Peter Gossage, PhD

Education

B.A., M.A. McGill, Ph.D. Université du Québec à Montréal

Peter Gossage arrived at Concordia in 2009, having held a faculty position at the Université de Sherbrooke since 1993. A historian of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Quebec, his main research areas are family, gender, population, and the law. Along with several other books and many articles, he is co-author, with J.I. Little, of Une Histoire du Québec: Entre tradition et modernité (Hurtubise, 2015) and co-editor, with Lisa Moore, of Family and Justice in the Archives: Historical Perspectives on Intimacy and the Law (Concordia University Press, 2024). Professor Gossage is an active member of the Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises (www.cieq.ca) and the Centre d’histoire des régulations sociales (https://chrs.uqam.ca/) and was named a Fellow of Concordia’s School of Irish Studies in 2017. In the course of his career, he has served as co-editor of the Canadian Historical Review (2000-2002) and held visiting fellowships at the University of Victoria (1999-2000) and at the University of California, Berkeley (2007-2008). He is also co-director, with John Lutz and Ruth Sandwell, of the prize-winning educational website Great UnsolvedMysteries in Canadian History (www.canadianmysteries.ca).

Peter Gossage has supervised numerous MA and PhD students, generally on topics relating to Quebec society and culture between 1840 and 1960. In anticipation of his forthcoming retirement (2026) he is not currently accepting new graduate students.

Pour une entrevue récente au sujet de son parcours intellectuel, voir le lien suivant: https://chrs.uqam.ca/index.php/2019/10/28/entrevue-avec-peter-gossage/

 

Courses offered regularly

HIST 205 - History of Canada: Post Confederation   
HIST 210 - Quebec since Confederation   
HIST 307 - History of Montreal   
HIST 313 - Quebec in the Nineteenth Century 
HIST 314 - Quebec in the Twentieth Century  
HIST 412/620/820 - Selected Topics in Canadian History: Quebec Society and Culture
HIST 412/620/820 - Selected Topics in Canadian History: Family, Gender, and Community

Recent graduate supervision

Doctoral Dissertations

Colby Gaudet. Sacramental Communities: Atlantic Catholics and Sociopolitical Formations in British Nova Scotia. PhD Dissertation in Religions and Cultures, Concordia University,committee member with Hillary Kaell (supervisor) and Carly Daniel-Hughes. Defended in the Department of Religions and Cultures, 12 April 2024.

Marie-Hélène Vanier. The Voice of the Child Cries Out Against You: The 1912 Montreal Child Welfare Exhibition in its North American and Transnational Contexts. PhD Dissertation in history, Concordia University. Defended 20 March 2024.  

Catherine Tremblay. Plus que des histoires de jeunesse : Les mineur.e.s devant les tribunaux dans la région du Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean entre 1950 et 1977. PhD Dissertation inhistory, co-supervision with Louise Bienvenue. Defended at Université de Sherbrooke 1 February 2022.

Jérémy Tétrault-Farber. Une ville – plusieurs reels: Montreal’s Multicultural Irish Soundscape. PhD Dissertation in the HUMA (Humanities) program, School of Graduate Studies, Concordia University, co-supervision with Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin (Irish Studies, primary supervisor) and Jane McGaughey (Irish Studies). Defended in the School of Irish Studies, 28 May 2019. 

Lisa Moore. ‘Unmanageable’ and ‘Incorrigible’: Girls and Young Women before the Cour de bien-être social of Montreal, 1950-1977. PhD Dissertation in history, Concordia University, in progress since September 2017.

Jonathan Fortin. Femmes libres, marginales ou vieilles filles? Le célibat féminin à Montréal de 1880 à 1939. PhD Dissertation in history, Université du Québec à Montréal, co-supervision with Magda Fahrni, in progress since September 2016

Paul D’Amboise. Criminal Justice in the Rural Borderlands of the Eastern Townships, 1900-1950. PhD Dissertation in history, Concordia University, in progress since September 2015.

Michael Krohn. The Imperial Munitions Board and Industrial Quality Management in Canada, 1915-1919. PhD Dissertation in history, Concordia University, in progress since September 2015.

Marie-Laurence B. Beaumier. Une incursion au cœur du cycle de vie familial: pratiques et expériences parentales en milieu ouvrier québécois,1945-1977. PhD Dissertation in history, Université Laval, co-supervision with Dr. Aline Charles, in progress since September 2013.  

Masters Theses

Mark Andrew Hamilton. Active Grieving: The Aesthetic Activism of ACT UP Montréal. Thesis in history; completed August 2025.

Julia Vrentas. “Séparez-vous donc!”: Marital Breakdown, Legal Patriarchy, and Women’s Agency in Montreal,1866-1916. Thesis in history; completed May 2025.

Grace McMorris. An Experience That Lasts a Lifetime: Building Modernity, Man, and Nation at the YMCA of Montreal’s Kamp Kanawana, 1894-1967. Thesis in history; completed August 2023.

