Steven High is professor of history at Concordia University in Montreal where he co-founded the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. He is the author of many books and articles related to how people experience, understand, and remember mass and structural violence. His current project, Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time, is examining the long-term consequences of the hollowing out of many working-class areas of Europe and North America. His research has been recognized by numerous awards including the Governor General History Medal and le Prix du livre politique de la Présidence de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec. In 2024, he received the J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal from the Royal Society of Canada for his lifetime contribution to the study of Canadian History. He served as President of the Canadian Historical Association between 2021-23.
René Lévesque and the industrial crisis
Dr. Steven High’s research proposal for the Trudeau Foundation examines Québec as a crucial entry point into the broader politics of economic restructuring and the pursuit of a just transition for hard‑hit working‑class communities. The election of the social‑democratic Parti Québécois (PQ) under René Lévesque in 1976 marked a moment of profound experimentation, as Québec confronted global shifts toward a neoliberal economic order. While this period is often narrated through the lens of constitutional politics and the high‑profile duel between Lévesque and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Dr. High’s project shifts the focus to an underexplored question: how did the Québec government understand and respond to the unfolding industrial crisis?
His research investigates the intellectual and policy frameworks that shaped the PQ’s economic decisions between 1976 and 1985. Central to the project is the circulation of ideas—how economic concepts travelled across borders, influenced Québec policymakers, and defined both the possibilities and the limits of state action. By tracing inspiration drawn from international models, including developments in France, the United States, and global debates on deindustrialization, the project situates Québec within a wider transnational context.
The proposed research aligns closely with two Trudeau Foundation themes: Human Rights and Dignity, through its focus on displaced workers and the human consequences of economic upheaval; and Canada and the World, through its analysis of Québec’s engagement with global economic thought in the late 20th century.
Building on Dr. High’s award‑winning scholarship on deindustrialization and his extensive public‑facing writing, the project will produce an English and French monograph, a French‑language journal article, and a series of op‑eds aimed at broad public audiences. Over a three‑year period, supported by archival research, existing interviews, and targeted funding, this work will contribute significantly to contemporary debates on economic justice, policy imagination, and the future of working‑class communities in Québec and Canada.
