Anthony S.C. Hampton
PhD Candidate – University of Guelph
MA – University of New Brunswick, 2008
BA – Mount Allison University, 2005
ahampton@uoguelph.ca
The final three decades of the twentieth century witnessed a time of high political drama, as governments and ordinary Canadians consulted, articulated, and argued over their visions for Canada and the rights of its citizens.
Under the supervision of Dr. Matthew Hayday, my dissertation project is a study of the national dialogue between rights-seeking groups and the various Canadian governments over the repatriation of the constitution and the entrenchment of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. While the Charter itself has become an important symbol for Canadians, particularly outside Quebec, the interaction between the many Canadians who demanded inclusion in the document and the governments who drafted the bill of rights has gone largely unexamined.
Building on a similar project concerning opposition to the Meech Lake Accord, completed under the supervision of Drs. Margaret Conrad and Donald Wright at UNB, my intent is to bridge the divide between political and social history in my study of the repatriation period. This dual approach spans my research methodology and subject matter. My research combines traditional elite political history with an examination of equality-seeking, marginalized segments of society with an emphasis on oral history – an advantage of studying an event of relatively recent vintage.
My major doctoral research field was Canadian history under the supervision of Dr. Heather MacDougall at the University of Waterloo and Dr. Matthew Hayday at the University of Guelph. In the interest of further exploring Canadian political and constitutional thought, my major historiography paper focused on the Rebellions of 1837-’38. My minor fields were American History with Dr. David Monod at Wilfred Laurier University (major paper: F.D.R. and the New Deal) and Indigenous History with Dr. Ken Coates at the University of Waterloo (major paper: High Arctic Relocations and Historical Reparations).
Publications
“Ad Hoc Activism: The Feminist Citizens’ Response to the Meech Lake Accord in New Brunswick,” Catherine Carstairs and Nancy Janovicek, eds., Writing Feminist History, Vancouver: UBC Press. [Forthcoming]
Bibliography of At The Crossroads: A History of Sackville, New Brunswick, Sackville: Tantramar Heritage Trust, 2005.