My Present Work:
The research that I am currently undertaking focusses on the politics of recognition of the Treaty relationship. It is intended to contribute to ongoing discourses surrounding the contemporary use of land acknowledgement statements. My research hones into a critique that is central to the debate about these statements: that land acknowledgements are merely performative. While it is true that the statements can be hollow, this critique overlooks the performative nature that has been implicit in the Treaty relationship since the inception. By selecting several crucial moments vital to the Treaty One relationship, my research will argue that the ceremonial and performative tenants of land acknowledgements which spawn criticism actually represent a return to the Treaty relationship, largely by settler observers.
My research does not intend to pass moral judgement or offer recommendations about the use of the statements, but rather offers a simple grounding in the History of the Treaty One relationship.
My Research Interests Include:
Modern World History and the History of Western Civilization
Canadian and American History
The connections between Land, Sense of Place and Treaty histories
Land Use, Resource Use, and Urban Planning
Filtering, Gentrification and Urban Change
The origins and implementation of Reconciliation
Contemporary Decolonization
Industrial Histories
Economic History, Capitalism in the Modern World
Histories of Imperialism, Empire, and Foreign Policy
Cultural History, Social History, Consumer History, Branding and Marketing
The founding and history of Manitoba
In the past, I have worked on projects relating to:
The Hudson’s Bay Company and Fur Trade Society
The precarious nature of Indigenous nature of Indigenous labour in the Fur Trade
Imperial history, colonization and the Western expansion of the Canadian state