Tomas is a PhD student at Carleton since the Fall of 2022. He examines the meanings of sovereignty within the multilayered legal framework of British Columbia’s modernization treaty process vis-à-vis the First Nations.
His research focuses on the Columbia River Treaty’s renegotiation process, specifically examining how the claims of the First Nations within the region are articulated within the broader context of the political and legal frameworks that overlap within the territory. Underpinning these tensions is the question of how territory – as a space upon which laws and treaties are inscribed and enacted – is perceived and understood by the various groups involved. The framework of sovereignty as a conceptual building block of international relations is useful for seeing how the “international” itself must be reconfigured when international negotiations now involve both state and Indigenous actors.
Tomas has an MA degree in Communication from Simon Fraser University where he examined the regional shift toward the Left in Latin America (e.g. the “Pink Tide”) and an MA in Political Science from Concordia University where he analyzed the consultation process the Canadian and USA states undertook to involve stakeholders throughout the Columbia River Basin.
Tomas enjoys the hiking and backpacking outdoors as well as roping his daughter into as many sports activities as possible.