Leverhulme Visiting Professor Damien Lee

Leading Anishinaabe scholar Dr Damien Lee joins the Treatied Spaces Research Group for 10 months from 1 August 2024 as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor (VP2-2023-022). Dr Lee is a member of the Fort William First Nation, a citizen of the Anishinaabe Nation and holds a Canada Research Chair in Biskaabiiyang and Indigenous Political Resurgence at Toronto Metropolitan University. During his Visiting Professorship, he will share his globally unique expertise in Indigenous political and legal orders, First Nations’ constructions of citizenship, community-driven political mobilization, Indigenist theory, First Nation band membership issues and Indigenous research methodologies, notably the post-colonisation resurgence strategy known as Biskaabiiyang (an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) word meaning “returning to ourselves”). Professor Lee will also complete his major academic book project,  Wiitkamaganak: Adoption and the Resurgence of Anishinaabe Citizenship Law (University of Toronto Press) and develop joint plans with TSRG for a yet larger project, “A First Indigenous History of North American Adoption” reconceptualising North American history using the lens of Indigenous and settler-Indigenous adoption.

Dr Lee has published a number of papers in leading academic journals, including AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples and the Alberta Law Review, focusing on Indigenous governance and philanthropic wealth in Canada, as well as the resurgence of inherent Indigenous citizenship laws.

TSRG is grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for this opportunity to benefit from Dr Lee’s considerable expertise on Indigenous-Crown treaties in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. If you would like to invite Professor Lee to share his work with you as part of his Leverhulme Visiting Professorship activities, please contact [email protected].