Laurel Sefton MacDowell

Professor MacDowell is Professor of History at the University of Toronto (Mississauga). She researches Canadian history, focussing in particular upon the history of the Canadian labour relations, and the environmental history of North America, particularly as it interacts with unions. She has published on the history of unions and the Canadian labour relations, including Remember Kirkland Lake: ’The Gold Miners’ Strike 1941-42, which won an honourable mention for the Floyd S. Chalmers award, 1984. Professor MacDowell is currently writing a textbook on the environmental history of Canada (Fragments and Patterns: An Environmental History of Canada) for UBC Press.

Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History Books

Renegade Lawyer: The Life of J.L. Cohen(Toronto: The Osgoode Society and the University of Toronto Press, 2001), 400 pp.

  • Winner of the 2002 Floyd S. Chalmers award in Ontario History, Champlain Society
  • Honourable Mention, 2002 MacDonald Prize, Canadian Historical Association.

Other Legal History Publications

‘Law and Labour in Ontario: The Career of J.L. Cohen.’ 10th Larry Sefton Memorial Lecture, University of Toronto, Woodsworth College, 1991.