Cindy Brown

Dr. Cindy Brown teaches and supervises in the fields of Modern Italy, international humanitarian law, and European History with an emphasis on war and society. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the Western University (2013) an MA in History from the University of New Brunswick (2004) and a BA (History Honours) also from UNB (2002). She is the Executive Director of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society and a Research Associate with the Department of History at UNB.

Her doctoral research examined the impact of the Second World War on Italian civilians, with special consideration of the relationship between Italian civilians and soldiers and the evolution of Allied Military Government and Civil Affairs in Italy and Northwest Europe. She connects these ideas in her research and teaching across the twentieth century, most recently as a co-investigator on a SSHRC-funded project (with Western Ontario) called “Long-term housing outcomes of under-housed Syrian refugees” that seeks to understand the challenges faced by government assisted Syrian refugees in finding suitable housing.

In addition to her research and teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, Dr. Brown is also a lead on the Gregg Centre’s War and the Canadian Experience education program. Through this program, she and her team partner with world-class educators to facilitate the teaching of war and society related issues in classrooms across Canada. Within this program, she has guided teachers, graduate and undergraduate students, and members of the Canadian Armed Forces in multiple programs in Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Dr. Brown was the recipient of the 2014 UNB Faculty of Arts Excellence in Teaching Award, Part-Time.

Publications

With Lisa Todd. Eds. A Cultural History of War in the Modern Period, 1920-2000 (London: Bloomsbury Academic Press, in progress).

With Lisa Todd. “Culture” in A Cultural History of War in the Modern Period, 1920-2000 (London: Bloomsbury Academic Press, in progress)

Monte Cassino and Monte Sole: The Allies, the Germans and the Italians Caught in Between (UBC Press, in progress)

With Fawziah Rabiah-Mohammed, Leah K. Hamilton, Abe Oudshoorn, Mohammad Bakhash, Rima Tarraf, Eman Arnout, Cindy Brown, Sarah Benbow, Sagida Elnihum, Mohammed El Hazzouri, Victoria M. Esses, Luc Theriault, “Syrian Refugees’ Experiences of the Pandemic in Canada: Barriers to Integration and Just Solutions,” in Studies in Social Justice Vol. 16, No. 1 (2022), pp. 9-32.

Cindy Brown and Lee Windsor, “i Canadesi, i partigiani italiani e la battaglia per la Linea Gotica: mito e realtà a confronto” in Mirco Carrattieri e Alberto Preti, eds. Comunità in guerra sull’Appennino: La Linea Gotica tra storia e politiche della memoria from i libri di Viella, Ottobre 2018.

“The Allies, the Italian San Marco Marines, and the Breaking of the Gothic Line” in Italy and the Second World War, History of War Series, Vol. 121, Brill Academic Publishers, June 2018.

“’To bury the dead and to feed the living’: Allied Military Government in Sicily, 1943,” Canadian Military History, July 2013, pp. 35-48.

Blake Seward, Cindy Brown, Alan Sears, and Lee Windsor, “Crossing Boundaries on the Battlefield: The Possibilities of Teacher Study Tours for Substantial Professional Learning,” Canadian Military History, Winter 2013.

With Lee Windsor. Eds. Canadian Military History: Special Edition, The Sicily Campaign, Vol 22 No. 3, Summer 2013, 104pp.

Conference presentations

2021 Rabiah-Mohammed, F., Hamilton, L., Oudshoorn, A., Bakhash, M.Z., Tarraf, R., Arnout, E., Brown, C., Benbow, S., Elnihum, S., El Hazzouri, M., Esses, V., Theriault, L. (June 21 to 23, 2021). “Applying Critical Social Theory to Understand the Experiences of Syrian Refugees in Canada during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Qualitative Analysis Conference 2021, Virtual, CA, June 21-23, 2021.

Rabiah-Mohammed, F., Hamilton, L., Oudshoorn, A., Bakhash, M.Z., Tarraf, R., Arnout, E., Brown, C., Benbow, S., Elnihum, S., El Hazzouri, M., Esses, V., Theriault, L., “How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Syrian government-assisted refugees in Canada,” The Migration Conference 2021, Virtual, UK, July 6-10, 2021.

2020 Invited Presenter with Blake Seward, “Common Threads between Education and Training,” Gregg Centre/Combat Training Centre Annual Conference, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, 18-19 February 2020.

2019 “Beyond the Beach: The Forgotten Voices of the Battle of Normandy,” at Normandy 75 Conference, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom, 22-25 July 2019.

2016 With Katherine Charette, Alan Sears, Lee Windsor, “From Commemoration to Critical Thinking: Using popular narratives of the World Wars as Entry points to ‘The Big Six’.” at The CHEA 19th Biennial Conference, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, 27-30 October 2016.

2016 “Dangerous Liaisons: The Role of Maritime Unit in the battles for the Gothic Line and beyond, 1944-1945.” Presented as part of the panel “The Relationship between the Italians and the Anglo-Americans, 1943-1945” at the “Italy’s Decade at War: 1935-1945 in International Perspective” conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, 6-7 September 2016.

2016 “Illegal Combatant or Patriot? Crossing Boundaries Between Italian Soldiers, Civilians, and Partisans in Italy’s Second World War,” at the 83rd Society for Military History conference, Ottawa, Ontario, 14-17 April 2016.

2015 “Whole of Government Operations in Europe, 1943-45,” at the Canada and Joint Multi-National Forces: Integration of JIMP with Military Readiness,” Gregg Centre/Combat Training Centre Annual Conference, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, 4-5 February 2015.

2014 Invited presenter with Lee Windsor. “The Canadians, Italian partisans, and the Battle for the Gothic Line: Myth vs. Reality,” presented at the 70 Convegno Internazionale, Comunità in Guerra sull-Appennino. La Linea Gotica tra storia e politiche della memoria, 1944-2014, Rimini, Italy, 20-22 November 2014.

2014 “The Legacy of Military Necessity in Italy: Allied and German Policy and its Impact on Italian Civilians,” presented at the Global War Studies/Royal Military Academy Sandhurst “1944: Seventy Years On” Conference, Cambereley, Surrey, United Kingdom on 14-17 April 2014.

2013 Invited presenter with Lee Windsor. “War and the Canadian Experience: A Case for Teachers’ Professional Development Tours in Europe,” at the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) Annual Conference, “People, Planet, Profit,” Jasper Park Lodge, Jasper, Alberta, 17-19 October 2013.

2013 Invited presenter with Lee Windsor. “New Trends in the History of War and the Canadian Experience,” co-presented at the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) Annual Conference, “People, Planet, Profit,” Jasper Park Lodge, Jasper, Alberta, 17-19 October 2013.

2013 “Military Necessity, Italians and the Second World War in Italy,” at the 24th Annual Military History Colloquium, Waterloo, Ontario, 2-5 May 2013.

2011 “The Monte Sole Reprisal Revisited: German Counter-Insurgency Doctrine in Italy during the Second World War” at the Society for Military History (SMH) Annual Conference “Ways of War,” Chicago, 8-12 June 2011.

2010 “Remembering Italy’s Second World Wars: The museums and memorials of Monte Sole, Cassino and San Pietro,” at the Association for the Study of Modern Italy (ASMI) Annual Conference “Italy and its Pasts,” Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, London, England, 19-20 November 2010.

2009 “Divergent Memories of the Second World War in Italy” at the “Seventy Years On: New Perspectives on the Second World War,” Chateau Lake Louise, 1 September, 2009.