Cultivating Community: Women and Agricultural Fairs in Ontario – Book Launch

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Cultivating Community: Women and Agricultural Fairs in Ontario- Book Launch

University of Guelph Rural History Roundtable

Thursday, February 17, 2022 – 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM EST

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About this event

Jodey Nurse, Research Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo

The RHRT is celebrating the publication of University of Guelph alumna Jodey Nurse’s first monograph, Cultivating Community: Women and Agricultural Fairs in Ontario. Join us as Nurse highlights women’s diverse roles as agricultural society members, fair exhibitors, performers, volunteers, and fairgoers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Nurse shows that women used fairs’ manifold nature to present different versions of rural womanhood. Although traditional domestic skills and handicrafts, such as baking, needlework, and flower arrangement, remained the domain of women throughout this period, women steadily enlarged their sphere of influence on the fairgrounds. By the mid-twentieth century they held space in venues previously closed to them, including the livestock show ring, the athletic field, and the boardroom. Through fascinating stories and colourful detail, Cultivating Communities adds a new dimension to the social and cultural history of rural women, placing their activities at the centre of the agricultural fair.

Cover of Cultivating Community by Jodey Nurse
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Jodey Nurse

Jodey Nurse is a research assistant professor in the Department of History, University of Waterloo. Nurse is also the RWSA International Membership and Communication Coordinator for Canada. Her research includes a range of topics related to rural communities and agricultural policy. Her first monograph, Cultivating Community: Women and Agricultural Fairs in Ontario was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in February 2022.

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