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Matthew J. Bellamy

Professor – Business history; brewing industry; culture of consumption; branding and brand management; lobbying; entrepreneurship and innovation; sports entrepreneurship and culture.

• B.A. (�Ӱ�ԭ��), M.A. (�Ӱ�ԭ��), Ph.D. (�Ӱ�ԭ��)
• Email Matthew J. Bellamy

Matthew J. Bellamy is a professor of history at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University. He teaches and writes about Canadian business, political, and cultural history, with research interests that range from Crown corporations to the brewing industry. His work has appeared in The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, Literary Review of Canada, Canada’s History Magazine, Legion Magazine, the Canadian Historical Review, and international journals including Business History, Enterprise and Society, and the Business History Review.

He is the author of Profiting the Crown: Canada’s Polymer Corporation, 1942–1990, which won the National Business Book Award, and Brewed in the North: A History of Labatt’s. His article, “Business Against Drunk Driving: The Neoliberal State, Labatt Brewery, and the Creation of the ‘Responsible Drinker,’” was published in Enterprise and Society and received both the 2024 Philip Scranton Best Article Prize from the Business History Conference and the 2023 Best Article Prize from the Canadian Business History Association.

His current research explores the intersections of sport, business, and culture in twentieth-century Canada.

Professor Bellamy is accepting graduate students for Canadian history, and welcome inquiries about specific areas of supervision.

Research Interests

• Canadian Business History
• Cultural History, especially the history of consumption
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• Sports History and Culture 

Honours and Awards

2024 BHC Philip Scranton Best Article Award Winner
2023 Canadian Business History Association, Best Article Award Winner
2021 Canadian Business History Association / l’association canadienne pour l’histoire des affaires, Best Book Prize Honourable Mention
2018 “Raving Raven for Teaching Excellence”, �Ӱ�ԭ�� University
2016 “Favorite Faculty Member”, Department of Housing and Residence Life Services
2015 “Favorite Faculty Member”, Department of Housing and Residence Life Services
2015 Maclean’s Magazine named “The Canadian Brewing Industry, 1670-2015” as one of Canada’s “cool courses.”
2012  Office of Quality Initiatives, Recognition for “Excellence in Teaching”
2010 Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Teaching Achievement Award
2009 �ճհ�’s Big Ideas, Best Lecturer Competition, Finalist
2007 Capital Educators’ Award
2007 �Ӱ�ԭ��’s “Awesome Profs”, Charlatan
2006 National Business Book Award, Winner of the $20,000 first-place prize
2005 “Most popular profs”, Maclean’s Magazine
2004 Public Affairs and Management Faculty, Teaching Excellence Award
2002 �Ӱ�ԭ�� University Student’s Association, Teaching Excellence Award
2001 �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement

Select Publications

“Losing the “Lager War:” International Entrepreneurship and Business Failure in the United Kingdom Brewing Industry, 1975–1995,” Business History Review 98, no. 3 (Autumn 2024), pp. 727 – 755.

“Business Against Drunk Driving: The Neoliberal State, Labatt Brewery, and the Creation of the ‘Responsible Drinker.’” Enterprise & Society 24, no. 2 (2023): 522–45.

“The Rise of the Big Three: The Emergence of a Canadian Brewing Oligopoly, 1945-1962” in Dan Malleck and Cheryl Warsh (eds.), Pleasure and Panic: New Essays on the History of Alcohol and Drugs (Vancouver, UBC Press, 2022), 270-94.

“The Making of Labatt ‘Blue’: The quest for a national lager brand, 1959–1971,” Business History, vol. 62, no. 1 (January 2020), 123-50.

Brewed in the North: A History of Labatt’s (Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019)

“‘To Ensure the Continued Life of the Industry:’ The Public Relations Campaign of the Ontario Brewers during WWII,” Histoire sociale/Social History (November 2015): 403-423.

“John Labatt blows in and out of the windy city: A case study in entrepreneurship and business failure, 1889-1896,” Canadian Historical Review, (March 2014): 3-53

“I was Canadian: The globalization of the Canadian brewing industry,” in Andrew Smith and Dimitry Anastakis (eds.) Smart globalization: The Canadian business and economic history experience  (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, March 2014)

“‘More money than since or before’: How John Labatt’s brewery prospered during the Canada temperance act period, 1878-1889”, Brewery History, 152 (Spring, 2013), 20-32

“Steaming into the age of rail and pale ale: John Labatt and the transformation of Canadian brewing, 1855-1877,” Brewery History, 146 (Summer, 2012), 16-28

“‘Rich by Nature, Poor by Policy’? The premature birth and quick death of commercial brewing in Canada, 1667-1675”, Brewery History,  137 (Fall, 2010), 48-70

“The Canadian Brewing Industry’s Response to Prohibition, 1874-1920”, Brewery History, 132 (Fall, 2009), 2-17

Profiting the Crown: Canada’s Polymer Corporation, 1942-1990 (Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005)

(ed.) Canada and the Cost of World War II: The International Operations of Canada’s Department of Finance, 1939-1947 by R.B. Bryce (Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005) Press, 2005)