Meet New Faculty Member Corey Snelgrove

We caught up with newly arrived Assistant Professor, Corey Snelgrove and got him to answer our questions!

Could you tell us a little bit about your professional background, and what you’ve enjoyed the most about your career so far?
Prior to joining the department, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto working with Dale Turner. Before that I completed an MA in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria before starting a PhD in Political Science at the University of British Columbia where I worked with Glen Coulthard, Barbara Arneil, and Heidi Stark.

Moving across institutions, provinces, and Indigenous homelands has brought me into dialogue with many people. No doubt the highlight of my career so far has been those moments of passionate and captivating dialogue about ideas and their bearing on the problems of our time with mentors, peers, and students.  

What inspired you to enter this field?
I was born and raised in Brampton, Ontario, before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, before land acknowledgements, and, as far as I know, before any university in Canada had an Indigenous Politics field. I was absolutely ignorant of the problem of colonization and Indigenous peoples’ struggles for self-determination. I didn’t clue into the fact that a street I lived nearby my whole life – Chinguacousy – was an Anishinaabe word, nor that the Credit River was in reference to the fur trade. Talk about the hegemony of terra nullius!

This changed during my undergraduate degree. I became aware of and existentially shaken by my implication in colonization. I could no longer live in the world in the same way. But I wasn’t sure what to do with this knowledge – and I wasn’t sure what to do after completing my undergraduate degree. The University of Victoria’s Indigenous Governance Program represented an opportunity to explore these political and existential questions while trying to contribute to the struggle for decolonization. While some questions were answered during that degree, others became more complex, and new questions arose. For example, I started to pay greater attention to Indigenous treaty visions – particularly through the work of Heidi Stark, Gina Starblanket, and Leanne Simpson – as an answer to the question of decolonization. However, this only raised new questions, such as: what does treaty demand of us today? And so I applied to do a PhD at the University of British Columbia to work with Glen Coulthard because I was struck by the power of his theoretical framework which braids Indigenous political thought, anti-colonial thought more generally (especially the work of Frantz Fanon), and Marxism in order to analyze and respond to the predicament of settler colonial domination in Canada.

In short, my inspiration to enter the field of Indigenous Politics as a white settler was problem-oriented: I was and remain interested in helping figure out what it means to be responsible to Indigenous peoples’ struggles for self-determination as a member of a social formation that historically required and continues to reproduce colonial relations.

Tell us about your research?
I was trained in political theory and so my research and teaching takes a ‘theoretical’ approach to the field of Indigenous Politics. More specifically, my theoretical background is in critical theory broadly conceived, which Karl Marx aptly described as “the self-clarification of the struggles and wishes of the age”.

I am interested in approaches that consider problems – in my case, settler colonialism and the struggle for Indigenous self-determination – in relationship to social formations as a whole. These ‘wholes’ are complex and contradictory in two senses. First, they are composed of different elements, classes, and groups that do not always work together. Second, these ‘wholes’ are open to struggle and contestation that erupt because of a gap between normative expectations – whether that norm be internal, external, or immanent – and ‘reality’.

Historically, Indigenous peoples’ struggle for self-determination emerge out of the contradiction between land as a relation versus land as a resource as well as the norm of self-determination and the realities of colonial and capitalist domination. While historically white settlers have understand Indigenous dispossession to be in line with their interests, I seek to advance the possibilities of non-Indigenous people acting in solidarity with Indigenous peoples struggles for self-determination against settler colonialism. In line with the anti-authoritarian thrust of critical theory that cautions against imposing a moral law from without, this involves challenging investments in settler colonialism with and against the normative expectations of its addressees. 

Because these wholes are contradictory, they are also crisis prone. As a result, work has to be done to keep ‘wholes’ together and sometimes this requires reform. But as histories around the globe teach us, struggle and contestation may lead to more fundamental transformations. In other words, revolution.

