Canadian-Scottish Studies at McGill University

A proud heritage, a vibrant future 

The St. Andrew’s Society/McEuen Scholarship Foundation Chair in Canadian-Scottish Studies in the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill University was established to advance research and learning about Scots and the Scottish influence in the history of Canada, Quebec and Montreal. The Chair was created through the generous donations of the St. Andrew’s Society of Montreal, the McEuen Scholarship Foundation and over one hundred individuals, foundations and corporations.

Chair
Don Nerbas is Associate Professor and Chair in Canadian-Scottish Studies in the Department of History and Classical Studies. He holds a PhD in Canadian History from the University of New Brunswick and was a member of faculty at Cape Breton University prior to his arrival at McGill in 2017. He has published a variety of articles on economic elites and capitalist development, and is the author of Dominion of Capital: The Politics of Big Business and the Crisis of the Canadian  Bourgeoisie, 1914-1947 (University of Toronto Press, 2013). His current book project, supported by SSHRC, examines the rise of the Cape Breton coal industry during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Situating Cape Breton’s Sydney coalfield within its wider colonial context as part of a British settler society, the project links the Scottish diaspora and business networks to the making and shaping of Canada’s emerging industrial order, including the development of  distinctive social classes and cultures. This project is a component of Professor Nerbas’s broader efforts, as Chair in Canadian-Scottish Studies, to expand and deepen investigation of the complex historical role of Scots in Canada.

To find out more, visit the McGill website.