Histories of Urban Knowledge
A new special issue of the Urban History Review is out, based on work presented at our 2019 Savoirs urbains conference.
Coming soon: The Heart of Toronto
I’m excited to see my research on Yonge Street and the remaking of downtown Toronto getting closer and closer to publication.
Saving Chinatown, 1971 to 2021
For more than fifty years, saving Chinatown has been on the urban agenda, and that struggle, led by community members and their allies, has been tightly bound up in larger transformations in our cities and society.
Retail, Capital, and the Making of Downtown
I am grateful to announce that my research on capital, retail, and the making of Canadian downtowns has been financed by the FRQSC.
Will bars and restaurants survive COVID-19?
I was interviewed by Christine Sismondo for a Toronto Star piece published today which asks: how will bars and restaurants survive COVID-19?
Histories of urban knowledge
This year I’ve been part of a team of Montreal-based historians organizing the Écrire l’histoire des savoirs urbains/Histories of urban knowledge conference.
Yonge Street transforms
One of the challenges of writing the history of urban transformations is that they don’t have definite endings and beginnings.
Planning the postwar Canadian city
This week, I was pleased to see my review of Richard White’s Planning Toronto in print in the Canadian Historical Review.
Digital classroom: Vanished urban landscapes
This winter, students in my class on the North American city created a group blog on Montreal’s vanished urban landscapes.
Digital classroom: Making a map of Montréal migration history
This fall, students in my class on the history of immigration created a collaborative map of Montréal’s migration history.
The history of Toronto road rage
I was interviewed this week by the Toronto Star for a feature piece on the history of competition for street space in the city.
Sidewalks, streets, and urban modernity
What do sidewalks and street pavements tell us about the historical city? Quite a bit, it turns out. I recently reviewed Phillip Gordon Mackintosh’s Newspaper City (UTP, 2017) for Historical Geography.
The Jaques murder, continued
The 1977 murder of shoeshine boy Emanuel Jaques continues to draw attention forty years later. I discussed the event and its impact on the city with the Globe & Mail.
Pressing pause on development
CBC News kindly gave me ten seconds of fame today, with an interview on the use of heritage planning to slow redevelopment in downtown Toronto.
Daniel Ross 