Let's get to know Beverly Lemire!
Where is your favourite place on campus?
La Pasta in HUB, for coffee.
If you were not an academic, what do you think you would be doing?
Working for an NGO on equity issues or working in a museum.Where did you grow up?
MontrealWhere did you get your BA, MA, Phd?
BA and MA, the University of Guelph, DPhil, University of Oxford.If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Hmm. No where really. I like where I am.What is your favourite thing about teaching?
Sharing the discovery process with students. It's magic.What is your favourite book?
I don't really have a favourite book. But I read and re-read Patrick O'Brien's series many times (they made the film Master and Commander out of two of his books). And though I haven't read these books in a few years, I won't throw them out. You never know when I might want to read them again.Would you rather ride a bike, ride a horse, or drive a car?
I don't drive, so I'd better say ride a bike. You didn't ask if I'd rather walk or ride a bus.When did you know you wanted to study History?
I dropped out of university when I was 18. When I came back to school a few years later I thought I was in heaven and I loved my history classes. I think I was 23 by that time.If you could share a meal with any four individuals, living or dead, who would they be? (not your family)
1) Joan Thirsk, a tremendous historian, recently deceased; 2) Joan worked at Bletchley Park during World War II (where they did code breaking); I'd like to invite another of her female colleagues to dinner; 3) Ruth Stout, she devised a dynamic, sustainable and relatively low maintenance way of gardening in the mid 20th century; I'd like to have her to dinner. She and Joan would have lots to talk about, as Joan's work on food, farming and alternative agriculture was tremendous; 4) Maya Angelou. She'd be too busy to come to dinner; but I would be honoured if she would. We would have many many things to talk about.What is your favourite family tradition?
Cooking and eating.
Do you collect anything?
Ha! I fought the collecting disorder many times. I don't collect and refinish old wood furniture anymore; I don't collect early fashion plates (1750-1810) any more (that was a brief madness when I was a doctoral student); and I don't collect / plant roses and daylilies anymore. Enough collecting.
What was your first job?
My first paying job was an a mother's helper (as it was called) for a Francophone Quebecois interior designer and television personality in Montreal. I looked after her youngest daughter and made a few meals; I learned many things from Mme. Arbour, my boss, including how to cook better.