Dr. Ashleigh Androsoff is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan and a specialist in the history of Western Canada. In 2020, she and her collaborators Dr. Elizabeth Scott and Mr. Ryan Androsoff won the Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Museums for their work on the Doukhobor Living Book Project (https://doukhoborlivingbook.ca). The Doukhobor Living Book Project produced a 90-minute documentary film (“We’ve Concluded Our Assembly”) and an exhibit which was developed in collaboration with the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon. This exhibit featured an innovative and immersive soundscape experience which was designed to give visitors an opportunity to experience the sights and sounds of a virtual Doukhobor moleniye (prayer meeting).
Since 2016, Dr. Androsoff has been studying one of Saskatchewan’s most successful tourist venues: the Tunnels of Moose Jaw. The Tunnels markets itself as presenting the city’s history in its colourful guided tours. Dr. Androsoff’s research reveals that significant aspects of both the Passage to Fortune tour (which focuses on Chinese history in Moose Jaw) and in the Chicago Connections tour (which focuses on alcohol trafficking in Moose Jaw) are misleading or factually incorrect. Dr. Androsoff’s work raises important questions about how much we expect heritage tourism sites to represent the past in ways that are accurate, authentic, and ethical, and provides a framework for interpreting the degree to which heritage tourism sites are successful in this regard. Dr. Androsoff published “Moose Jaw’s Tunnel Vision: Mystery, History, and the Construction of ‘Canada’s Most Notorious City’” in Urban History Review in 2021, and “Mr. Burrows’ Laundry and the History of Chinese Labour Exploitation at Saskatchewan’s ’Tunnels of Moose Jaw’” is forthcoming with Histoire sociale / Social History.
Dr. Androsoff currently serves as the Director of the History Co-Lab, a centre for collaborative and community-engaged research at the University of Saskatchewan, and as a Board Member for the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan. She is an Elder for the Doukhobor Society of Saskatoon and a citizen of Métis Nation - Saskatchewan.
