Andrew Burtch
Adjunct Research Professor
| Degrees: | B.A. (Carleton), M.A. (Wilfrid Laurier), Ph.D. (Carleton) |
| Phone: | 819-776-8615 |
| Email: | andrew.burtch@warmuseum.ca |
Andrew Burtch is the Canadian War Museum’s post-1945 Historian. As curator of Gallery 4: A Violent Peace, he is responsible for all questions relating to conflicts from the beginning of the Cold War to the present day. He has worked to develop temporary and permanent exhibitions about the Afghanistan war, the Cyprus peacekeeping mission, the Korean War, military medicine, and war and media. He served as the Acting Director, Research at the Canadian War Museum from 1 April 2014-30 April 2015. His book Give Me Shelter: The Failure of Canada’s Cold War Civil Defence received the 2012 CP Stacey Award for military history.
Dr. Burtch co-supervises Master’s work, is a regular lecturer in international history courses, and invites Carleton students to the War Museum for discussions of Cold War questions.
Research Interests
- Canadian military history
- Memory and commemoration
- Oral history
- Cold War culture
- Advertising and publicity history
Selected Awards and Professional Honours
2012: C.P. Stacey Award, for distinguished publications on Canadian military history
2009: Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation Award for Excellence, Outreach
2009: Canadian War Museum Merit Award
2008: Canadian Museums Association Award for Outstanding Achievement, Exhibitions
2007: Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation Award for Excellence, Outreach
2004-2006: SSHRC, Canada Graduate Scholarship, Doctoral Scholarship
Select Publications
“At the Limit of Acceptable Risk: The Canadian Operational Mentor and Liaison Team, 2006-2011,” International Journal, 68 (2) (2013), 314-330.
Give Me Shelter: The Failure of Canada’s Nuclear Civil Defence Program, 1945-1963 (Toronto: UBC Press, 2012).
“Heralds of Doom: Canada’s Air Raid Siren Network,” Material Culture Review, 74/75 (Spring 2012).
“Simple Shelters? Monitoring Radioactive Fallout Across Canada, 1959-1963,” Canadian Military History, 20 (4) (2011), 49-62.
“War and Medicine at the Canadian War Museum,” Canadian Military History, 20 (2) (2011), 55-58.
“Dead Man’s Gun: True Crime in Postwar Ottawa, 1945-1946,” Ontario History, 102 (2009), 1-22.
“Afghanistan: A Glimpse of War–Contemporary History at the Canadian War Museum,” Canadian Military History, 16 (3) (2007), 23-29.
“Armageddon on Tour: The ‘On Guard, Canada!’ Civil Defence Convoy and Responsible Citizenship in the Early Cold War,” International Journal, 61 (3) (2006), 735-756.
Select Exhibitions
The Cold War Turns Hot, permanent exhibition upgrade, Canadian War Museum (CWM), June 2013
Korea 60, temporary exhibition, CWM, June 2013-January 2014
11 Women Facing War, temporary exhibition, CWM, February-April 2013
Kandahar–The Fighting Season, temporary exhibition, CWM, November 2012-September 2013
War and Medicine, temporary exhibition, CWM, May-November 2011
Afghanistan: A Glimpse of War, temporary/travelling exhibition, Ottawa 2007-2008, St. John’s 2009, Calgary 2011