Autumn Epple
Autumn Epple
Autumn Epple’s research involves an historical investigation into the life of Indigenous leader Atiatonharongwen, more commonly known as Lieutenant-Colonel Louis Cook, the highest ranking Indigenous person in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Cook, the son of a slave and Abenaki woman adopted by the Jesuits and Mohawks at Kahnawake, led a group of Oneidas in support of American independence, after having fought alongside the French in the Seven Year’s War previously, and eventually was killed in the War of 1812 while supporting the United States.
Autumn approaches this study with Indigenous Studies methodologies and an understanding of Haudenosaunee law to present Cook in proper historical context, as opposed to the colonial constraints in which he has been placed. With a strong emphasis on viewing Cook in the context of his bicultural existence as opposed to elevating an Indigenous figure based on settler ideology, Autumn is seeking to find the ways in which Cook operated within and outside of Haudenosaunee governance framework, and understand how he was seen by the people who adopted him in, and those who chose to follow him into battle.
Taylor Starr
Taylor Starr’s doctoral research project entitled “Invisible Barriers: Gendered Problems in Canadian Law Faculties, 1961–1994” is funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), an R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship in Canadian Legal History, and a Feminist Historical Research Scholarship. Her project examines the gendered and racialized obstacles that prohibited women’s access to equal opportunities in the Canadian legal academy through a comparative examination of French and English-speaking law faculties. Her project emphasizes the importance of resurfacing marginalized voices by supplementing the archival record with oral history testimonies. Aside from her doctoral dissertation, Taylor’s paper on feminist advocacy in the legal profession “Internal and External Advocacy for Legal Reform: The Genesis of the 1986 Ontario Family Law Act, 1967–1986” was published in November 2023 in Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Vol. XII, New Essays in Women’s History, ed. L. Chambers and J. Sangster (University of Toronto Press, for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History), pp. 304–336.
Taylor Starr
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