Individual Scholar Page

Personal Info

Photo

About Me

Caroline-Isabelle Caron specializes in 19th and 20th-century Francophone cultural history. In her research, she looks at representations of the past, in the form of genealogies, collective memory, heroes and legendary, and commemorations, on the one hand, and at representations of the future, in the form of science fiction, on the other hand. He aim is to get a better sense at Acadia and Québec’s collective encyclopedias, in Umberto Eco’s sense of the word, i.e. the sum of the experiences and representations possessed by a person, and more generally, by a collectivity, which enables them to understand their world, and act and react to various experiences. She is recently concluded a major research project on Acadian commemorations in 19th and 20th century Nova Scotia. Her more recent publications have focused on representations of the future on television, including Doctor Who, Star Trek and several genre series from Québec. Her new project looks at Quebec 20th-century societal anxieties as reflected in speculative fiction and media since the mid-20th century.

Recent Publications

Books:

• Under contract: Quebec’s Broken Futures: A Historical Anthropology of Quebec Speculative Fiction, Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield), 2025.
• (ed. with Kristin Noone), Strange Novel Worlds: Essays on Star Trek Tie-In Fiction. McFarland, 2024.
• The Acadians/Les Acadiens. Ottawa, Canadian Historical Society/Société historique du Canada, 2015. 35 p. (Immigration and Ethnicity in Canada Series/La série l’immigration et l’ethnicité au Canada, no 33)
• Se créer des ancêtres. Un parcours généalogique nord-américain, XIXe-XXe siècles. Sillery, Éditions du Septentrion, 2006. 286 p.

Selected chapters and articles:

• In press: “Escaping dark realities into deceptively light worlds: two portal fantasies in Quebec children’s television” for Sherry Ginn, Gillian I. Leitch and Heather Porter, eds., Science Fiction and Fantasy Tackles Social Issues, McFarland, 2024, [17 p.]
• In Press: “Acadie, état d’esprit. S’imaginer/saisir/sentir l’Acadie depuis 1880”, in Josette Brun, ed., Communication et émotion : regards sur les médias et les espaces publics, Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval. 2024, 33-50.
• « La généalogie au Québec et en Acadie depuis la fin du XXIe siècle et son évolution de la fin du siècle dernier. » In Faire son temps. Usages publics du passé dans les francophonies nord-américaines, Martin Pâquet, ed., PUL (Coll. « Culture française d’Amérique-CÉFAN »), 2017: 133-149;
• « Of Exoduses and Raptures: A Theological look at Battlestar Galactica », TV/SÉRIES, no thématique « Philosopher avec Battlestar Galactica », 11 (2017) : https://doi.org/10.4000/tvseries.2002
• “‘It’s All in Books!’ : Time Travel and Pedagogy in Television’s Voyagers!”. In Time Travel Television. The Past from the Present, the Future from the Past, Sherry Ginn and Gillian I. Leitch, eds. Lanham, et al., Rowman & Littlefield, 2015: 93-103.
• “L’Acadie dans la tête : représentations généalogiques de l’Acadie ancienne au Québec”, In Actes du colloque L’Acadie des origines : mythes et figurations d’un parcours littéraire et historique, Jean Morency, Hélène Destrempe and James de Finney, eds. Sudbury, Éditions Prise de Parole, 2011: 57-70.
• «Note de recherche: Y’a jamais eu de Grand Dérangement. Représentations acadiennes de la Déportation au XXe siècle», Mens, XI.1 (aut. 2010) : 78-93.
• “Pour une nouvelle vision de l’Acadie” dans Balises et références. Acadies, francophonies, In Martin Pâquet and Stéphane Rivard, eds., PUL (Coll. “Culture française d’Amérique-CÉFAN”), 2007 : 433-460.
• “Translating Trek: Re-writing an American Icon in a Francophone Context”, Journal of American Culture, 26.3 (Sept. 2003): 329-55: https://doi-org.proxy.queensu.ca/10.1111/1542-734X.00095

Media Coverage

Social Media

Bluesky

Country Focus

Canada, United States

Expertise by Geography

Expertise by Chronology

Modern, 20th century, 21st century

Expertise by Topic

Libraries & Archives, Local & Regional, Museums, Public History