Cities are my main research topic. I study them through the history of their concrete and symbolic formation. I am interested in showing that the efforts involved in the physical organization of cities shape the way they are governed and help structure social and political relationships at this level. This way of seeing the history of cities as a product of interrelated physical and social factors has led to published papers on the development of public spaces for culture and recreation in Montreal and Toronto in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, and on the structuring of the municipal domain through drinking water and wastewater networks. I recently published a paper on evolving relationships between Montreal and water, in an attempt to reconstitute the role of water and its successive transformations in the city's urbanization process since the early 19^th century. Since then I have been pursuing my work on the history of the environment at the larger scale of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence hydrographic system.

I am also interested in issues relating to the writing and public uses of history in theoretical and practical terms. I have taken part in various debates and roundtables on the teaching of history. I also sometimes collaborate on mounting exhibitions and producing historical documents for various audiences.

• Institut d'histoire de l'Amérique française
• Société historique du Canada

• Colloque "Écrire l'histoire des savoirs urbains/ Histories of Urban Knowledge", Carrefour des arts et des sciences, U. de Montréal, 27-28 septmbre 2019

Publications principales

Montréal et l’eau. Une histoire environnementale, Montréal, Boréal, 2011, 306p. (www.editionsboreal.qc.ca/catalogue/livres/montreal-eau-1870.html)

Metropolitan Natures. Environmental Histories of Montreal, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011, 321p. (ouvrage collectif dirigé avec Stéphane Castonguay) (www.upress.pitt.edu/BookDetails.aspx)

Faire et fuir la ville. Espaces publics de culture et de loisirs à Montréal et Toronto, XIXe et XXe siècles, Sainte-Foy, Presses de l’Université Laval, 2006,260p.

« Natures et métropole », VertigO. La La revue électronique en sciences de l’environnement, 12, 2 (septembre 2012) (vertigo.revues.org/12202). (dossier thématique dirigé avec A. Da Cunha, P. Deboudt, C. Vainer et É. Duchemin)

« The Municipal Territory: A Product of the Liberal Order ? », dans J.-F. Constant et M. Ducharme, dir., Liberalism and Hegemony : Debating the Canadian Revolution,Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2009, p. 201-220.

« Débats autour de l’histoire scolaire : caractères singuliers, mais enjeu unique », Bulletin d’histoire politique, 22, 3 (printemps 2014), p. 185-199. (avec Christian Laville)

 « Le naufrage du projet de programme d’histoire ‘nationale’. Retour sur une occasion manquée accompagné de considérations sur l’éducation historique », Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, 60, 4 (printemps 2007), p. 517-550. (avec Christian Laville)