Jonathan Swainger
Professor
History
University of Northern British Columbia
Canada
Biography
Dr. Jonathan Swainger joined UNBC in September 1992 and has lived and taught in Terrace, Fort St. John and Prince George. He was History Department Chair from 2004 to 2009 and his teaching includes Canadian, legal, crime, and historiography. His research centers on legal and crime history in which he has published numerous articles on topics including capital punishment, the politics of judicial appointments, seditious language and free speech during the First World War, crime and community identity, and teen culture in northern British Columbia during the 1950s. His books and edited collections include The Canadian Department of Justice and the Completion of Confederation (2000), The Alberta Supreme Court at 100: History and Authority (2007), Laws and Societies in the Prairie West, 1670-1940 (2005) with Louis A. Knafla, and People and Place: Historical Influences on Legal Culture (2003) with Constance Backhouse.
Research Interest
Canadian legal and crime history with an emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries
