Michael McLaughlin
Mike McLaughlin received his B.A. and M.A. in history from York University. He is currently a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of History at Carleton University. He is writing his thesis on aspects of Irish Catholic middle-class culture in Canada from 1840 to 1900. His study diverges from other studies of Irish Catholics that employ a local, regional approach by seeking to place the development of a Canadian Irish Catholic middle-class culture within the context of the British Empire and its discourses of liberalism and imperialism. His research probes the tension that existed among this group of middle-class Irish Catholics who adhered to hegemonic norms of respectability associated with the British Empire, while at the same time critiquing the exclusions that were created as a result of the imperial project.