‘Modernist seats for Academe’, Inaugural Donald Buchanan Memorial Lecture, Design Exchange, Toronto 13 Oct 2006

‘Working Knowledge of the Insensible’ Annual Interdisciplinary Workshop of CIHR Strategic Research and Training, Heath Care, Technology and Place, Toronto 14 April 2005

‘Local Water Diversely Known,’ Shannon Lecture in Environmental History, Carleton University, Ottawa, 12 November 2004

‘Working Knowledge of the Insensible,’ Plenary Address, Technology and the Body Conference, November 4-6, 2004, Canada Science and Technology Museum, Ottawa, Canada

‘Managing Radiation Danger as National Culture: Navy Men, Cowboys and Fishermen,’ Canada Seminar, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 17 December 2003

‘Living by dam sites’, Selkirk College, Castlegar BC, 17 March 2003

‘Knowing Good Water,’ Nelson Women’s Centre, Nelson BC 18 March 2003

‘Knowing Good Water’, Canada Seminar, Oxford University, 1 May 2003

‘National Cultures of Risk: Radiation Protection in Nuclear Industries’, Hagley Research Seminar Series, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington Delaware, 8 May 2003

'Modern Canadian Design and Domesticity,' McGill University, Department of English, 6 March 2001

'Design of Canadian Household Goods,' Industrial Design Programme, University of Edmonton, 3 March 2000

'Notes for a more sensuous history of twentieth century Canada,'

---History, McMaster University, Hamilton Ont, 12 October 2000

---History, University of Waterloo, 24 October 2000

---History, Carleton University, 16 November 2000

---St Mary's College, Calgary, 9 February 2001

'Gender and the history of Technology', Lecture Series at University of Amsterdam, Dec 1999

Bronfman Lecture, Institute of Canadian Studies, University of Ottawa, Nov 1998

Underhill Lecture, Department of History, Carleton University, March 1998

Creighton Lectures, University of Toronto, Department of History January 1997

President's Lecturer, University of Saskatchewan, January 1997

Atlanta Seminar in the Comparative History of Labor, Industry, Technology and Society, February 1997

'Modern Usury: the rhetoric and regulation of consumer credit,' Oxford Seminar in Economic History, 16 November 1996

'Engineering for Excess,' Oxford Seminar in History of Science and Technology, 22 November 1996

'Colonial as Modern: designers, homemakers and maple furniture in postwar Canada' McLean Chair Canadian Studies Lecture, University of British Columbia, February 16, 1996

'Gender History and Historical Practice' University of Northern British Columbia 20 October 1994

'Shopping for a Good Stove' College of New Caledonia 21 October 1994

'Mrs Consumer and Mr Keynes in Postwar Canada and Sweden' 23 February 1995 and 'Gender History and Historical Practice' 24 February 1995, University of British Columbia, Gender History Series

'What makes Washday Less Blue' University of Victora, History, 7 October 1993 and University of British Columbia, Geography 14 October 1993

'Consumer goods industries and consumption policies in Canada and Sweden' University of Uppsala, Department of Economic History, 17 May 1993

'Shopping for a good stove' Malaspina College, Duncan BC March 19, 1993

'Poststructuralism and history' University of British Columbia, 25 February 1993

'History of Shopping' Northern Lights College, Ft Nelson BC 21 November 1992

'Shopping for a Good Stove' Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College, Harvard University 18 March 1992

'Considering the historian's craft' York University, History Department, 3 December 1991

'What is post-modern history?' OISE, Department of History and Philosophy of Education, Mar 5, 1991

'Feminism and Postmodernism', Institute of Social Research, York University, 3 December 1990

'Single Fellows and Family Men: Masculinity and Domesticity in a Canadian Furniture Town' Universite du Quebec a Chicoutimi 5 October 1989

'Ontario labour law and the post-war textile industry' University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 5 May 1989

'A small town textile strike: Penmans, Paris, 1949,' JMS Careless History Club, King's College, University of Western Ontario, 25 January 1989

'Craftwork and management in the furniture industry,' Department of History, Trent University, 16 November 1988

'Manliness, craftsmanship and scientific management,' History Department, Atkinson College, York University 7 March 1988

'Disaggregating the sexual division of labour', New History Society, York University, Toronto November 24, 1986.

'The construction of the family wage in hosiery towns,' Department of Economic and Social History, University of Edinburgh, 21 November, 1984.

'Women and children in Canada,' Canadian Studies Programme, University of Edinburgh, 20 November, 1984.

'Nature and Hierarchy', 27 October, 1984, Dawson College, Montreal.

'Women workers in the twentieth century' in the lecture series, Canadian Labour and Working-class history, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 23 March 1983.

'Hired Men' Memorial University, Department of History, 22 March 1983.

'Canadian Childhood', Scarborough College, University of Toronto, 21 February 1983.

'Perspectives in Family History', St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, History and Sociology Forum, October 1982.

'The Boundaries of Private Life', McMaster University, History and Sociology Joint Colloquium, February 1982

'The Hearth, the Newcomer and the State', Huron College, University of Western Ontario, January 1981

'The Family and the State', Ottawa Historical Association, 29 September 1981

as distinguished visiting professor, State University of New York,1981 - formal public addresses

---10 April 'Doing History: Context and Theory'

---14 April 'The Canadian Orphan Train'

---16 April 'Mug Shots: the history of dossier photography'

---21 April 'Victorian Working Children: Oliver Twist in Real Life'

---28 April 'Reflections on the History of the Canadian Family'

as distinguished visiting professor, University of Guelph, 1983

---15 February 'Case Records as Historical Sources: Ethical and Methodological Dilemmas'

---22 February 'Dissonant Views on Rural Ontario Society at the turn of the Century: J.K. Galbraith versus A.W. Currie'