Associate Professor
B.A., M.A. (Montréal); Ph.D. (McGill)
705-748-1011 x 7109
carolinedurand@trentu.ca
Research interests:
Since more than ten years, I conducted research on cultural phenomena like popular music, cuisine, and modernity and on ideas like nationalism and liberalism. I used categories of analysis like class and gender and concepts like the liberal order, governmentality, and risk. My goal is to contribute to social, cultural, political, and intellectual history of Québec and French-Canada. I also consider my work on food and nutrition to be part of the wider field of critical food studies.
My current research analyzes how nutritional discourses and practices evolved in Québec and Canada between 1945 and the 1980s. I study how experts adapted their advice in response to deep social, cultural and political changes : the increasing presence of women in the paid workforce, new immigration currents, the concerns that dominated the creation and the direction of a provincially-funded health care system, growing environmental preoccupations, increased union activism, and the rising presence of radical political groups all marked the post-war years, the Quiet revolution and the 1970s. I also explore nutrition experts’ reactions to an increasingly industrialized and commercialized food system, as well as their role within Québec’s health services, education system, and social welfare government agencies.
Book :
Nourrir la machine humaine. Nutrition et alimentation au Québec, 1860-1945 (Montréal, Kingston : McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015), 301 p.
Articles and book chapters :
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Nourrir le monde, fournir l’industrie. Les agriculteurs sous le regard des commissions d’enquête sur le prix des aliments, 1915-1976 », Histoire sociale/Social History, vol. 54, no. 111 (septembre 2021) : 1-20.
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“Consommateur exploité, coopérateur libéré ? L’idéal coopératif contre le capitalisme dans les discours de l’Institut de protection du consommateur, 1969-1979”, in the collection Question sociale et citoyenneté. La dimension politique des régulations sociales (XIXe-XXIe siècles), edited by Martin Petitclerc, Louise Bienvenue, David Niget, Martin Robert and Cory Verbauwede, Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2020 : 223-239.
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“La Commission de surveillance du prix des produits alimentaires et le panier d'épicerie des familles canadiennes, 1973-1976”, in the collection L'argent des familles. Pratiques et régulations sociales en Occident aux xixe et xxe siècles, edited by Florent Le Bot, Thierry Nootens and Yvan Rousseau, Centre interuniversitaire d'études québécoises, 2019: 147-161.
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“Patates, pain et lard salé valaient-ils mieux que céréales, bacon et boeuf haché ? La diète quotidienne et la santé au Québec, 1861-1941”, Canadian Bulletin of the History of Medecine / Bulletin canadien d’histoire de la médecine, vol. 32, no. 2: 275-296 (2015 - forthcoming).
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“Risques collectifs et responsabilités individuelles dans les conseils diététiques au Québec, 1900-1940”, Globe. Revue internationale d’études québécoises, vol. 16, no. 2 (2013) : 49-73.
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“Rational Meals for the Traditional Family: Nutrition in Québec School Manuals, 1900-1960,” in the collection Edible Histories, Cultural Politics. Towards a Canadian Food History, edited by Franca Iacovetta, Valerie J. Korinek and Marlene Epp (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012) : 109-127.
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“L’alimentation moderne pour la famille traditionnelle : Les discours sur l’alimentation au Québec, 1914-1945”, Revue de Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, no. 3, (2011) : 60-73.
- “Entre exportation et importation : la création de la chanson québécoise selon la presse artistique, 1960-1980”, Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, vol. 60, no. 3 (2007) : 295-324.
Interview:
September 21, 2023, interview with Maxime Coutié for the radio show “Aujourd’hui l’histoire”, Radio-Canada. Topic: the history of diets. Available online on Ohdio (https://ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/premiere/emissions/aujourd-hui-l-histoire/episodes/804971/rattrapage-jeudi-21-septembre-2023)
April 21, 2023, interview with Martin Labrosse for the radio show “Aujourd’hui l’histoire”, Radio-Canada. Topic: the history of the Canadian Food Guide. Available online on Ohdio (https://ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/premiere/emissions/aujourd-hui-l-histoire/segments/entrevue/440912/guide-alimentaire-canadien-nutrition).
Bien dans son assiette, Radio-Canada, June 4, 2015