Sarah Carter
Sarah Carter, History and ClassicsHenry Marshall Tory Teaching Chair
Following a teaching career as professor in the Department of History at the University of Calgary, at the University of Winnipeg, and at the University of Manitoba, Dr Sarah Carter, a professor working in the department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta, was named a Henry Marshall Tory Chair. Tory Chairs are expected, through their teaching, research, and service, to impact the University and the community. The appointments are intended for outstanding individuals who by their presence will enhance the reputation of the University and who can provide leadership and experience.
Dr Carter, whose research focuses on the history of Western Canada and the critical era that began in the late 19th century when Aboriginal people were dispossessed and a new population established, has explored many aspects of this history including the place of Aboriginal people in the new agricultural economy (Lost Harvests: Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and Government Policy) and the creation of race and gender categories and hierarchies in the key decade of the 1880s (Capturing Women: The Manipulation of Cultural Imagery in Canada's Prairie West).
In addition, Carter's work also stresses the interconnected lives of Aboriginal people and the early non-Aboriginal settlers. She has recently completed a book that examines the efforts of government, legal, and religious authorities to impose a monogamous, Christian model of marriage on the diverse population of Western Canada including Mormons and Aboriginal people. Her book entitled The Importance of Being Monogamous: Forging the Marital Terrain of Western Canada has been submitted to press.
Dr Carter is presently working on a borderlands and comparative Canada-US history of women of the northern Great Plains with particular focus on land distribution policies and the meanings, opportunities and constraints of the 49th Parallel.
Dr Carter has received three fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, an arm's-length federal agency that promotes and supports university-based research and training in the social sciences and humanities, as well as the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America for her work on the publication, The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7. In addition, Dr Carter has received two Killam Fellowships from the University of Alberta and was director of the International Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Calgary.
Carter, who enjoys gardening, cooking, and Coronation Street, lives in Edmonton with her husband Walter Hildebrandt and their lovable border terrier, Lucy.