Participant Info
- First Name
- Leah
- Last Name
- Morton
- Country
- Canada
- State
- lmorton@manitobamuseum.ca
- Affiliation
- Manitoba Museum
- Website URL
- Keywords
- polio, disability, gender, family, childhood, nursing, social history, Winnipeg,
- Availability
- Media Contact
- Additional Contact Information
- Can comment on historical contexts of polio in Canada. Not interested in/will not comment on the anti-vaccination position.
- PhD
- PhD
Personal Info
- Photo
- About Me
I am currently the curatorial assistant (history) at the Manitoba Museum. My job focuses on researching the histories of Winnipeg and Manitoba in anticipation of a new Winnipeg gallery and some updates in the existing galleries. I also write exhibit text and consult with community groups.
Prior to that I worked as a sessional instructor at the Universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba. I taught a number of introductory Canadian history classes as well as classes on the history of women and the history of education.
I have a BA (spec. hons.) and an MA from York University, Toronto Ontario. My PhD from the University of Manitoba (2013) is “It has impacted our lives in great measure’: Families, patients, and health care during Manitoba’s polio era, 1928 – 1953.”
My dissertation examines the broad social impacts of the multiple polio epidemics that occurred in Manitoba between 1928 and 1953, a period I refer to as the epidemic era. It argues that examining the six major polio epidemics as an era, and the disabilities it engendered are useful windows into twentieth-century social, nursing, disability, and family histories. It also examines the development of post-war rehabilitation programs, which worked to discursively transform people with an illness into people with a disability.
- Recent Publications
Adele Perry, Esyllt Jones, and Leah Morton, eds., Place and Replace: Essays on Western Canadian History. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2013.
Leah Morton, “From Nose Sprays to Nursing Shortages: Managing Epidemic Polio in Manitoba, 1928-1953,” Manitoba History 66 (Spring 2011): 14-22.
Leah Morton, “Polio and the City of Winnipeg Archives,” A new home for the City of Winnipeg archives, October 2018, Archives,” https://wpgcityarchiveshome.wordpress.com/2018/10/06/polio-and-the-city-of-winnipeg-archives/
- Media Coverage
- Social Media
- Country Focus
- Canada
- Expertise by Geography
- North America
- Expertise by Chronology
- 19th century, 20th century
- Expertise by Topic
- Children & Youth, Disability, Family, Local & Regional, Museums, Public History, Women
