My research focuses on the geography and history of the environment, cities, and industry, with a particular interest in energy transitions, waste management, and deindustrialization. I am an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Montreal since 2026. I earned a Ph.D. in Urban Studies and History from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) and Sorbonne Université, as well as a Master’s in Science and Technology Studies at York University.

My first book, La ville énergivore. Une histoire des transitions énergétiques à Montréal au 20e siècle, has been published in 2026 by McGill-Queen’s University Press. It explores the history of urban energy transitions in an energy-hungry metropolis, as well as the social and spatial consequences of fossil and electric infrastructure. This book is based on my doctoral dissertation, which received five prizes.

My postdoctoral research, conducted at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UMR Géographie-cités), focused on the comparative history of waste management in Montréal and Paris. Through the study of urban incinerators, I examined the tensions between industry and the environment in late 20th-century cities marked by deindustrialization and gentrification. I am currently working on a second book project that analyzes the geographic and environmental consequences of deindustrialization in Montreal, through a study of contaminated sites since the 1980s. I am also working on the history of regional industrialization and agricultural land use planning.

At the Department of Geography, I teach courses on urban and environmental geography. I am open to supervising master's and PhD students working on environmental, historical, urban, and industrial geography.

My research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Fonds de recherche du Québec société et culture, the Canadian Business History Association, and the Comité d’histoire de l’électricité et de l’énergie. I have published articles in journals like Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Urban History, and Enterprise and Society.

Livre

• Clarence Hatton-Proulx. (2026). La ville énergivore. Une histoire des transitions énergétiques à Montréal au 20e siècle. Montréal et Kingston : McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Articles

• Clarence Hatton-Proulx. (2026). Comprendre la fermeture de l’incinérateur des Carrières : le rôle des changements sociaux et politiques dans la désindustrialisation des environnements urbains, Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine, 54(1), 77-104.
• Clarence Hatton-Proulx. (2026). Explaining infrastructural bifurcation: A comparative history of urban incineration in Montréal and Paris, Journal of Urban Affairs, 48(6), 2138-2160.
• Clarence Hatton-Proulx. (2025). Bungalows and Oil Tanks. The Environmental Damages of Petroleum Refining and the Urban Politics of Heavy Industry, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 1-17.
• Clarence Hatton-Proulx. (2025). The Role of Forecasts in Planning for Energy Infrastructure. A Historical Look at Past Futures in Postwar Quebec, Enterprise and Society, 26(2), 519-562.
• Frédéric Mercure Jolette, Clarence Hatton-Proulx et Sophie L. Van Neste. (2024). Mobilizing Suburban Stereotypes: The Case of Ville d’Anjou (1956-1973), Journal of Urban History, 50(1), 98-122.
• Clarence Hatton-Proulx, Frédéric Mercure Jolette et Sophie L. Van Neste. (2023). L’héritage contrasté de l’âge d’or du pétrole : histoire et évolution des territoires de l’est de Montréal, Recherches sociographiques, 64(3), 657–694.
• Clarence Hatton-Proulx. (2022). Travailleuses anonymes et modernité énergétique. L’industrie électrique et gazière et l’économie domestique à Montréal, 1904-1959, Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, 75(3), 35-68.
• Clarence Hatton-Proulx. (2020). « Sous vos pas, un parfait agencement » : la transformation du paysage énergétique urbain de Montréal, 1890-1950, Flux, 121(3), 4-28.
• Clarence Hatton-Proulx. (2020). Creating Supply, Creating Demand: Energy in Montréal from the First World War to the Great Depression, Journal of Energy History / Revue d’histoire de l’énergie, 5, 1-24.