About Laura
Laura Carlson is a historian, writer, and media producer. Holding a DPhil in history from Oxford University, she has taught history, classics, philosophy, and food studies in England and in Canada, most recently at Queen's University and Centennial College. She is also the host and executive producer of the award-winning culinary history podcast, The Feast.
Over the years, Laura has worked with numerous international organizations, from Bloomberg News to Heritage Toronto. As a writer and presenter, she has been featured on the CBC, Forbes, The Toronto Star, CBS Sunday Morning, and Atlas Obscura.
She is currently working on a book project on the restaurant history of Toronto.
You can get in touch with her here or learn more about her academic research and publications here.
Bio
Laura hails from the deserts of Arizona but now can be found in the relatively colder climate of Toronto. She got a taste for history during her undergraduate in sunny San Diego but gave up the sun and surf to study medieval history, first at the University of Toronto and then at the University of Oxford.
While she was completing her master's and doctorate degrees, she found a passion for productive procrastination through cooking for her friends and colleagues. She started a food blog, A Foodie’s Footnotes, in 2009 as a way of tracking her culinary creations.
After her doctoral work, Laura headed to Canada where she taught history and classics at Queen’s University for five years, winning the W.J. Barnes Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2016 and the History Department’s Teaching Award in 2017.
Her love of history and food finally came together when she started The Feast Podcast in 2016, which explored the great meals that made history.
Since then, she has also developed and led culinary tours and adventures through Toronto and southern Ontario with Heritage Toronto and The Foodies Group. As part of her work in public programming, she was curator of Heritage Toronto’s music history digital exhibit, Sounds Like Toronto, and oversaw the agency’s digital and in-person walking tour program.
Laura was a media producer and on-air host for Bloomberg News, producing the popular markets podcast “Odd Lots”, Bloomberg Live’s “Out of Office” as well as hosted and produced the weekday COVID-19 roundup, “Prognosis: Coronavirus.”
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy in Medieval History (2012) Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
Master of Studies in Medieval History (2008) Oriel College, University of Oxford
Master of Arts in Medieval Studies (2007) University of Toronto: Centre for Medieval Studies
Bachelor of Arts with Honors (2006) University of San Diego