Mairi Cowan

I am a historian with research interests in medieval Europe, early colonial North America, and how best to teach and learn history. My recent books and articles examine the connections between social discipline and the Catholic Reformation in Scotland; tensions of international theology, national politics, and local tradition in twelfth-century Glasgow; experiences of childhood in the Renaissance court of James IV, King of Scots; colonial efforts to “Frenchify” Indigenous people in seventeenth-century Québec; and Jesuit missionaries’ beliefs about demons in Indigenous societies of North America. My most recent book, The Possession of Barbe Hallay: Diabolical Arts and Daily Life in Early Canada, is a microhistory of bewitchment in New France.

My research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, eCampusOntario, and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.

At the Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga, I teach courses on world history and European history. Whether in a large first-year lecture, an advanced seminar, or an independent reading project, I focus on guiding students through authentic historical problems while helping them to develop the skills they need to discover, understand, and engage with the human past in a historically responsible way.