Tim Liebregt is currently a History Master’s student working under the supervision of Dr. Steven High at Concordia University. He is also working as part of the Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time project, having received the DePOT Master’s Fellowship. Prior to starting at Concordia, Tim completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph, where he was also able to work as a research assistant on a range of projects. Broadly, his research interests are the internal dynamics of Canadian unions, as well as their relationship with international labour organizations during the process of deindustrialization.

Project statement

Tim’s MA project addresses auto plant closures in Windsor, Ontario, from the late 1940s until the 1960s. While this period is usually perceived as one of boom in the industrial heartland, the case of Windsor presents a challenge to this timeline. Rather than being a product exclusively of large-scale economic cycles, deindustrialization is therefore considered as inherent to the control capital exerts over labour. Tim is also interested in the geographic control of capital, especially the urban-rural dynamics of auto manufacturing in Ontario, as well as the broader political reaction and response to deindustrialization at various levels of government.