Nicholas Langer

Candidate, M.A. History

B.A. (Hons.) in History (Carleton University)
Email Nicholas Langer

Current Program (including year of entry): M.A. History (2024)

Academic Interests:
The Monarchy in the Commonwealth realms; Queen Elizabeth II and Canada; the House of Windsor and 20th Century Royal Tours; the British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations; the British world; Canada-United Kingdom Relations; Canada-Australia Relations; Canada-New Zealand Relations; Institutions and National Identities; the Westminster System of Parliamentary Government; Constitutional History; Political Symbolism and Culture.

Select Publications:
Langer, Nicholas. “Defining a Modern Commonwealth: The Role of Canada and Queen Elizabeth II in the 1973 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 19, no. 2 (2025): 339-364.

Current Projects:
“The Monarchy and Canadian National Identity at the Accession of Queen Elizabeth II, c. 1951-1953.” M.A. thesis (to be completed 2026).

Select Conference Contributions:
Langer, Nicholas. “Defining a Modern Commonwealth: The Role of Canada and Queen Elizabeth II in the 1973 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.” 32nd Underhill Graduate Student Colloquium, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. February 2026 (upcoming).

Teaching Experience:
HIST 2301: Canadian Political History (K. Badgley), Fall 2024
HIST 2804: War and Society: Conflict in Vietnam (H. Goldman), Winter 2025
HIST 2502: Britain and Empire Before 1914 (D. Kinsey), Fall 2025
HIST 1004: Europe in War and Cold War (S. Eedy), Winter 2026

Description of Research:
I research the relationship between the monarchy and Canadian national identity in the 20th century. I am interested in the role played by the Sovereign, their viceregal representatives (Governors General and Lieutenant Governors), and associated royal symbolism in reshaping Canadian identity as the British Empire evolved into the Commonwealth of Nations. I am also interested in how the monarchy, as a supranational institution shared by fifteen different countries, has influenced Canada’s relations with other Commonwealth realms like Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. My current research focus is on how Canadian politicians sought to domesticate the institution of monarchy and make it more symbolically Canadian in the early postwar period (1950s-1960s).

My M.A. thesis is entitled “The Monarchy and Canadian National Identity at the Accession of Queen Elizabeth II, c. 1951-1953.” It looks at four key events which have commonly been identified with the emergence of a distinctive “Canadian Crown” in the early 1950s: (i) the 1951 royal tour of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, (ii) the Royal Style and Titles Act, 1953, (iii) the appointment of Vincent Massey as the first Canadian-born Governor General in 1952, and (iv) the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953. I examine why Canadian politicians like Louis St. Laurent and Lester B. Pearson sought to use the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign to reinvent the symbolism of monarchy in Canada. And I identify the constraints they encountered in how much the monarchy could be altered. Developing upon the scholarly literature on the “British world,” I also look at how the monarchy drew Canada closer to Britain and the Commonwealth.