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Dr. Bettina Liverant

Pronouns: she / her

Positions

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Faculty of Arts, Department of History

Contact information

Email

bllivera@ucalgary.ca

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Background

Educational Background

PhD History, University of Alberta, Edmonton,

MA History, University of Calgary, Calgary,

B.ARCH Architecture, Carlton University, Ottawa,

Liverant Short CV (2025)

Biography

My research interests lie at the intersection of commerce and culture in North America, reflecting a multi-disciplinary career path and deep fascination with meaning making. Much of my writing transcends traditional academic boundaries, bridging economic and social analysis, identifying patterns and exploring connections between people and things, the past and the present. With an extensive publication record on retail history, corporate philanthropy, and material culture, I am committed to advancing understanding of consumer capitalism and its societal impacts.

My most recent publication is A Business History of Retail: From Trading Post to E-Commerce in the America and Canada, Routledge International Studies in Business History, (New York and London: Taylor & Francis, 2024).

Although transformations in retailing are of tremendous current interest, there has been no single broad-ranging account of the evolution of retailing formats. From Trading Post to Ecommerce fills this gap with a chronological presentation of changes in retail businesses and shopping experiences from pre-industrial times to the present. Retailing is explored as both an economic and a cultural phenomenon, showing relationships between the makers, sellers, and buyers of goods  shaped and reshaped as retailers, large and small, respond to competition and pursue new opportunities. The mass consumption of goods and services is central to American and Canadian history and understanding consumer society requires understanding retailing. 

 

Research

Areas of Research

History of Retailing and Consumer History (Consumer societies, consumer capitalism, consumer credit, spaces of consumption) , Corporate Philanthropy , Material Culture, Architecture & Design , Daily life and Domesticity in Northern North America , Modern Cultural and Intellectual History and the Sociology of Knowledge

Publications

  • A Business History of Retail: From Trading Post to E-Commerce in the America and Canada. Bettina Liverant. Routledge International Studies in Business History. (2024)
  • Rethinking Postwar Domesticity: The Canadian Household in the 1950s. Bettina Liverant. In Asa McKercher and Michael D. Stevenson (eds), North of America Canadians and the American Century, 1945–60 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press):. 141-175. (2023)
  • Geographical Variations: USA/Canada. Bettina Liverant. In Jon Stobart and Vicki Howard, eds., The Routledge Companion to Retail History (New York and London: Routledge):. 359-376. (2019)
  • Buying Happiness: The Complicated Emergence of Consumer Consciousness in English Canada, 1890-1960 . Bettina Liverant. University of British Columbia Press. (2018)
  • Making a Market for Consumers: The Calgary Consumers’ League and the High Cost of Living. In Shopping for Change: Consumer Activism and the Possibilities of Purchasing Power, Louis Hyman and Joseph Tohill, eds., (Ithaca NY and Toronto: ILR Press/Cornell University Press and Between the Lines Press):. 41-52. (2017)
  • Strategic Austerity: The Canadian Middle Path. Bettina Liverant. In Consumption on the Home Front During the Second World War: A Transnational Perspective, Hartmut Berghoff, Jan Logemann and Felix Roemer, eds., (Oxford: Oxford University Pre. 249-278. (2016)
  • Canada’s Consumer Election (1935). In Consuming Modernity: Changing Gendered Behaviours and Consumerism, 1919-1945, Cheryl Warsh and Dan Malleck, eds. (Vancouver: UBC Press. 11-33. (2013)

More Information

Industry Engagement

Provides expert consultation on an as-needed basis to national broadcasters, financial services firms, and media and communications agencies on topics related to retail and consumer history, architecture, design, and financial strategy. Contributions include content creation, historical consulting, general research and analysis.

Professional Affliations

Canadian Historical Association (CHA), American Historical Association (AHA), Canadian Business History Association (CBHA)