Alexander Gould

Thesis

Agriculture, Mission, and Civilisation-Building in 17th-Century New France

My doctoral research concentrates on the colonisation and evangelisation of North America by French and Catholic actors in the 17th century. This was a period in which French settlers, Indigenous peoples, and Jesuit missionaries, among others, determined the language, religious practice, and use of the land in what is now known as Canada, laying the foundation of modern Canadian society. I attempt a literary and ethnohistorical reading of the Jesuit Relations and other (secular and religious) sources to determine the success of Canada’s “conversion” in this period, along with the impacts of French and Jesuit activity on the lives, customs, and modes of subsistence of Indigenous peoples.

Supervisors: John Tresch/Sara Miglietti