Nick Brune

Born in London, England, Nick Brune received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Honours History and Political Science from the University of Toronto.

Brune began his teaching career in Lausanne, Switzerland but taught most of his career in Halton County. He currently teaches at the University of Western Ontario and online with Queen's University.

He is currently the President of the non-profit educational foundation, The Civics Channel, dedicated to research, teaching and learning in the areas of citizenship and society, politics, human rights, and the justice system.

Brune has co-authored more than half a dozen history and civics textbooks, beginning with "Canada: A North American Nation" (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1989) and more recently "Defining Canada: History, Identity, and Culture" (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2003). He is co-author and producer of the Civics Canada Online Textbook, as well as its print version, Civics Canada.

In addition, he has produced learning resources for a variety of different organizations. He helped found and was the Educational Writer for the award-winning CBC-TV News in Review for its first six years of existence. He has written a number of resources for The Dominion Institute ("Our Heroes," "The Memory Project," "Passages to Canada," and "The Democracy Project.") For the Hong Kong Commemorative Veterans Association, he wrote "Canada in Hong Kong, 1941-1945, The Forgotten Heroes." Working with ALPHA, he co-authored a learning resource that examines human rights abuses in China, 1931-1945.

Brune has given presentations and workshops in Canada (Victoria, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax) and beyond (Birmingham, UK, Seoul, South Korea, and Shanghai, China). His themes have included historical as well as pedagogical topics.

Nick Brune has received the Marshall McLuhan Distinguished Teacher Award (1992) and the Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History (2002). Last year, he was awarded The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Award.