معرفی
Nicolas Kenny is a Professor in the Department of History at Simon Fraser University (SFU), specializing in urban and cultural history with a focus on Montreal and Brussels. He holds a PhD from a joint program at Université de Montréal and Université Libre de Bruxelles. His research examines sensory and emotional experiences in urban environments during periods of upheaval, particularly industrial modernity in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is affiliated with the Montreal History Group and the Centre de recherche Mondes Modernes et Contemporains in Brussels.
His teaching emphasizes connecting historical legacies to contemporary issues, offering courses on Vancouver, Canada, Quebec, and global contexts. He co-edited Le Canada dans le monde: acteurs, idées, gouvernance (2019) and authored The Feel of the City: Experiences of Urban Transformation (2014), which explores how sensory encounters shaped urban dwellers' perceptions of global industrial changes. Recent work includes studies on radio’s role in postwar Brussels and railway impacts on Montreal’s urban soundscape.
Kenny has been awarded the Arnold Hirsch Award (2015) and SSHRC grants, including a 2016-2018 Insight Development Grant for research on railways in industrial Montreal. He contributes to public discourse via Radio-Canada and other media, addressing provincial and federal political issues. His current projects include the social-cultural transformations caused by Montreal’s railways (1850-1950) and Francophone education in British Columbia.
He supervises graduate students on themes of Canada/Quebec, cultural/urban history, and Europe. His work bridges transnational methodologies with urban governance, heritage preservation, and historical memory.
