Born in Leeds, Tomas Borsa moved to Canada at a young age and was raised in Saskatchewan. Tomas is studying for his doctorate at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, where he was recipient of a prestigious Clarendon Fund Scholarship.
Based on 18 months of in-person fieldwork, Tomas’ doctoral research project, entitled ‘Aaxaad Tll’gaay: Infrastructural Imaginaries of Fibre-optic Connectivity on Haida Gwaii’, examines the social histories and socio-political ramifications of ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband connectivity in the communities of Haida Gwaii. An unusual and timely ethnographic portrait of the material politics of the Internet in rural, remote, and Indigenous contexts, Tomas’ research offers a locally-informed account of future imaginaries of the internet. It is informed by questions concerning the distribution of critical infrastructures, the changing nature of ‘the digital divide’, and the social shaping of technology.
Prior to his doctorate, Tomas completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Saskatchewan, where he earned a BA (Double Hons) in Psychology & Political Studies, as well as postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he earned an MSc (Distinction) in Politics and Communication and received the Best Overall MSc Performance Prize. Tomas’ MSc dissertation, entitled ‘Truth on Trial: Indigenous News Media and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada’, critically examined Indigenous news media coverage of TRC proceedings, finding that Indigenous news media were both skeptical and constructive in their criticism of the process of reconciliation, unsettling the government’s vision of the process. Tomas has also produced several peer-reviewed publications, including, most recently, ‘Oil Topography: Weaving the World of Oil’ in Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies (2022, with Ruth Beer).
Both in his fieldwork and subsequent ‘deskwork’, Tomas has taken steps to ensure that his research is responsive to local needs and produces tangible benefits for the communities in which he has had the privilege of working. Over the course of his fieldwork, for example, Tomas worked as the Internet Connectivity and Accessibility Programme Coordinator for the Council of Haida Nation, where he oversaw iPads for Elders, a digital literacy program formed as a collaboration between the Council of the Haida Nation, Haida Gwaii Museum, and School District 50. Since launching, the program has offered seminars, produced specialized learning materials, and provided subsidized monthly broadband, outputs which saw the program short-listed for an Award of Merit for Excellence in Community Engagement by the BC Museums Association.
Outside academia, Tomas is also an accomplished documentary filmmaker and photographer whose works have been internationally distributed and exhibited. Alongside collaborator Jean-Philippe Marquis, Tomas founded a non-profit media company and oversaw a large-scale multimedia project focused on the sociocultural impacts of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, producing an award-winning feature-length documentary entitled Line In The Sand (VUCAVU, 2016). More recently, he has collaborated with a network of artists and curators on Shifting Ground, a climate change-oriented research-creation project which will culminate in a series of exhibitions across Yukon, Alaska, Finland, Norway, Greenland, and Iceland.
Tomas was awarded the McCarthy Tétrault Scholarship 2022 – 2023
