Elspeth H. Brown

I am a Professor of History at the University of Toronto, where I teach queer and trans history, the history of U.S. capitalism, oral history, and the history and theory of photography. Currently, I serve as the Director of the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative at the University of Toronto, leading interdisciplinary projects that merge digital tools with humanities scholarship. From 2020 to 2024, I was the Associate Vice President of Research, Strategic Initiatives, at the University’s Mississauga campus.

I earned my PhD in American Studies from Yale University in 2000. My research has been supported by organizations such as the Getty Research Institute, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Library of Congress Kluge Center, and the American Philosophical Society.

Notable Publications

Work! A Queer History of Modeling (Duke University Press, 2019)

“Queering Photography,” a special issue of Photography and Culture (2014)

Feeling Photography (Duke University Press, 2014, co-editor with Thy Phu)

Cultures of Commerce: Representation and American Business Culture, 1877–1960 (Palgrave, 2006, co-editor with Catherine Gudis and Marina Moskowitz)

The Corporate Eye: Photography and the Rationalization of American Commercial Culture, 1884–1929 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005)

In addition to my academic work, I’m actively involved in public scholarship as a volunteer and former President of the Board at The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives, the world’s largest and oldest queer community archive. I also lead the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory, a collaborative, SSHRC-funded project that connects faculty, graduate students, archivists, and librarians across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. This project, which runs until 2025, creates and preserves LGBTQ+ oral histories in the digital age. In an effort to connect broader audiences with these histories, the Collaboratory has also begun experimenting with digital research creation in a variety of forms, including animated video shorts, audiograms, and immersive public and digital exhibits.

Earlier in my career, I directed the Centre for the Study of the United States and the American Studies Program at the Munk School of Global Affairs from 2007 to 2013. During this time, I organized over 250 public events and lectures, making the Centre a leading hub for U.S. scholarship in Canada.