Environmental History
Human encounters within wild biota, the changing meaning of wildlife , and how humanity has interacted with, found inspiration in, and frequently traded as commodities the wild things around them. My research has included studies of furbearing animals, bears and animal diseases, animals in national parks and trout conservation.

Canadian History
Pre and Post Confederation History; political, economic and social history

Western Canada
Fur trade era, Territorial Western Canada, and provincial histories of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba

Indigenous People, Cultural Exchange and the Fur Trade
Northern Great Plains Indigenous people and environments, foodways, the impact of historical climate change; and flows of environmental knowledge in the fur trade.

Fur, Modernity and Industrialized relations
20th century fur companies, cash, modern consumerism and changing markets in Northern Canada; industrialized fur manufacture and mass marketing in the 20th century, fur as a national staple and consumer products such as the fur coat. My current SSHRC-funded research examines Indigenous transactions with fur trade posts in accounting daybooks, examining credit, debit, straight barter and gift transactions.

Treaty Trade, the State, and Business History
My last SSHRC-funded research examined the cultural, social and economic impact of treaty cash bonuses and annuities paid in Western Canada in the 19th and early 20th centuries, indigenous annuity cash circulating in early town economies, and its redistribution among treaty people.