚, 2001 / LLB Law, Dalhousie, 2002 / PhD Canadian Studies, Trent, 2013
Like a lot of universities in American border states, Western Washington University (WWU) offers courses on Canada and Canadian history. In fact, WWU, only about 80 kilometres from downtown Vancouver, has an entire department dedicated to it: the Center for Canadian-American Studies.
But given the university鈥檚 location up in the far reaches of the Pacific Northwest, there hasn鈥檛 traditionally been much representation of the history of Atlantic Canada on the curriculum. Until recently.
鈥淐ertainly here people are much more familiar with British Columbia, and western Canada, than with Atlantic Canada,鈥� says Cape Breton native and ACS grad Meaghan Beaton, today a Visiting Professor of History at WWU. 鈥淏ut a lot of my focus on the classroom comes from Atlantic Canada鈥擨鈥檓 dedicated to that story.鈥�
It was her dedication to that story that brought her to Saint Mary鈥檚 in 1998, after she completed her undergraduate degree in History at Carleton University.
Beaton knew she wasn鈥檛 done with higher education, and she kept thinking back to a recommendation from her undergraduate supervisor at Carleton, Del Muise, who had suggested SMU鈥檚 Atlantic Canada Studies program for its small classes, great profs, and wide-open interdisciplinary focus.
鈥淚 was over the moon when I got in,鈥� Beaton recalls. 鈥淭he faculty was really fantastic, and I found they were really able to sort of pull out that glint in your eye, help you find what really fascinates you, and help you produce exceptional work. Much of this had to do with my thesis supervisor, Colin Howell, and John Reid who served on my thesis committee.鈥�
Beaton chose to spend her time at SMU investigating the history of the Canso Causeway, focusing on postwar reconstruction policy, and Nova Scotia鈥檚 social, cultural, political, and economic history in the 1940s and 1950s.
During her doctoral work in Canadian Studies at Trent University, she examined Atlantic Canada鈥檚 experience of Canada鈥檚 1967 centennial: 鈥淢ost of the existing research and other information on this really looks at national programs.鈥� Atlantic Canada鈥檚 place within Canada was shifting dramatically in the mid-20thcentury, and Beaton ended up looking at 鈥渃ultural capital projects [institutions, museums, festivals, etc] across Nova Scotia. How they were organized, how they were initiated, and I looked at how citizens and organizations competed with one another to bring money into communities to make them happen.鈥�
In so doing, she produced a new body of research highlighting how Atlantic Canada experienced a landmark moment in Canadian history, which has rarely been looked at through a regional or local lens.
Her dedication to the Atlantic story is carrying through to her work at WWU, where it鈥檚 front and present in her classes.
鈥淎s I speak to you I鈥檓 sitting here at my computer writing something for class about the founding of Halifax, and the Acadian expulsion, and how this history has to be contextualized and placed within the broader framework of the country鈥檚 colonial history and Indigenous experiences. A lot of what I鈥檓 teaching about is Indigenous groups in the Atlantic region, Indigenous-European relations, and how this history impacts land claims, and so forth.鈥�
And that, she adds, is one reason why as a historian, her Atlantic Canada Studies degree is vital.
鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to talk about the history of North America, of contact and colonization,鈥� she says, 鈥渨ithout talking about Atlantic Canada.鈥