Christopher Petrakos

Biography:

Dr. Christopher Petrakos is an associate professor, teaching stream, at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Dr. Petrakos has taught and researched in the areas of borderlands history, early modern, and modern British history. His articles have appeared in the American Review of Canadian Studies, the Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society, Studies in American Humor, Anglican and Episcopal History, the Journal of Early Modern Culture, and the Delaware Review of Latin American Studies.

Dr. Petrakos’ most recent research focuses on what he calls the “Klondike borderlands,” the vast goldfields, trading posts, and Christian missions straddling the 141^st Meridian West, the boundary separating Alaska and the Yukon. This research project has taken him to conferences, libraries, and archives all over Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. His current project centres on the Bishop of Selkirk, William Carpenter Bompas and his ministry among First Nations and Inuit in the second half of the nineteenth century. 

Dr. Petrakos has taught over two dozen different courses in history since he began teaching in 2009. His teaching is student-centred, and his courses emphasize active and experiential learning. He is a regular liaison for the Historical Studies Student Association and the Editor-in-Chief of Prandium: The Journal of Historical Studies. Students interested in independent studies or ROPs in any area of early modern or modern history are welcome to contact him.

He can be contacted at chris.petrakos@utoronto.ca

Education:

PhD in History (Purdue University)
MA in History (Purdue University)