Museum historians

Dr. Cook is a graduate of Trent University, the Royal Military College of Canada, and the University of New South Wales. From 2002 to 2020, he held the position of First World War Historian, curating the Museum’s First World War permanent gallery, as well as a dozen temporary, travelling and digital exhibitions. He is the author or editor of 19 books, monographs and catalogues, and more than 90 scholarly articles and book chapters. His books — which include At the Sharp End (2007), Shock Troops (2008), The Necessary War (2014), Fight to the Finish (2015), Vimy: The Battle and the Legend (2017), The Secret History of Soldiers (2018), and The Fight for History (2020) — have won multiple awards. Among them are the Ottawa Book Award for Literary Non-Fiction (four-time winner), the J. W. Dafoe Book Prize (two-time winner), the C. P. Stacey Award (two-time winner), and the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. Dr. Cook is also Series Editor of the Museum’s Studies in Canadian Military History Series (published by UBC Press), a member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board, and a frequent commentator in the media.

For his contributions to Canadian history, Dr. Cook has been recognized with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation, and the Governor General’s History Award. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and the Order of Canada.

Her areas of research include art and war, war memorials, and commemoration. She has curated many exhibitions, including World War Women, Canadian Forces Artists Program – Group 8, and Women in Service – The Art of Molly Lamb Bobak. Her current research focus is women war artists and women’s war memorials.

Dr. Barker’s most recent publications include the co-authored book Material Traces of War: Stories of Canadian Women and Conflict, 1914–1945 (2021) and the co-edited volume Breaking Barriers, Shaping Worlds: Canadian Women and the Search for Global Order (2021).

Dr. Barker holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in History from Carleton University. She received her Doctorate in History from the University of Ottawa in 2008 and is an adjunct research professor in the Department of History at Carleton.

Dr. Burtch has published historical essays in Canadian newspapers and magazines, as well as scholarly articles in Canadian Military History, Material Culture Review, and International Journal. In 2012, his book Give Me Shelter: The Failure of Canada’s Cold War Civil Defence was published by UBC Press. The book, which explores the measures promoted by the Canadian government to prepare for a possible nuclear attack during the Cold War, received the 2012 C. P. Stacey Award for the best work published
on Canadian military history.

Dr. Burtch has worked on long-term, temporary, travelling and online exhibitions related to Canada’s participation in the war in Afghanistan, United Nations peacekeeping, military medicine, war and media, and the history of war and games.

He holds a Doctorate in Canadian History from Carleton University (2009), where he is an adjunct research professor in the Department of History. From 2014 to 2021, Dr. Burtch was Series Editor of the Museum’s Studies in Canadian Military History Series, which is published by UBC Press. In November 2021, he received a Civil Merit Medal from the Republic of Korea for his work in contributing to public awareness of the Korean War and its impact on Canadian history.

Dr. Iacobelli has published articles in Oral History Review and Canadian Military History, and is a contributing author to several books, including, most recently, Portraits of Battle: Courage, Grief, and Strength in Canada’s Great War (2021). In 2013, her first book, Death or Deliverance: Canadian Courts Martial in the Great War, was awarded the C. P. Stacey Award for the best work published on Canadian military history.

Dr. Iacobelli holds an Honours BA in History and Politics from Trent University, an MA in History from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a PhD in History from Western University. She is a past recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, and has previously curated temporary and digital exhibitions for the Rockefeller Foundation / Rockefeller Archive Center, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

Her current research interests focus on the human experience of war, whether on the battlefield, in military hospitals, or on the home front. She is the author of Briser les ailes de l’ange. Les infirmières militaires canadiennes (1914-1918) (2009) and has published numerous articles on Canadian military nursing and the impact of war on the Canadian home front.

Dr. Morin-Pelletier holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education, a Bachelor’s degree in History and Geography, and a Master’s degree in History, all from the University of Moncton. She also holds a PhD in History from the University of Ottawa and completed postdoctoral training at McGill University. She has taught History at the University of Ottawa and the Royal Military College of Canada.

Dr. Noakes has also been the historian on museum teams responsible for creating or hosting numerous special and online exhibitions. He is the author or joint author of books, book chapters, exhibition catalogues, and articles on subjects related to the First World War, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the Arctic, including Forged in Fire: Canada and the Second World War (2016) and, with Andrew Burtch, The LeBreton Gallery: The Military Technology Collection of the Canadian War Museum (2015). Alongside Whitney Lackenbauer, he is the co-editor of A.G. Lester’s Special Contract: A Story of Defence Communications in Canada (2019). With Tim Cook and Nic Clarke, he is co-author of Canada in the World Wars (2016), and with Janice Cavell, he is co-author of Acts of Occupation: Canada and Arctic Sovereignty, 1918-25 (2010).

Dr. Noakes holds degrees in History from Western University (BA), the University of New Brunswick (MA), and Carleton University (PhD).

He is currently the lead historian for In Their Own Voices, a Canadian War Museum oral history project that explores the experiences of Canadian veterans and their families, from the Second World War to the present day.

Dr. Petrou is the author of Renegades: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War (2008) and Is This Your First War?: Travels Through the Post-9/11 Islamic World (2012). He holds a Doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford, which he attended as a Chevening Scholar. He was the 2018 Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and is now an adjunct research professor at Carleton University.

Dr. Petrou sits on the board of directors of Saint Mary’s University’s Gorsebrook Research Institute, and is a fellow at both the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He also worked for many years as a foreign correspondent.

Prior to joining the Museum, Danielle spent 15 years in the federal public service, working mostly on Indigenous affairs and public history files, including the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada Secretariat at Parks Canada. She has extensive engagement experience with Indigenous groups.

Danielle holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from Carleton University and a Master’s degree in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. Her research interests include Indigenous experiences of war, and the impact of Canada’s wars and wartime policies on the lives of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.