Olivier Côté

Olivier Côté has been Curator of Media and Communications since 2015. This field encompasses postal history, the media (print, radio, film, television, the Internet and social media), transportation and advertising. He focuses on contemporary Canada, particularly on the concepts of myth, memory and nationhood, and the evolution of national identity. He is currently a member of the team that is developing the Canadian History Hall, which is scheduled to open in 2017.


In 2014, Olivier Côté published Construire la nation au petit écran, a monograph on the television documentary series Canada: A People’s History produced by the CBC. As a media historian, he is interested in the impact of mass communications on the understanding of history, the collective imagination and political cynicism. His current research explores Canadian television as a vehicle for modernity and identification with the nation in the 1950s and 1960s.


Olivier Côté has a Bachelor’s degree in History from Laval University, a Master’s degree from York University and a PhD from Laval University. He is a founding member of the website HistoireEngagee.ca.