I take this approach to Indigenous Politics for three reasons. First, situating the problem of colonization in relation to a social whole enables an appreciation for how forms of domination – capitalism, colonialism, heteropatriarchy, white supremacy – relate to one another. Second, understanding these social wholes as crisis prone enables an appreciation for how settler colonialism is a dynamic process – its mode of operation can adjust in response to contestation while dispossession remains. Third, the emphasis on contestation and contradiction prevents attention to a ‘changing same’ from succumbing to fatalism. A fundamental transformation remains possible. Indeed, returning to the first point, there are many reasons why one might join in a transformative struggle.

To date, this approach has informed my work on the politics of reconciliation as well as Indigenous treaty visions.

In terms of the former, I have argued that contemporary struggles against pipelines and state discourses of reconciliation draw out a need to think the social whole – to move beyond the fact of co-existence to the very form of co-existence. This is because these struggles involve a debate over how we live together. For example, will the form of co-existence require treating relations as resources in order to meet one’s needs for example? This raises a whole set of problematics, including specifying the relationship between capitalism, settler colonialism, and the norm of self-determination. In another essay, I have argued against a view of reconciliation as a discourse that is exogenous to social structure and struggle. Instead, I’ve argued that reconciliation operates as a practice of articulation from above in response to a legitimation crisis around resource extraction triggered by Indigenous and allied struggle from below. Here, reconciliation represents an attempt to keep the ‘whole’ together through reform. But this crisis also presents an opportunity for alternative forms of articulation from below that may lead to a more emancipatory society. However, such a politics must go beyond moral appeal and begin to construct a vision that can answer the problems of this society that give reconciliation from above its ‘grip’. Such a vision would go some way in drawing together a social force capable of transformative practice.

In terms of the latter, I have drawn attention to the contradiction between capitalist social relations – where members of capitalist societies are responsible to price signals – and Indigenous treaty visions – which calls for the responsibility of societies to one another, the land, and non-humans. Indigenous treaty visions then are in contradiction to our present capitalist society. And to be a treaty partner, I suggest, will require the abolition of capitalism. In future work, I am keen to explore what this looks like more concretely. For example, how does redistribution work in Indigenous treaty visions? How would sharing without dispossession work? Relatedly, how might the extension of treaty norms related to responsibility and renewal bear on processes of production? How might treaty norms represent an alternative to the organization of production through price signals?

Tell us about your teaching?
In my courses, I aim to help students understand and participate in the struggles and wishes of our age. Going beyond the rote memorization of facts, I introduce students to the sometimes competing and sometimes complementary social theories that explain the social world as well as the critical-normative concepts that allow us to make sense of and evaluate that world. In doing so, I aim to help students understand the world of politics but also to develop the communication and problem-solving skills necessary to participate in political life. When it comes to Indigenous Politics more specifically, I hope students will come to understand how colonization and resistance to it shapes the practice of politics while providing the training, space, and encouragement to develop the skills and frameworks that help contribute to struggles to end it.

This year I am teaching three new courses – POL S 298: Alienation and Reconciliation, POL S 327: Indigenous Politics in Canada, and POL S 532: Indigenous Engagement, Governance, and Policy. These courses are still works in progress but my general approach to Indigenous Politics introduced in my previous answer will inform the content and structure of these courses.

What are your impressions of Edmonton/the University of Alberta so far (if applicable)?

This is my second “stint” in Edmonton; I was a visiting student at the University of Alberta during my PhD as well. My favorite part of Edmonton is the River Valley. It is beautiful to look at through my office window and I’m lucky to move through it almost every day. I wasn’t into cycling when I lived here before and so I look forward to visiting a bit more of Edmonton and the surrounding region this time around. I’m excited too to learn more about the history of this place and the people who have called it home, as well as to learn and practice the responsibilities that come with living here.

So far, it seems like the University of Alberta will be a fantastic environment for critically engaged research in Indigenous Politics. I look forward to working and learning from colleagues and students across the University. I feel both humbled and excited to help build the Indigenous Politics program and to advancing a critical approach to Political Science in Canada.

What are your hobbies, or things you like to do outside of work?
Historically, I’ve liked being active – running, cycling (ideally to a brewery or a bakery – I need a reward), hiking, camping, softball, and hockey. I struggle with it but I often enjoy cooking. I took a pottery course this winter and I’m planning on keeping that up too.