Robert C.H. Sweeny
Position
Emeritus Professor of History, MUN.
Professeur associé, histoire, UQAM.
Apprenticeship
SSHRC Post-doctoral fellowship, University of Edinburgh, with R.J. Morris.
Ph.D. McGill University, with Richard Rice, Stephen Randall and Louise Dechêne.
M.A. UQAM, with Alfred Dubuc.
B.A. (Hons.) Sir George Williams University with Martin Singer, John Laffey and George Rudé.
Contact
2413-3535 Papineau, Montréal, Qc H2K 4J9
Email: rsweeny@mun.ca
Phone: (514) 563-0016
Research Interests
Digital humanities; Historical theory and method; History of capitalism, Historical Materialism
Current Research Projects
Co-director of the historical GIS project Montréal, l'avenir du passé (MAP)
Gender, Property and National Identity.
Recent Publications
N.B. Many of my publications are available from academia.edu
Enumerators, 1901. A Q-GIS application, Montréal, MAP, 2025.
Working Papers: Property in early 20th century Montréal. Montréal, MAP, 2025.
“Herbert Molson.” Category III biography. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, University of Toronto Press, forthcoming.
“Gender and Social Relations in the City above the Hill.” Montreal’s Square Mile: The Making and Transformation of a Colonial Metropole. Dimitry Anastakis, Elizabeth Kirkland & Don Nerbas (Eds.) University of Toronto Press, 2024, 219-247.
Owners03.dbf, Montréal, MAP 2024.
Overcrowding in Montréal in 1901, Montréal, MAP, 2024.
Surpeuplement à Montréal en 1901, Montréal, MAP, 2024.
L’importance des femmes comme propriétaires en 1903, Montréal, MAP 2024.
The importance of landladies in 1903. Montréal, MAP, 2024.
Residential landlord/tenant relations in 1901. A Q-GIS application, Montréal, MAP, 2023.
Rapports entre propriétaires et locataires résidentiels en 1901. Une application Q-GIS, Montréal, MAP, 2023.
“Who owned Montreal in 1903?” A Q-GIS application, Montréal, MAP, 2023.
« À qui appartient Montréal en 1903? » Une application Q-GIS, Montréal, MAP, 2023.
“Going together like a horse and carriage: Rentier marriages and property accumulation in Montréal, 1825-1903.” Histoire Sociale/Social History, LIV, 112 (Novembre/Novem-ber 2021) 481-490.
Residential landlord/tenant relations in 1901. A Q-GIS application, Montréal, MAP, 2021.
Rapports entre propriétaires et locataires résidentiels en 1901. Une application Q-GIS, Montreal, MAP, 2021.
A User’s Guide to the Roll1903 database. Montréal, MAP, 2021.
A User’s Guide to the Owners03 database. Montréal, MAP, 2021-3.
“Who owned Montreal in 1903?” A Q-GIS application, Montréal, MAP, 2021-4.
« À qui appartient Montréal en 1903? » Une application Q-GIS, Montréal, MAP, 2021-4.
“From Commanding Overview to Administrative Tool: Representations of Montréal, 1825-1880.” Images, Forms and Narratives from the Global City. Sergio Onger, Anna Rosellini & Ines Tolic (Eds.) Bologna: AISU, 2021, 472-479.
« Les inégalités de richesse et le racisme au Canada. » Centre d’histoire des régulations sociales, UQAM. Lien
“The Rock is a Hard Place: Wealth redistribution in 21st century Newfoundland.” Who Pays for Canada? E.A. Heaman & David Tough (Eds.) Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020, 337-355.
Sharing Spaces: Essays in honour of Sherry Olson. Robert Sweeny (Ed.) Les presses de l’Université d’Ottawa and the Museum of Canadian History, Mercury Series, 2020.
-- “Sharing Space: the oeuvre of Sherry Olson.” In Sharing Spaces: Essays in honour of Sherry Olson, 1-16.
-- “Divvying up space: Housing segregation and national identity in early twentieth century Montréal.” In Sharing Spaces: Essays in honour of Sherry Olson, 111-128.
“Canada’s economic and racial inequities are more stark than ever.” Rabble.ca.
Open Letter Concerning the Anglican Cemetery (See link below).
« L’état des choses. » Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, 72, 2, 119-122.
« Valeur locative annuelle moyenne des habitations sur le territoire de Centre Sud en 1903. » Déjouer la fatalité : Pauvreté, familles institutions. Exposition à l’Écomusée du fier monde, 12 septembre 2019 au 9 février 2020.
Ian McKay, Bettina Bradbury, Magda Fahrni, Kathryn McPherson & Robert C.H. Sweeny.“Macdonald Prize Round Table on Why Did We Choose to Industrialize?” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 28, 2, 2017, (published January 2019) 90-133.
“Newfoundland’s Boom: A study in the political culture of neo-liberalism.” Bryan Evans and Carlo Fanelli (Eds.) The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity: Perspectives from Canada’s Provinces and Territories. Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018, 279-314.
“The Challenges of an Equitable Fiscal Policy.” Asking the Big Questions: Reflections on a Sustainable Post-Oil Dependent Newfoundland and Labrador. Barbara Neis, Rosemary Ommer and David Brake (Eds.) St John’s: Royal Society of Canada Atlantic, 2017, 24-43.
“Auditing Equity and the Environment.” The Democracy Cookbook: Recipes to Renew Governance in Newfoundland and Labrador. Alex Marland & Lisa Moore, (Eds.) St John’s: ISER Books, 2017, 270-73.
“Industrialization, Labour and Historians” Canadian History: Post-Confederation. Edited by John Douglas Belshaw. Vancouver: open.bccampus.ca, 2017, 108-110.
“Capital Markets” Canadian History: Post-Confederation. Edited John Douglas Belshaw. Vancouver: openbccampus, 2017, 440-443.
“New ways to imagine an old city” NICHE, January 2017.
“Making sense of the historical in H-GIS in Canadian universities.” H-GIS Canadian Portal Partnership White Papers, June 2016.
“Gender, discrimination and housing in turn-of-the-century Montréal. What mapping the census returns of immigrants can tell us.” Frontiers in Digital Humanities, 3, 8 (September, 2016), 1-18.
Why did we choose to industrialize? Montreal, 1819-1849. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015. Finalist for François-Xavier Garneau Medal 2020 of the Canadian Historical Association for the most important contribution to history of the past five years. Winner of the 2016 Governor General's history award for scholarly research: the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize of the Canadian Historical Association.
With Valerie Burton, "Realizing the democratic potential of online sources in the class room" Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 30, October 2015, link.