ROUNDTABLE: IS THE FIELD OF DEINDUSTRIALIZATION STUDIES TOO ONE SIDED?
2025-09-26 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
Oral history has been the primary methodology of the field of deindustrialization studies for the past quarter century. The field is therefore anchored in working-class lives and the lived interior of deindustrialization. In a draft paper, DePOT member Stefan Berger provocatively asks if the field has become too one-sided as a result? He argues that “the field would gain in multi-perspectivity by moving away from its one-sided focus on working-class memories of deindustrialization.” The virtual session will begin with a 15-minute presentation from Stefan Berger and we will then hear from a series of respondents (who have read the paper) for 5-6 minutes each. It will then be opened for questions and comments.
Friday September 26th 2025 at 9:00am eastern time
Register on Eventbrite to get the Zoom link and receive reminder emails ahead of the roundtable!
Chairperson: Steven High (Concordia University)
Presentation: Stefan Berger (Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum)
Respondents: Fred Burrill (University of New Brunswick), Xavier Vigna (University of Paris-Nanterre), Amber Ward (University of St. Andrews), Bharat Sundararajan (University of St. Andrews), Emiliano Aguilar (University of Notre Dame)

ROUNDTABLE - POLICIES AND PROGRAMS: DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT
2025-11-07 09:30 - 11:00 | Zoom
DePOT’s Deindustrialization and the Environment working group is pleased to host its first roundtable, Policies and Programs: Deindustrialization and the Environment. This session brings together eight scholars whose research examines the intersections of industrial decline, environmental activism and remediation, and policy responses by a variety of levels of government. Presentations will consider how states, companies, and communities respond to the environmental legacies of deindustrialization, including questions surrounding the construction of uneven geographies of remediation and sacrifice zones. Drawing from several national and local contexts, the panel will highlight how difference policy frameworks shape the aftermath of deindustrialized spaces and landscapes.

Friday November 7th at 9:30am Eastern Time

Presenters:

Greg Wilson (University of Akron)
Valerio Caruso (Institute for Mediterranean Studies)
Petra Dolata (University of Calgary) & Julian Rioux (University of Saskatchewan)
Shouvik Mukhopadhyay (University of Calcutta) & Indranil Chakraborty (Fanshawe College)
Chris Walley (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
David Beorlegui (University of the Basque Country)
Steven High (Concordia University)

(Un)just Transitions?: Deindustrialization and the Environment
2026-06-18 - 2026-06-20
(Un)just Transitions?: Deindustrialization and the Environment
The call for papers is now available! Read and download it in French or English here.
What can the study of deindustrialization add to our understanding of environmental history? And conversely – what can the study of environmental history contribute to deindustrialization studies? Answering these questions will be the focus of the 2026 Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DePOT) annual conference, whose theme is “Deindustrialization and the Environment.”
Transitions are central in both environmental and deindustrialization studies. In environmental history, these transitions include the agricultural and industrial revolutions, and changes in energy sources from wood to fossil fuels, to renewables. These have been explored in the context of the legal system, labour, culture, economy and politics. Deindustrialization studies also centre on questions of transition. Studies might, for example, assess the impacts and transformations at work in the relationship between humans and nature in the decline, removal, or shift of industrial activity. The conference looks to explore these and other aspects of the intersection between deindustrialization and the environment.
Along with presentations and keynote addresses, the conference will include scheduled tours of relevant sites in Montreal.
We are pleased to welcome submissions for individual papers, panels, or roundtable discussions that speak to these and other themes including:

Toxic legacies, environmental remediation, “greening” and redevelopment initiatives.
Energy transitions
Worker health and safety, trade unionism and environmental justice
Citizen science
Climate politics, populism, and “just transitions”
Noxious deindustrialization
Industrial nature
Heritage and the environment

More information will follow in our conference program
