This event continues the work of the Nuclear International Research Group (NIRG), an interdisciplinary group of academics and graduate students from different countries working on various aspects of the global nuclear industry, including nuclear policy issues, the health and environmental effects of nuclear technology, nuclear waste management, and national security. Started in May 2009, the group now has over 30 members and is growing.
While planning for the event began prior to the Fukushima nuclear reactor accidents, the event presents participants with the opportunity to theorize about the significance of nuclear history for understanding the nuclear crisis in Japan today. The two-day workshop aims to continue the conversation about how nuclear technology has transformed the politics, cultures, economies, ways of living, and landscapes in nations around the world. Featuring the research of a group of scholars and graduate students from a variety of university departments and institutes around the world, the papers examine this history in Canada, the United States, the Soviet Union, the European Union, the Marshall Islands, Italy, India, and the continent of Africa throughout the 20th century. The purpose of the workshop is to provide presenters with an opportunity to present their papers, discuss them with each other and with a larger audience of participants studying nuclear history. This is a significant event not only because it encourages communication and cooperation among scholars studying the social, health, policy and environmental effects of the nuclear industry (frames of analysis that do not always overlap), but it aims to place these histories into global context.
The event is open to members of the general public, graduate students, and interested faculty.
Deadline for Registration is April 15, 2012. Please send your pre-registration form to laurel.macdowell@utoronto.ca (see registration form to the right). You will be sent the participants’ papers to read in preparation for the workshop discussion. When you register at the workshop, you can pay your fees then (cash only please).
nirgworkshop.program final-1
abstracts
registration-form
Sponsors:
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
- NICHE
- Prof. H. Vivian Nelles, L.R. Wilson Professor of Canadian History, Department of History, McMaster University
- History Department, University of Toronto
- Department of Historical Studies, UTM, University of Toronto
- The Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto

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