Mélanie M. Matte. Constructing the Settler Sovereign and the Mechanics of Power Distribution: Hydroelectricity and Biopolitics in James Bay and Northern Québec,1970s-1990s. Thesis in history; completed August 2021.

Ryan Mercado. Between Crisis and Preservation: The Canadian Jewish Congress and the Quebec Nationalist Movement, 1976-1980. Thesis in history, co-supervised with Ira Robinson (Department of Religions and Cultures); completed August2020.

Isobel Plowright. Repentance could weep unseen: Maison Sainte-Madeleine 1850-1975. Thesis in the INDI (Individualized) Masters program, School of Graduate Studies, co-supervision with Emer O’Toole (Canadian Irish Studies – primary advisor) and Rhona Richman Kenneally (Design and Computation Arts); completed August 2017.

Jason Butters. For Empire or Dominion? Prestige or Adventure? The Men of the Canadian Legation in Tokyo,1929-1933. Thesis in history; completed December 2016.

Alexandra Lantosh. Shifting Boundaries of Inclusion and Exclusion: Montreal’s Female Painters, 1890s-1940s. Original essay in history; completed June 2015.

Jessica Larin. Je me souviens… mais pas des féministes de ’69? The Legacy of November 28th, 1969, on Québécois Feminism. Thesis in history, in progress since September 2023.

Janet Lewis. Unpacking the ‘Unwed Mother’: Montreal’s Elizabeth House: 1968-1980. Thesis in history; in progress since January 2021.

Jessica Phillips. Nationalism and Political Violence: The Quebec Experience in Global Perspective. Thesis in history; in progress since September 2020.

Recent Research Grants

2024-2030. Co-applicant, FRQSC, Programme de financement des Regroupements stratégiques, operating grant (Subvention de fonctionnement pour un centreen renouvellement) for the Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises (CIEQ), submitted by co-director Thierry Nootens (UQTR). 

2023. Co-applicant, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Awards to Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP), publication grant for Family and Justice in the Archives:Historical Perspectives on Intimacy and the Law, eds. Peter Gossage and Lisa Moore, submitted by Ryan Van Huijtsee, Concordia University Press. 

2022-2026. Co-applicant, FRQSC,Programme de Soutien aux équipes de recherche. Infrastructure grant renewal for the Centre d’histoire des régulations sociales (CHRS), submitted under thetitle Régulations, Redistributions, Reconnaissances: les injustices économiques et culturelles en histoire du Québec by CHRS director Martin Petitclerc, Université du Québec à Montréal. 

2019. SSHRC Connection Grant in support of Family and Justice in the Archives: Histories of Intimacy in Transnational Perspective: an international symposium held at Concordia University from May 5-7, 2019. PI, with co-applicant Eric Reiter. 

2018-2022. Co-applicant, FRQSC, Programme de Soutien aux équipes de recherche. Infrastructure grant renewal for the Centre d’histoire des régulations sociales (CHRS), submitted under the title Régulations sociales et familiales dans l'histoire des problèmes sociaux au Québec by CHRS director Martin Petitclerc, Université du Québec à Montréal. (Co-applicant)

2017-2023. FRQSC, Programme de financement des Regroupements stratégiques, operating grant (Subvention de fonctionnement pour un centre en renouvellement) for the Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises (CIEQ), submitted by co-director Yvan Rousseau (UQTR). (Co-applicant.)

2013-2017. SSHRC Insight Grants, Familles, droit et justice au Québec, 1840-1920. PI, with co-applicants Eric Reiter (Concordia), Donald Fyson (Laval), and Thierry Nootens (UQTR).

2013-2015. SSHRC Partnership Development Grants, The Enduring Franklin Mystery, co-applicant with John Lutz (University of Victoria, applicant), Steven High (Concordia, co-applicant) and three others.

2011-2017. FQRSC, Programme de financement des Regroupements stratégiques, co-applicant on the operating grant (Subvention de fonctionnement pour un centre en renouvellement) for the Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises (CIEQ), submitted by CIEQ co-director Yvan Rousseau (UQTR).

2006-2010. SSHRC Standard Research Grants, Pères et paternité au Québec, 1900-1960.

