Donica Belisle

Research

My research documents how Canadian prosperity was built on land and people who were deliberately discounted: sugar refined from colonial plantations in Fiji, department stores that sold a settler vision of modernity, women writers whose work was absorbed into their husbands' reputations. I investigate corporate records, government files, and institutional archives to recover who was written out.

Sugar: Local & Global · Hidden Authors · Consumer Identity & Advocacy · Mass Retail & Canadian Nationhood

Sugar: Local & Global

Indenture · capitalism · imperialism & colonialism · food studies

Canadian sugar wealth was built on colonial violence, indentured people, and systemic concealment. This research follows the archival paper trail, finding the connections between sugar refining in western Canada and the atrocities inflicted on indentured people from India in colonial Fiji. It examines how the Canadian sugar industry marketed its products by disavowing these global origins, using advertising campaigns that promoted racial purity and erased the people who produced the commodity. This research has to date led to one book and several articles.

Forthcoming Book Violence of Sugar: Girmit and Canadian Business in Colonial Fiji
Violence of Sugar: Girmit and Canadian Business in Colonial Fiji. Forthcoming, 2026.
Funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant ($91,826, 2020–2025).

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Hidden Authors

Gender & women's history · intellectual disavowal · academic labour

Academic renown sometimes depends on uncredited labour. During the 1940s and 1950s, faculty wives often typed dissertations, prepared indices, hosted colleagues, curated papers, and brought manuscripts to press, all while raising families and managing households. This project recovers those contributions through the case of Mary Quayle Innis (1899–1972), who was a writer, historian, CBC commentator and more. She was also the wife of Harold Adams Innis, one of Canada's most well known academics. This project examines how her intellectual and caring labour helped build his career and reputation, and why her own accomplishments faded from public view.

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Consumer Identity & Advocacy

Consumer history · gender & women's history · community organizing · settler politics

Consumers have been a powerful force in Canadian life, yet their political significance has rarely been taken seriously. This research recovers consumers' identities and work. Drawing on the records of the Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Women's Christian Temperance Union, National Council of Women of Canada, Women's Institutes, and the Canadian Home Economics Association, as well as on published Canadian fiction, it shows that what Canadians bought, and refused to buy, became instruments of political and economic change. Settler women in particular used consumption as a vehicle for artistic creativity and public action. This research culminated in my second book, Purchasing Power (University of Toronto Press, 2020).

Purchasing Power book cover
Purchasing Power: Women and the Rise of Canadian Consumer Culture. University of Toronto Press, 2020.
  • City of Regina Book Award, 2021
Funded by a SSHRC Standard Research Grant ($59,000, 2011–2017), "Buying Citizenship: Women and the Rise of Canadian Consumer Modernity."

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Mass Retail & Canadian Nationhood

Retail history · settler nationalism · labour commodification · gender & women's history

Canada's major department stores, including Eaton's, Simpson's, and the Hudson's Bay Company, did more than sell goods between 1890 and 1940. They sold a vision of modern Canada that was white, acquisitive, and British. This research draws on store records, advertising archives, labour records, and consumer correspondence to show how mass retail built settler national identity while commodifying the workers who made it possible. This research culminated in Retail Nation (UBC Press, 2011) and several other publications.

Retail Nation book cover
Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada. UBC Press, 2011.
  • Pierre Savard Award (ICCS)
  • Best Book in Canadian Studies (CSN)
  • Honourable Mention, Sir John A. Macdonald Prize (CHA)
  • Shortlisted, John W. Dafoe Book Prize
Funded by a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship ($80,000, 2007–2009) and a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship ($57,000, 2002–2005).

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