Ian Wereley
Contract Instructor
| Degrees: | B.A., M.A. (Carleton), Ph.D. (Carleton) |
| Email: | ian_wereley@carleton.ca |
Biographical Note
I am an energy historian interested in the past, present, and future of oil. My work seeks to demonstrate how history offers important lessons for navigating our own changing energy landscapes, and my recent publications include studies of energy transitions, oil company advertising, and the anthropomorphosis of fossil fuels into characters like King Coal and Prince Petroleo. I serve as an Adjunct Curator of the History of Energy at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, and am the Executive Director of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies.
Education
2018 – 2019
Postdoctoral Associate
Calgary Institute for the Humanities, Calgary
2012 – 2018
Doctor of Philosophy – History
Carleton University, Ottawa
2010 – 2012
Master of Arts – History
Carleton University, Ottawa
2006 – 2010
Bachelor of Arts – International History
Carleton University, Ottawa
Publications
Ian Wereley. 2021. “Rather of Promise Than of Performance: Tracing Networks of Knowledge and Power Through the Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1882-1922.” In Constance Backhouse, et al. (Eds.), Royally Wronged: The Royal Society of Canada’s Role in the Marginalization of Indigenous Knowledge (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
Ian Wereley. 2020. “Advertising an Empire of Oil: The British Petroleum Company and the Persian Khan Exhibit of 1924-1925.” MediaTropes 7, no. 2.
Ian Wereley. 2019. “King Coal versus Prince Petroleo: Imagining Oil, Energy, and Transition in Early Twentieth-Century Britain.” In Heather Graves and David Beard (Eds.), The Rhetoric of Oil in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Routledge.
Ian Wereley. 2016. “Extracting the Past from the Present: Exotic Prizes, Empty Wilderness, and Commercial Conquest in Two Oil Company Advertisements, 1925-2012.” Humanities 5, no. 2.
General Audience
Ian Wereley. 2020. “Review: Graham D. Taylor, Imperial Standard: Imperial Oil, Exxon, and the Canadian Oil Industry from 1880. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2019.” Labour/Le Travail, vol. 85 (Spring): 304-306.
Ian Wereley. 2019. “Research on the Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1898-1947.” Ottawa: Royal Society of Canada.
PhD Dissertation: “Imagining the Age of Oil: Case Studies in British Petrocultures, 1865-1935.” Carleton University, 2012-2018.
Master’s Thesis: “Discourse of Dissent: Bernard Acworth, the British Anti-Oil Movement, and the Royal Navy’s Use of Fuels, 1927-1937.” Carleton University, 2010-2012.
Teaching and Training
2018-Present
HIST 2910 O – “A History of Oil: Science, Technology, Culture & Conflict”
Department of History, Carleton University
2019-Present
“A History of Oil: Past, Present, and Future”
Learning in Retirement Lecture Series, Carleton University
2018
“Oil History for Everyone”
Enrichment Mini-Course Program for Elementary Students
EMCP, Carleton University
Community Engagement
Invited Talks
Dec 2021 “Ottawa’s Power: An Energy History of the National Capital Region” Bytown Museum.
Nov. 2019 “Discussions on the Future of the 3MT Competition”
CAGS 57th Annual Conference, Halifax
Sept. 2019 Energy and Scale Conference, Banff
Nov. 2018 SSHRC Take Our Kids to Work Day, Ottawa
October 2018 Calgary Institute for The Humanities Public Lecture, Calgary
Conference Presentations
August 2020 Petrocultures: Transformations, Stavanger, Norway [Cancelled]
May 2020 Canadian Historical Association, London [Cancelled]
March 2020 American Society for Environmental History, Ottawa [Cancelled]
June 2019 Canadian Historical Association, Vancouver
May 2017 Canadian Historical Association Conference, Toronto
August 2016 Petrocultures: The Offshore Conference, St. John’s
June 2016 Environmental Studies Association of Canada Conference, Calgary
May 2016 Canadian Historical Association Conference, Calgary
May 2016 SSHRC Imagining Canada’s Future Forum, Calgary
Media Interviews
May 2022 The Globe and Mail, Toronto
Ivan Semeniuk, “Prominent researchers urge Ottawa to increase top science scholarships above poverty line.”
March 2020 CBC Radio, Edmonton
Tara McCarthy, “Low Oil Prices and What it Means for Alberta.”
January 2020 University Affairs Magazine, Canada
Laura Beaulne-Stuebing, “Formalizing 3MT Rules a ‘Pandora’s Box’ for CAGS.”
Nov. 2019 CBC Radio Saskatchewan, Regina
Garth Materi, Blue Sky, “Saskatchewan’s Growth Plan.”
January 2019 FASS Newsletter, Carleton University
Nick Ward, “A Dozen Years at Carleton Studying History and Oil.”
Nov. 2017 Library and Archives Canada Podcast, Ottawa
Geneviève Morin, “Canada 150: Reflect and Reimagine.”
April 2017 Universities Canada, Ottawa
Promotional Video: “What are you going to do with an arts degree?”
October 2016 Universities Canada, Ottawa
Promotional Video: “#MyCanada2067.”
Awards & Scholarships
March 2022 Teaching and Learning Services, Carleton University
Carleton University Experiential Learning Fund (CUELF)
2013 – 2016 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Canada Graduate Scholarship (Doctoral)
August 2016 Carleton University
MacOdrum Library Open Access Award
May 2016 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
“The Storytellers” Research Communication Competition
March 2016 Carleton University
Graduate Research and Innovative Thinking Award (GRIT)
March 2015 Carleton University
Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT)
April 2013 Carleton University
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award
2012 – 2013 Government of Ontario
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (Doctoral)