
Luoma, Dr. Michael
PhD (Queen's University), MA (Queen's University), BA (University of Toronto)
Biography
Michael Luoma is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Northern British Columbia. Michael completed his PhD in Philosophy at Queen’s University in 2023, specializing in political philosophy. Subsequently, and prior to coming to UNBC, Michael held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity and the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen’s (2023-2025).
Research and expertise
Drawing on contemporary political theories of territorial rights and Indigenous political thought, Michael’s research examines the conditions for fair and legitimate distributions of land and political authority in contested multinational contexts, especially those involving Indigenous and settler peoples. Michael has written about non-electoral Indigenous governance systems and collective self-determination; historical injustice and duties of land restitution; the special rights of (Indigenous) communities bisected by international borders; asymmetrical power in contemporary treaty negotiations between Indigenous peoples and the state; and changing representations of Indigenous peoples in public school curricula. Michael is currently co-editing a volume on Indigenous self-determination and treaty federalism with Veldon Coburn (McGill). He is also working on a book project about state legitimacy and territorial restitution in Indigenous-settler contexts.
- Ethics
- Indigenous Peoples
- Political Science
Selected publications
Luoma, M. (2025). “Territorial rights, domination, and Indigenous-state treaty negotiations.” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 1–25.
Luoma, M. (2024). “Group-differentiated rights for Indigenous communities that straddle borders.” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 28(1), 121–142.
Luoma, M. (2024). “Public Education, Multinational Identity Formation, and Territorial Legitimacy: An Analysis of the 2004 and 2023 Ontario Curricula on Indigenous Peoples.” Representation of Minority Nations in Multinational Federal States (Alain Gagnon and Francois Rocher, eds.), in: Frontiers in Political Science, Peace and Democracy, 6, 1-16.
Luoma, M. & Moore, M. (2024). “Rectifying Historical Territorial Injustices.” Res Publica, 30, 683–703.
Luoma, M. (2024). “James Tully: Indigenous Self-Government in Modern Canada.” Global Encyclopedia of Territorial Rights (Kevin W. Gray, ed.). pp. 1-10. Springer.
Luoma, M. (2023). “Sharing Territories: Overlapping Self-Determination and Resource Rights Cara Nine, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022, pp. 336.” Canadian Journal of Political Science, 56 (4): 1000-1002.
Luoma, M. (2022). “Collective Self-Determination, Territory and the Wet'suwet’en: What Justifies the Political Authority of Historic Indigenous Governments over Land and People?” Canadian Journal of Political Science, 55(1), 19-39.