I have taught the international history of Canada and Quebec at Université de Montréal since 2011. My goal as a historian is to use cultural and social history, as well as postcolonial studies, to obtain and promote a deeper understanding of the history of Canada and Quebec in the world, and the way in which their international activities (governmental and non-governmental) have shaped and been shaped by the lived experiences of the peoples living in the northern portion of North America. I employ international history to explore Canada and Quebec as projects of rule, while situating them and their populations in global currents.

My first book, With Friends Like These: Entangled Nationalisms and the Canada-Québec-France Triangle, 1944-1970 (UBC Press, 2012), examines the complex triangular dynamic between Canada, Quebec and France by situating this in the broader currents of the history of globalization. It explores the concept of “nation” in an increasingly interconnected world, and parallel to this, the efforts to manage multiple overlapping identities. This monograph also is part of my ongoing effort to shed light on the question of “empire” in Canadian and Quebec history. These research interests also led to my co-editing a volume that offers and encourages a critical reinterpretation of Canadian international history through the prism of race Dominion of Race: Rethinking Canada’s International History (UBC Press, 2017). 

I also explore the history of settler colonialism in Canada and Quebec, as it is impossible to understand Canadian and Quebec international history without referring to the complex history of the relationships between Indigenous Peoples and settlers. This idea also underpins my current research project, an exploration of the entangled history of Canadian development assistance after 1945 and Indigenous-Canadian relations.

Assistant Professor at the Department of History of the University of Montreal, David Meren (PhD, McGill) was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the London School of Economics and at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne. His present researches are an exploration of the intertwined histories of Canadian foreign aid and of the relations between the First Nations and the Canadian government during the three decades following the Second World War.

Publications récentes (2011 à 2022)

• Meren, D. (2021) Safeguarding Settler Colonialism in Geneva: Canada, Indigenous Rights, and ILO Convention No. 107 on the Protection and Integration of Indigenous Peoples (1957), Canadian Historical Review, juin 2021, 102(2): 205-231.

• Meren, D. (2020) Lessons Learned: Settler Colonialism, Development and the UN Regional Training Centre in Vancouver, 1959-1962, BC Studies, 208, hiver 2020/21, 45-72.

• Dominion of Race: Rethinking Canada's International History, Laura Madakoro, Francine McKenzie, David Meren (dir.), UBC Press (2017).

• Meren, D. (2017) “Crisis of the Nation: Race and Culture in the Canada-Quebec-France Triangle of the 1960s,” dans Dominion of Race: Rethinking Canada’s International History, Laura Madokoro, Francine McKenzie and David Meren (dir.), UBC Press.

• Meren, D. (2017)“Conclusion: Race and the Future of Canadian International History,” dans Dominion of Race: Rethinking Canada’s International History, Laura Madokoro, Francine McKenzie and David Meren (dir.), UBC Press.

• Meren, D. (2017) "‘Commend me the Yak’ : The Colombo Plan, the Inuit of Ungava, and ‘Developing’ Canada’s North", Histoire sociale/Social History, 50(102) : 343-370.

• Meren, D. (2015) “The Tragedies of Canadian International History,” Canadian Historical Review, 96(4): 535-566.

• Meren, D. (2015)“Getting Over Tragedy: Some Further Thoughts on Canadian International History,” Canadian Historical Review,  96(4): 590-593.

• Meren, D. et Bora Plumptre. (2013) “Rites of Passage: Arctic Sovereignty and the Law of the Sea in 1970s Canada,” (co-écrit with Bora Plumptre), Journal of Canadian Studies, 47(1): 167-196.

• Meren, D. (2012)“Intervening with abandon: The Conquest’s Legacy in the Canada-Quebec-France Triangle of the 1960s,” dans 1759 Remembered: Interpreting the Conquest of Canada, Philip Buckner and John Reid (dir.), University of Toronto Press.

• Meren D. (2012) With Friends Like These: Entangled Nationalisms in the Canada Quebec-France Triangle, 1945-1970, University of British Columbia Press.

• ​Meren D. (2012) « La vague des nationalismes : Jules Léger et l'échec de la diplomatie discrète » In Roussel S. & Donaghy G. (dir.), Mission Paris : Les ambassadeurs du Canada en France et le triangle Ottawa - Québec – Paris, Éditions Hurtubise.

• Meren D. (2011) « An Atmosphere of Libération: The Role of Decolonization in the France-Quebec Rapprochement of the 1960s » Canadian Historical Review, 92 (2), pp. 263-294.