In response to the COVID-19’s impact on DePOT’s activities, in the fall of 2020 the project’s Coordinating Committee redirected funds to a series of student-directed initiatives. Students could apply for up to $1,500 CAD in funding (or $3,000 for a group) each funding round. Members of DePOT’s Training and Mentorship Committee adjudicated applications. Funding was given to the following students for their projects:

RVR Student Directed Initiative Fund: Fall 2023-Spring 2024

Katherine Watson, to support of a three-month research fellowship in San Crisobal de la Laguna with the Division of Social Sciences, Heritage and Food at the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology, Spanish National Research Council- $1460

Bharat Sundararajan, to conduct archival research in Pondicherry and New Delhi for his PhD thesis “From textiles to tourism: Mill work, deindustrialization, and urban change in postcolonial Pondicherry”- $1,500

Daniela Morales, to support fieldwork in Chile on the relationship between environmental regulation, environmental justice, and deindustrialization-related pollution – $1,500

Lauren Laframboise, to organize an event on the Immigrant Workers Centre’s Lamour campaign, following her and Stefan Christoff’s radio show – $1,500

Shonagh Joice, to support her presentation at the World Conference of the International Federation for Public History at the University of Luxembourg (September 2024)  – $800

Sinead Burns, to support her first post-PhD project “Buzz Logan’s Shankhill Road: Photography, Community, and Deindustrialization, c. 1965-1979” – $1464

Fall 2022

Èlia Casals-Alsina and Juliette Passilly, towards the development of their project “In giro: industrial heritage in dialog with the arts,” which will examine the use of industrial heritage site within the world of art in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain – $985  

Lauren Laframboise, to conduct oral history interviews with former organizers at the Immigrant Workers Centre and produce a public radio program on the closure of Montreal-based garment manufacturer Lamour (2007) in partnership with IWC community board member Stefan Christoff. – $985

Liam Devitt, for travel funding to conduct oral history interviews related to their MA research on queer experiences and reactions to deindustrialization in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. – $1,500 

Maria Beatriz Andreotti, Indranil Chakraborty, and Eliot Perrin, for travel funding to Batatuba (Brazil), Batanagar (India), and Ontario to conduct oral history interviews and archival research on the closure of three Bata Shoe Company company towns. – $3,000

Tim Liebregt, for travel funding to conduct archival research at the University of Windsor and Windsor Public Library about the United Auto Worker plants in the region, towards his MA thesis on the internal dynamics of Canadian unions in the 1980s. – $985 

Fall 2020

Edda Nicholson and Paul Barnsley, travel funding for a co-authored conference paper titled “Fighting with Feeling in the British Steel Industry 1977 – 1992.” The project will examine the extent to which British trade unions in the steel industry used ‘emotion’ in their response to the wave of closures and job losses across their industry. – $2,000

Constanze von Wrangel, transcription of oral history interviews for her PhD project, “Identity building by means of regional cultural policy? Cultural policy initiatives in the Ruhr Area and their resonance in the population since 2000.” – $1,500