A warm CrimSL welcome to Dr. Emma Feltes, who joins CrimSL as Assistant Professor on July 1, 2025!
Emma Feltes is a legal, political, and public anthropologist. Her work examines the structure and operation of Canadian colonialism, with a focus on critical constitutionalism, international law and transnational decolonization, environmental crisis, and climate justice. A settler scholar, writer, and anticolonial activist, she draws on more than a decade working in alliance with Secwépemc and Tŝilhqot’in Peoples in interior British Columbia.
Before joining U of T, Dr. Feltes was an assistant professor of anthropology at York University for two years. Multiple contacts in her network forwarded her the job opportunity and encouraged her to apply, says Feltes. She was well aware of CrimSL’s reputation for cutting-edge work and admits, “I’ve always been a fangirl of the centre.”
She sees CrimSL as a uniquely positioned “small and truly interdisciplinary unit that was meant to be interdisciplinary from the beginning” within U of T, an otherwise large institution.
“CrimSL strikes me as a singular place — a rigorous and transdisciplinary community of scholars and students who are together tackling some of the most pressing justice issues of the day," says Feltes.
"What a privilege it is to be joining this community.”
U of T connections
Feltes is currently working as part of an interdisciplinary team of over 20 Indigenous theorists, critical legal scholars and geographers, and land-based practitioners contributing to Infrastructure Beyond Extractivism, a SSHRC partnership grant based at York University which includes U of T’s Anne Spice (Anthropology), Deb Cowen (Geography & Planning), Michelle Diagle (Geography & Planning, Centre for Indigenous Studies) and John Borrows (Law).
Although she had no prior CrimSL faculty connections, she says, “I’m a legal anthropologist, and it can be hard to describe what that is. Kamari Clarke is a fellow legal anthropologist whose work I’ve followed for years; I was excited to just get to meet her.”
At U of T, Feltes is keen to develop new connections for interdisciplinary work around climate justice, which she says is a newer area for her.
Research and teaching
Research and teaching are two — interconnected — passions, Feltes says. Community relationships really motivate her research, she says, particularly community-based work with Indigenous peoples “based in reciprocity and rooted in Indigenous jurisdiction.”
“I have the great pleasure of doing research on Indigenous jurisdiction that is guided by the principles of Indigenous authority, in accordance with Indigenous law.”
Sharing her ways of doing community-led, community-oriented and community-based research with students is a natural extension, she says.
“I have projects that I am excited to bring students into.”
Background
Feltes was born in Toronto and grew up in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood. After completing undergraduate and master’s degrees in Halifax, she returned to Toronto, where she worked for a couple of years at Toronto Children’s Services writing child-care policy and family-support policy while also working with Toronto’s urban Indigenous community.
She was approached by First Nations political leader Arthur Manuel of the Secwepemc Nation, who had mentored Feltes through her master’s degree, with an idea for a book on the 1980-81 Constitution Express movement led by his late father, Grand Chief George Manuel. Feltes saw that it was a PhD-sized project and decided to accept the challenge. She began doctoral studies at UBC and completed her thesis, “We don't need your constitution": patriation and Indigenous self-determination in British Columbia, in 2022.
During and after her PhD, Feltes had three children. She took a year of maternity leave before starting a Fulbright Scholars Award and a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell, which she cut short to join the faculty at York University.
“I always hoped to land back in Toronto,” she says.
Influences
"Arthur Manuel was my political mentor — through grad school but also outside of it — for a decade. I still work with his daughter, Kanahus Manuel who is a well-known Indigenous activist in her own right. So it’s an intergenerational relationship which is very influential and incredibly important to my life and my work."
Emma Feltes
Feltes credits her PhD supervisor Professor Carol Blackburn, committee member Michael Asch, and her co-author Professor Glen Coulthard at UBC for supportive mentorship and guidance.
"I had really amazing mentorship through grad school, so I do feel a certain responsibility to do the same for my students."
Emma Feltes
* * *
Please join us in welcoming Emma Feltes to our community!