Dr. Brian Payne

Brian Payne is a professor of history and Canadian Studies at Bridgewater State University, where he teaches classes on US history covering the period from 1877 to 1939 with a focus on economic history and public policy. Payne has been at BSU since 2010 and has served on numerous departmental, college, and university committees include the GEC and terms as MSCA chapter president, vice president, and grievance officer. He is a co-editor of the American Review of Canadian Studies and principal editor of BSU’s The Graduate Review. He is author of two monographs (Fishing the Borderless Sea and Eating the Ocean), seven peer-reviewed journal articles and essays, and a co-editor of two collections of essays. His earlier scholarship focused on the North Atlantic fisheries, covering labor history, international law, and consumer economics. His current research interest is on domestic and international food aid in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain from 1919 to 1954. In this research Payne examines the emergence of nutritional science in the 1920s, the growing concern of a “hidden hunger” crisis, and government policies designed to address malnutrition. He further looks at how domestic food aid before World War II informed wartime food rationing programs and global food management regimes as well as post-war international food aid and relief programs.