My name is Dr. Sarafina Pagnotta and I am a Canadian war art historian and public historian. I have been an independent research consultant in the Canadian GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives & museums) sector since 2017. I have worked with clients such as local heritage organizations, non-profit charitable organizations, alongside national cultural institutions (such as the Canadian War Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and Library and Archives Canada), media and podcast companies, academics and professional scholars working on their next book project, and individuals searching for their family military histories and building their family trees through genealogy research.

My passion is research – I love a good puzzle. Beginning with curiosity and a desire to learn more, I approach each research project with the time, dedication and interest it deserves. I am an expert in primary source research in all forms of material including textual documents, visual and material culture (works of art, photographs, maps, tables, graphs, and more). I have over a decade of experience researching in archives and museum collections locally, nationally, and internationally. I have developed finding aids and research guides to help other researchers find their way.

I have discovered a joy for working with others on their research, from initial idea through to completed projects – whether they be exhibitions, publications, podcasts, education guides, acquisition justification documents, artist and artwork backgrounders, family trees, grant proposals, and more.

I have spent the last ten years publishing and presenting my research both nationally and internationally at conferences, field schools, battlefield tours along the former Western Front in France and Belgium, local heritage organizations, universities and colleges. My approach in writing and presenting my research is one of a public historian, thinking about the various audiences and public(s) who will consume this history, making it accessible beyond academia.

I completed my PhD in Public History at Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada in September 2024. My own research focuses on “unofficial” artworks made by Canadians (soldiers, civilians, and prisoners of war, among others) during the World Wars both on and behind the front lines. My goals are to find ways to engage with these works as war art, artefact and historical document, to recommend updates to the cataloguing best practices of these works (especially when they appear in a textual archive, rather than in a war art collection), and to explain the important connections between national institutions in the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) and their impact on public, national and collective memory.

I am an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University and a Part-Time Professor at the University of Ottawa.

I am the current Rodger and Joann McLennan War Art Research Fellow at the National Gallery of Canada (2025-2026).