Michael Borsk

Michael Borsk is an historian of empire and colonialism, with a focus on law in histories of state formation in the North America. He received his PhD from Queen’s University in 2024 and joins the Department of Historical Studies for two years through a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship. 

His dissertation, Measuring Ground: Surveyors and the Properties of States in the Great Lakes Region, 1783-1840, historicizes property, state, and knowledge formation in Canada and the United States. His next project examines the political economy of gift exchange in the British Empire during the eighteenth century. 

Education:

• PhD, Queen’s University 
• Masters, Queen’s University 

Fields of Study: 

• Empires, Colonialism, and Indigeneity 
• States, Politics, and Law
• Spatial History and Map-making 
• Property Formation 
• Economy, Society, & Technology 

Selected Publications:

“Conveyance to Kin: Property, Preemption, and Indigenous Nations in North America, 1763-1822,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 80, no. 1 (2023): 87-124. 

• Awarded the Jean-Marie Fecteau Prize from the Canadian Historical Association 
• Awarded the Peter Oliver Prize from the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History