Let's get to know Beverly Lemire!
Where is your favourite place on campus?
La Pasta in HUB, for coffee.​
If you were not an academic, what do you think you would be doing?
Working for an NGO on equity issues or working in a museum.​Where did you grow up?
Where did you get your BA, MA, Phd?
BA and MA, the University of Guelph, DPhil, University of Oxford.​If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Hmm. No where really. I like where I am.What is your favourite thing about teaching?
Sharing the discovery process with students. It's magic.What is your favourite book?
I don't really have a favourite book. But I read and re-read 's series many times (they made the film out of two of his books). And though I haven't read these books in a few years, I won't throw them out. You never know when I might want to read them again.Would you rather ride a bike, ride a horse, or drive a car?
I don't drive, so I'd better say ride a bike. You didn't ask if I'd rather walk or ride a bus.When did you know you wanted to study History?
I dropped out of university when I was 18. When I came back to school a few years later I thought I was in heaven and I loved my history classes. I think I was 23 by that time.If you could share a meal with any four individuals, living or dead, who would they be? (not your family)
1) , a tremendous historian, recently deceased; 2) Joan worked at during World War II (where they did code breaking); I'd like to invite another of her female colleagues to dinner; 3) , she devised a dynamic, sustainable and relatively low maintenance way of gardening in the mid 20th century; I'd like to have her to dinner. She and Joan would have lots to talk about, as Joan's work on food, farming and alternative agriculture was tremendous; 4) Maya Angelou. She'd be too busy to come to dinner; but I would be honoured if she would. We would have many many things to talk about.What is your favourite family tradition?
Cooking and eating.​
Do you collect anything?
Ha! I fought the collecting disorder many times. I don't collect and refinish old wood furniture anymore; I don't collect (1750-1810) any more (that was a brief madness when I was a doctoral student); and I don't collect / plant and anymore. Enough collecting.​
What was your first job?
My first paying job was an a mother's helper (as it was called) for a Francophone Quebecois interior designer and television personality in Montreal. I looked after her youngest daughter and made a few meals; I learned many things from , my boss, including how to cook better.