Winter Seminar Series 2026:
Prof. Amy Janzwood, Dept. Political Sciences, McGill
Mega Pipeline, Mega Resistance: Tar Sands, Social Movements and the Politics of Energy Infrastructure
April 9th, 2026 | 10:00am-11:00am
HYBRID: 2001 McGill College, 1201 | Zoom
Seminar Abstract:
In the late 2000s, when the oil sands industry proposed expanding its capacity to transport fossil fuel products, an unprecedented coalition of Indigenous nations and communities, environmental non-governmental organizations, grassroots groups, and municipal governments mobilized in response. Amy Janzwood’s new book Mega Pipelines, Mega Resistance explores how these social movements challenged powerful corporate and government interests and reshaped the politics of energy infrastructure.
Mega Pipelines, Mega Resistance is an ambitious study that underscores the power of campaign coalitions to sustain resistance, influence government policy, and shape industry decisions. It reveals how and why social movements have frustrated major pipeline development in North America.
As Canada advances “nation-building” energy projects and regulatory overhauls in pursuit of becoming an “energy superpower,” this talk examines how resistance has reshaped the politics of energy infrastructure in Canada.
Speaker Bio:
Amy Janzwood is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and the Bieler School of the Environment at McGill University. Her research examines the comparative politics of energy and the environment, including the political economy of energy transitions, the contested politics of fossil fuel production, and the pathways that move us towards more just and sustainable energy systems.
She is chair of the Steering Committee of the Women & Inclusivity in Sustainable Energy Research (WISER) network, on the Board of Directors at the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA), an associate editor of the Earth System Governance journal, and a member of the Climate Social Science Network (CSSN).
Dr. Janzwood holds a PhD in Political Science and Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto and a Master of Arts in Global Governance from the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
She is a settler of Scottish and Irish ancestry and grew up on the traditional territory of the Anishinabewaki, Attiwonderonk, and Mississauga peoples. She lives and works on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka Territory
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