Research Interests
I am interested in the ways in which migratory birds intersect with human lives from a critical historical geography perspective. My doctoral project, “Red coats and wild birds: military culture and ornithology across the nineteenth-century British Empire,” will interrogate the intersections between military culture and the practices and ideas of ornithology in the Mediterranean region. The military and ornithological experiences of British military officers illustrate some of the ways imperial expansion provided opportunities for military men to map avian, moral, and racial geographies of the British Empire. Their positionality in different colonial places, and their interactions with Indigenous peoples, colonists, and migratory birds, provide an excellent opportunity for interrogating how territoriality, identity formation, colonial encounters, and networks emerged “trans-imperially” as officers moved from one site to the next.
Educational Background
B.A. McGill University, Geography (1992-1996)
M.A. Waterloo-Laurier Graduate Program in Geography, Geography (1999-2001)
Project Coordinator
Transnational Ecologies Project, Network in Canadian Environment and
History (NiCHE): Dr. Laura Cameron (Team Leader and Member of the NiCHE
Executive Committee) http://niche-canada.org/transnational_ecologies
Publications
K. Greer, "Ornithology on "the Rock": territory, fieldwork, and the body in the Straits of Gibraltar in the mid nineteenth century," Historical Geography 37 (2009): 26-52
K. Greer, “Placing colonial ornithology: imperial ambiguities in
Upper Canada, 1791-1841,” Scientia Canadensis 31, 1-2 (2008): 85–112
K. Greer and L. Cameron, “‘Swee-ee-et, Can-a-da, Can-a-da,
Can-a-da’: sensuous landscapes of birdwatching in the eastern provinces,
1900-1939,” Material History Review 62 (Fall 2005): 35-48
K. Greer and J. Kay Guelke, “Intrepid naturalists and polite observers:
recreational birdwatching and gender in southern Ontario, 1791-1886,”
Journal of Sport History 30, 3 (2003): 323-346
Non-Referred Contributions
K. Greer, “Chimney Swifts Return to Queen’s University,” http://niche-canada.org/node/9370
K. Greer, “Transnational ecologies in Malta: How can a critical
historical geography approach shed light on the current spring bird hunting
issue in Malta?” http://niche-canada.org/node/9367
K. Greer, “Transnational citizen science: an interview with Lilly
Briggs, Coordinator of BirdSleuth Costa Rica” http://niche-canada.org/node/9382
Museum and Art Exhibitions
K. Greer (Guest Curator) Souvenirs: Unearthing the Work of Tony Urquhart (21 March – 2 May 2010, Stewart Hall Art Gallery, Pointe-Claire, Quebec)
K. Greer (Guest Curator) Footprints of Expo 67: David Sorensen, Tony Urquhart, and Ann Roberts (Glendon Art Gallery, York University, 2007) http://myglendon.yorku.ca/monglendon.nsf/a7e65f88702320d28525734f00011f74/4096dacfe9df5b71852573aa0063fbe0?OpenDocument
K. Greer (Guest Curator) A Passion for Birds: A Victorian Natural History (Museums of Mississauga, 2002)
Supervisors: Dr. Laura Cameron and Dr. Joan Schwartz
Host-Supervisor:Dr. David Lambert, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK http://www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/Lambert/ [SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement: May - October 2009]
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Kirsten
A. Greer (Ph.D. Candidate)