Staff

Roland Bohr, Director

Roland Bohr is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Winnipeg. He grew up in Germany, where he earned an MA degree in history at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, with a thesis on the portrayal of North American Indigenous Peoples in German elementary and high school textbooks.

Following his interest in Indigenous technologies, in 1995/96, he held a Fulbright grant at the University of North Dakota, in Grand Forks, where he studied the history and material culture of Indigenous peoples of the northern plains, mainly the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota. In 1999, Roland Bohr entered the Ph. D. program in History at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, where he graduated in 2005 with a thesis on "Aboriginal Archery and European Firearms on the Northern Great Plains and in the Central Subarctic: Survival and Adaptation, 1670 - 1870." His thesis supervisor, Professor Jennifer S. H. Brown, introduced Roland Bohr to the Centre for Rupert's Land Studies, where he held a Harington Fellowship from 2001 to 2002.

Since joining the History department at the University of Winnipeg, Roland Bohr continues to work with Elders and knowledge keepers from Rocky Cree communities on several SSHRC-funded project regarding Indigenous language revitalization through cultural/material history and the history of place names.

His research interests include Canadian and US Indigenous history, material culture of the fur trade era, and continuity and change in Indigenous hunting and military technology on the Northern Plains and in the Central Subarctic. He also manufactures reproductions of material culture, such as traditional hunting weapons.

http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/history-bohr

Laurie Lam, Office Assistant

Laurie Lam received her BA from the University of Winnipeg, majoring in English, and her MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute. During her 25 years as Producer for the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, she helped develop several projects related to the fur trade. Since retiring, she has been pleased to return to the University of Winnipeg, where she worked early in her career.