Will Langford
A historian specializing in twentieth-century Canada, Will Langford is interested in political activism, social movements, environmental change, and transnational connections. His first book was a history of development programs that approached the problem of ending poverty through empowering poor people and trying to create a more meaningful democracy. He is currently working on a history of right-wing politics in twentieth-century Canada.
Will has taught at the College of Sustainability since 2018. His courses engage with themes, present and past, connected with the environmental humanities. He has supervised five students (and counting) through the completion of excellent B.A. honours theses.
Will grew up in Calgary, but loves living in Halifax. He has three kids who keep him nice and busy. Will enjoys strong coffee, soccer, walkable city life, and how the smell of lilacs signals the arrival of summer.
Books
, 1964-1979 (McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press, 2020)
- Honourable Mention, 2020 Wilson Book Prize, L.R. Wilson Institute of Canadian History
- Reviewed in ; ; Canadian Journal of Political Science; ; and聽
Journal articles & book chapters
鈥�," Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (forthcoming 2025)
鈥淭he Great Spawn: Aquaculture and Development on Bras d鈥橭r Lake,鈥� in , eds. Lachlan MacKinnon and Andrew Parnaby (Athabasca University Press, 2024), 269-300.
鈥�,鈥� Canadian Historical Review 104, no. 2 (2023): 198-226.
鈥溾赌榃ill Freedom Survive?鈥�: Reconstruction, Self-Disciplined Democracy, and the Stirring of a New Right in Canada, 1943-1954,鈥� in , eds. Julien Mauduit and Jennifer Tunnicliffe (McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press, 2021), 264-296.
鈥�,鈥� Journal of Eastern African Studies 15, no. 2 (2021): 317-338.
鈥淚nternational Development and the State in Question: Liberal Internationalism, the New Left, and Canadian University Service Overseas in Tanzania, 1963-1977,鈥� in , eds. Asa McKercher and Philip Van Huizen (McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press, 2019), 184-205.
鈥�,鈥� Acadiensis 46, no. 1 (2017): 24-48.
鈥�,鈥� Canadian Historical Review 97, no. 3 (2016): 346-376.
鈥�,鈥� American Indian Quarterly 40, no. 1 (2016): 1-37.
鈥�,鈥� Urban History Review/Revue d鈥檋istoire urbaine 41, no. 2 (2013): 30-41.
鈥溾赌樷�� BC Studies 173 (2012): 11-39.
Public writing (selected)
of Quinn Slobodian, Hayek鈥檚 Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right (Zed Books, 2025), Canadian Business History Association (September 2025).
With Catherine Carstairs, 鈥�,鈥� University Affairs, 3 January 2023.
鈥�,鈥� Active History, 18 October 2022.
With Catherine Carstairs, Sam Hossack, Tina Loo, Christine O鈥橞onsawin, Martin Paquet, John Walsh, , 6 October 2022.
鈥溾�� Beyond Borders: The New Canadian History, L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian, 1 February 2021.
鈥溾�� Active History, 5 May 2020.