Laurie Stanley Blackwell
Ph.D., Queen's University
Professor Stanley-Blackwell's specialties are the history of Maritime Canada, as well as Canadian cultural and religious history. She is the co-founder and Chair of the Broch Research Collective, an interdepartmental group at StFX exploring the beliefs, attitudes and practices surrounding death and dying among immigrant Scots. Her current research focuses on the deathways of Nova Scotia’s Gaels, the role of physical strength as a cultural marker among Scottish immigrants, and the material artefacts of the Scottish diaspora, such as the rotary quern. Professor Stanley-Blackwell is a recent recipient of research funding from the Strathmartine Trust, St. Andrew’s Scotland. She is also the Principal Investigator for a two-year research project entitled, “Centering Death”, which is funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant ($60, 899).
CONFERENCES
“Gaelic and the Grave: Murder in 19th-century Nova Scotia” (with Dr. Michael Linkletter), XVII International Congress of Celtic Studies, 26 July 2019, Bangor University Wales (forthcoming)
"Looking for Thistles in Stone Gardens: The Cemeteries of Nova Scotia's Scottish Immigrants" (with Dr. Michael Linkletter) Scotland's Diasporas in Comparative International Prespective Seminar, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 25 November 2016 [Invited].
"Inscribing Ethnicity: An analysis of Gaelic Headstone Inscriptions in Cape Breton and Eastern Nova Scotia" (with Dr.Michael Linkletter) Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Harvard University, 9 October 2016.
"Finding the Right Words: Gaelic Headstones in the Cemeteries of Cape Breton and Eastern Nova Scotia" (with Dr. Michael Linkletter) Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye, Scotland, 22 June 2016.
"Soul Effigies, Mourning Marys and Green Men: The Imagery of 19th-century Scottish headstones in Eastern Nova Scotia," (with Dr. Michael Linkletter) Death in Scotland from the Medieval to Modern Conference, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, January 29, 2016.
“Grist for the Historian: The Quern and Nova Scotia’s Scots,” 15th International Congress of Celtic Studies, University of Glasgow, Scotland, July 16, 2015.
“’A good daughter, a good wife, and a good mother’: Scottish Immigrant Women and Death in 19th-century Antigonish and Pictou Counties,” Broch Research Collective Workshop, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, June 14, 2014.
“Markers of Ethnicity: The Immigrant Scots and Cemeteries in Northeastern Nova Scotia,” Death in Scotland, from Medieval to Modern Conference, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, February 2, 2014.
“Going Strong: The Role of Physical Strength among Eastern Nova Scotia’s Scots,” CRS Conference, Critical Regionalism: The Social Determinants of Community Sustainability, Saint Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, October 22, 2011.
INVITED PUBLIC LECTURES
“’Death Becomes Her’: Women and Mortality in 19th-century Scottish Nova Scotia” (with Dr. Michael Linkletter), Sherbrooke Historic Village, 21 May 2018
“’Death Becomes Her’: Women and Mortality in 19th-century Scottish Nova Scotia” (with Dr. Michael Linkletter), Living with Death & Dying in Antigonish, St. Francis Xavier University, 21 March 2018
“Prologue to the Halifax Explosion” StFX Continuing and Distance Education, Lecture Series, The People’s Place Library (contextualizing lecture for CBC documentary “Shattered City: Halifax Explosion), 14 November 2018
“Telling Tales: The Rev. Francis Baird and Pictou”, Pictou Academy, 15 May 2015
“’She Hath Done What She Could’: Women and Death in 19th-century Pictou and Antigonish Counties,” Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia, April 24, 2015.
“’No paleolithic is he, but braw Canadian Scotch’: Cape Breton’s Giant MacAskill,” Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, November 20, 2013.
“The Giant MacAskill and Cape Breton’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” Faculty of Arts Spring Lecture, St. Francis Xavier University, March 8, 2013.
ARTICLES/BOOK CHAPTERS (SINCE 2010)
"Looking for Thistles in Stone Gardens: The Cemeteries of Nova Scotia’s Scottish Immigrants” (with Dr. Michael MacDonald) In Diasporic Deaths, eds. Nicholas J. Evans and Angela McCarthy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (forthcoming)
“Inscribing Ethnicity: A Preliminary Analysis of Gaelic Headstone Inscriptions in Eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton” (with Dr. Michael Linkletter) Genealogy, [Special Issue: Cemeteries & Churchyards] 2 (3), 2018, 24pp.
“Inscribing Ethnicity: A Preliminary Analysis of Gaelic Headstone Inscriptions in Eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton” (with Dr. Michael Linkletter) Genealogy, [Special Issue: Cemeteries & Churchyards] 2 (3), 2018, 24pp.
"Going Strong: The Role of Physical Strength among the Scots of Eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton", (with Shamus MacDonald) Material Culture Review, (Special Issue: Intangible Cultural Heritage) vols 82-83 (Fall 2015/Spring 2016): 26-42
"The Daily Grind: The Rotary Quern and Nova Scotia's Scots," Material Culture Review, Vols 80-81 (Fall/Spring, 2014/2015): 171-182.
"What Lies Beneath": The Green Man in Eastern Nova Scotia and Scottish Folk Beliefs," Markers, Vol. XXXII, 2016: 40-63.
“A Story of Old Pictou 1923.” In Fiction Treasures by Maritime Writers: Best-selling Novelists of Canada’s Maritime Provinces 1860-1950, ed. Gwendolyn Davies. Halifax, NS: Formac Publishing Co., 2015: 271-294.
“Romancing the Stone: Female Figural Monuments in late 19th-century Nova Scotian Cemeteries,” (with Brenda Appleby) Markers: Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies 2014, Vol XXIX (2014): 16-53.
“The Strongman, the Storyteller and Eastern Nova Scotia’s Scots.” (with Shamus MacDonald) In Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 5, ed. Kenneth E. Nilsen. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press, 2010: 253-266.
"God’s Céilidh: Cape Breton’s Ceist Tradition.” In Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 5, ed. Kenneth E. Nilsen. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press, 2010: 238-252.