Books

Gossage, Peter and Lisa Moore, eds. Family and Justice in the Archives: Historical Perspectives on Intimacy and the Law. Montreal: Concordia University Press, 2024. https://www.concordia.ca/press/familyandjustice.html

Gossage, Peter and Robert Rutherdale, eds. Making Men,Making History: Canadian Masculinities across Time and Place. Vancouver:UBC Press, 2018. https://www.ubcpress.ca/making-men-making-history

Gossage, Peter and J.I. Little.  An Illustrated History of Quebec: Tradition and Modernity. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press Canada, 2012.  http://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780199009954.html
 
Gauvreau, Danielle, Diane Gervais and Peter Gossage. La Fécondité des Québécoises, 1870-1970. D’une exception à l’autre. Montreal: Les Éditions du Boréal, 2007.   http://www.editionsboreal.qc.ca/catalogue/livres/fecondite-des-quebecoises-1542.html

Gossage, Peter. Families in Transition: Industry and Population in Nineteenth-Century Saint-Hyacinthe. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999. 299 pages. http://www.mqup.ca/families-in-transition-products-9780773518476.php?page_id=106239

Website

Lutz, John, Ruth Sandwell and Peter Gossage, directors. Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History/Les Grands Mystères de l’histoire canadienne. Prize-winning collection of thirteen educational websites in Canadian history, prepared from 1997 to 2015 by a team led by Lutz, Sandwell, and Gossage with major funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.  www.canadianmysteries.ca

Articles and chapers

Gossage,Peter. “The Grey Nuns' Mother House: Confronting the Difficult Legacies.” In Concordia University at 50: A Collective History, eds. Monika Kin Gagnon and Brandon Webb, with Steven High, Catherine Wild, and Jason Camlot. Montreal: ConcordiaUniversity Press, 2024: 53-63.

https://press.library.concordia.ca/projects/concordia-university-at-50

Gossage, Peter and Lisa Moore. “Introduction: Family and Justice in the Archives.” In Family and Justice in the Archives: Historical Perspectives on Intimacy and the Law, eds. Peter Gossage and Lisa Moore. Montreal: Concordia University Press, 2024:3-22.

Gossage, Peter and Lisa Moore. “Marriage, Property, and the Law in a Square-MileFamily: The Case of Annie Stevenson Anderson v. David Morrice, 1884-85.” In Montreal’s Square Mile:  The Making and Transformation of a Colonial Metropole,eds. Dimitry Anastakis, Elizabeth Kirkland, and Donald Nerbas. Toronto:University of Toronto Press, 2024: 147-174. 

Gossage, Peter. “Celebrating the Family Man: From Father’s Day to LaFête des Pères, 1910-1960.”  In Making Men, Making History: Canadian Masculinities across Time and Place,eds.   Peter Gossage and Robert Rutherdale, Vancouver:UBC Press, 2018: 385-408.

Gossage, Peter. “On Dads and Damages: Looking for the ‘Priceless Child’ and the ‘Manly Modern’ in Quebec’s Civil Courts, 1921-1960.” Histoire sociale/Social History 49, 100 (November 2016): 603-623.

Gossage, Peter. “Visages de la paternité au Québec, 1900-1960.” Revue d’histoire del’Amérique française  70, 1-2 (Summer-Fall 2016) : 53-82. 

Gossage, Peter. "Au nom du père? Rethinking the History of Fatherhood in Quebec," American Review of Canadian Studies 44, 1 (Spring 2014): 49-67. 

Gossage, Peter. “Les Anglophones dans l’histoire collective du Québec. Réflexions sur des travaux en cours.” Enjeux de l’univers social 8, 1 (Spring 2012): 11-15.

Gossage, Peter. “Femmes, remariages et familles recomposées au Québec, 1866-1920.”  In Une démographie au feminine: Risques et opportunités dans le parcours de vie/A Female Demography: Risks and Chances in the Life Course, ed. Oris, Michel, Guy Brunet, Virginie De Luca Barrusse, and Danielle Gauvreau (Bern: Peter Lang, 2009): 321-355. 

Adams, Annmarie and Peter Gossage. “Private Matters: Sick Children at Home in the 1890s.”  In Designing Modern Childhoods: History, Space, and the Material Culture of Children, ed. Ning de Conick-Smith and Marta Gutman (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2008): 61-81.

Gossage, Peter. “Marginal by Definition?  Stepchildren in Quebec, 1866-1920.” In Mapping the Margins: The Family and Social Discipline in Canada, 1700-1960, ed. Nancy Christie and Michael Gauvreau (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004): 141-70.

Gossage, Peter. “La marâtre: Marie-Anne Houde and the Myth of the Wicked Stepmother in Quebec.”  In Histories of Canadian Children and Youth, ed. Nancy Janovicek and Joy Parr (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2003): 147-66.

Gauvreau, Danielle and Peter Gossage. “Canadian Fertility Transitions: Quebec and Ontario at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” Journal of Family History 26, 2 (April 2001): 162-88.

Gossage, Peter and Danielle Gauvreau. “Demography and Discourse in Transition: Quebec Fertility at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” The History of the Family: An International Quarterly 4, 4 (December 1999): 375-95.

Gossage, Peter. “Tangled Webs: Remarriage and Family Conflict in 19th-Century Quebec.” In Family Matters: Papers in Post-Confederation Canadian Family History, ed. Edgar-André Montigny and Lori Chambers (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1998): 355-76.

Gauvreau, Danielle and Peter Gossage. “’Empêcher la famille’: Fécondité et contraception au Québec, 1920-1960.” Canadian Historical Review 78, 3 (September 1997): 478-510.