Historical Representations of Canada-to-be (1844–1867): Of Marriages and Monsters
Monday, 27 April 2026 | 10:00 ET | Virtually via Zoom
With Anne Trépanier, Carleton University
Anne Trépanier’s presentation will expose the main ideas of her most recent book De l’hydre au castor (Septentrion 2024) examining perceptions of Canadian Confederation before its establishment in 1867. Drawing mainly on satirical newspapers from the five provinces of British North America, Trépanier discusses images, metaphors and debates that shaped public understanding of the proposed union. These sources reveal a world filled with tensions, exaggerations and symbolic representations, reflecting both fears of assimilation and aspirations to belong to a broader political community.
Bridging political and social history, Trépanier shows how ideas and imagery circulating between 1844 and 1867 contributed to imagining the Canadian project in highlighting the hopes and anxieties surrounding the creation of a central government and new relationships among future citizens, revealing competing visions of union, identity and political virtue in nineteenth-century British North America.
Dr. Anne Trépanier is a historian and professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, where she teaches in the Canadian Studies programme and in the French Department. An innovative and award-winning educator, she is a Carleton Teaching Fellow and recipient of the international D2L Teaching Award.
Her interdisciplinary scholarship bridges history, literature and political philosophy, with a focus on national identity narratives, historiography and the ways nations are imagined and represented. She is the author of Un discours à plusieurs voix : la grammaire du OUI en 1995, La rénovation de l’héritage démocratique, and most recently, De l’Hydre au castor, a prize-winning book honoured with the Pierre Savard Award, the Best Book in Canadian Studies Award, and the Best Book in Political History Award from the Canadian Historical Association.
She regularly participates in public history initiatives; her most recent collaborative work as a historian was L’empire du castor, a play by Alexis Martin and Jean-Marc Dalpé presented at the Nouveau Théâtre Expérimental.
Register for this virtual event (presented in English) at:
https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/CZ2dk8UDQkesZhSTcxCuiQ
Presented by the Canadian Studies Network and the International Council for Canadian Studies.
All are welcome!
