Heidi Bohaker

For History Undergradaute Associate Chair matters please send your email to history.ugchr@utoronto.ca.

Heidi Bohaker investigates on the history of Indigenous-Crown relations, treaties and federal and provincial government policies toward Indigenous peoples in Canada.  She is a Director of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in treaty history, the history of residential schools in Canada and Canadian legal history.

She is also a practitioner of the digital humanities, exploring how to best use new technologies in collaboration with Great Lakes First Nations to reconnect communities with aspects of their cultural heritage stored in museums and archives around the world, through GRASAC, the Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures, of which she is a co-founder and current co-director, with Professor Cara Krmpotich.

Professor Bohaker is accepting PhD and MA students.

Current Doctoral Students
Zachary Smith, "Indigenous Toronto: The Politics of Indigenous Segregation and Migration in Twentieth Century Canada"
Cathleen Clark, "Pathways of Resistance: Indigenous Rights Activism from Red Power to the Fourth World"
Hannah Cooley, "Indigenous Activism in Transnational Media: Canada/US, 1970s- "

Graduated Students
Murdoch, Chandra. “Act to Control: The Grand General Indian Council, the Department of Indian Affairs, and the Struggle over the Indian Act in Ontario, 1850-1906.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2023. Dr. Murdoch is now a SSHRC post-doctoral fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University.

Blampied, Thomas Edwy. “‘Ontario’s Development Road’: The Ontario Northland Railway and Provincial Colonialism, 1901-1995.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2022. Dr. Blampied is now an Academic  Advisor, Learning Strategies at the Rotman School of Commerce, University of Toronto and continues to be engaged with the Moose River Heritage & Hospitality Association (MRHHA), promoting the rich heritage and history of Moose Factory and Moosonee.

Jennifer Hayter,  “Racially ‘Indian’, Legally ‘White’: The Canadian State’s Struggles to Categorize the Metis, 1850-1900.” ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2017. Dr. Hayter is an independent scholar.

Co-Supervisions (with Allan Greer)
Laxer, Daniel Robert. “Listening to the Fur Trade: Sound, Music, and Dance in Northern North America 1760-1840.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2015.  Dr. Laxer is currently Research Coordinator at Ontario's Ministry of Indigenous Affairs. His book Listening to the Fur Trade : Soundways and Music in the British North American Fur Trade, 1760-1840 was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2022.

Nicholas May (co-supervised with Allan Greer), “Feasting on the Aam of Heaven: The Christianization of the Nisga’a, 1860--1920.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2013. May won the department's Finlayson Medal for Best Thesis and the Bullen prize of the Canadian Historical Association.