Employee Spotlight: Dr. Kristine Alexander | Associate Professor of History, Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Child and Youth Studies

Where are you from?
I grew up in Winnipeg (Treaty 1 territory) in a 1940s house built on the site of an early 19th-century experimental farm run by the Hudson's Bay Company. My ancestors were settlers from Great Britain and Iceland, and I think I have always been interested in what studying the past can tell us about the best and worst of humanity. I did an undergraduate degree in English and History at the University of Winnipeg and earned my MA and PhD in history at York University in Toronto.

When did you come to the U of L and what do you do here?
After completing post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Saskatchewan, I arrived at the University of Lethbridge in July 2013. My current positions at the U of L are: Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Child and Youth Studies, associate professor of history and co-director of the Institute for Child and Youth Studies (I-CYS). As a Canada Research Chair, I am currently working on a number of research projects, all of which ask new questions about how young people have understood and engaged with global processes and events over the past 100 years. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in the history department and the graduate program in Cultural, Social, and Political Thought. My colleague, Dr. Jan Newberry, and I recently co-supervised the first post-doctoral fellow in the humanities at the U of L. I also work with faculty and students from across the university in my capacity as co-director of I-CYS, a multidisciplinary research institute devoted to child and youth-focused community engagement, research, and teaching.

What’s the best part of your job?
The best part of working at the University of Lethbridge is the students! I really enjoy learning from and getting to know them inside and outside the classroom, and have also watched a number of them do great work in experiential learning partnerships with groups like Opokaa'sin Early Intervention Society, the Boys and Girls Club of Lethbridge, and the Galt Museum.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
In my early 20s, I played bass guitar in a garage band called the Switchblade Sisters.