Settler colonialism rising from the dead: Jae Page, The Dead and Property: Legal Geographies of the SettlerColonial Cemetery, PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, 2026 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler colonialism rising from the dead: Jae Page, The Dead and Property: Legal Geographies of the SettlerColonial Cemetery, PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, 2026

24Aug26

Abstract: The marked burial of the dead functions as a proprietary claim to land, and the law has legitimized this relationship since ancient times. Contributing to the literature in death studies and legal geography, this research provides a much-needed examination of this property relationship in a settler-colonial context and aims to understand how the law creates and maintains the ongoing presence of the dead settler. Looking at the jurisdiction now known as Ontario, the study begins with a genealogical analysis of cemetery law and highlights the many practices and materialities that gave rise to the continuous and glorified presence of the dead settler. Next, the research examines the legal classification “cemetery” and showcases how legal spatio-temporalities protect deathscapes of white heritage value, and concurrently, facilitate the desecration of places that do not fit the closed vision of the cemetery. Finally, the analysis discusses the contemporary issue of cemetery spatial shortages and reveals how historical decisions perpetuate legacies of spatial inequity. Telling narratives of continuity and erasure, and dignity and dehumanization, the white supremacy of memorialization is revealed, and the grievable life reflects the image of power.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed