Colby Gaudet
Cultural Historian
LEAVINGS
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I'm an interdisciplinary researcher with a passion for studying religion, empire, and colonialism in
North America/Turtle Island. My research questions are historical in nature and are focused on Christianity and its impacts on Atlantic slavery, race, gender, kinship, education, and Indigenous-settler relations. I'm also dedicated to decolonial practices and to critically reflecting on the politics of archives – the leavings of history.
With a PhD in Religion from Concordia University and a Master of Arts in Interreligious & Indigenous Studies from the Vancouver School of Theology, I have a strong academic background and I've taught several undergraduate courses on themes in North American religious history and culture. My research has been published in Acadiensis and The Canadian Historical Review, and I've written a chapter in Concordia University at 50: A Collective History. My first book, Sacramental Communities: Kinship, Society, and Politics in the Catholic Atlantic, is expected to be published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2026. I've presented my work at academic conferences in Canada and the United States.
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I'm currently working on a project about early 20th-century Acadian women in Atlantic Canada and New England who joined religious congregations such as the Sisters of Charity and the Society of the Sacred Heart.