Richard Tomczak is the Director of Faculty Engagement and a Research Assistant Professor in the History Department at Stony Brook University, where he received his PhD in History. Richard has several peer-reviewed publications, including an article on corvée labor in the American Revolution, published in the Journal of Colonial History & Colonialism, by Johns Hopkins University Press. His article on French Canadian corvée mutiny was nominated for the 2021 Article Prize by the Canadian Committee on Labour History.
His recent monograph, Workers of War & Empire from New France to British America, 1688-1783 (2025), published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, chronicles the transformation of corvée over nine decades in French and British North America. While a major focus of this project is unraveling the labor arrangements that propped up the Canadian colonial state, it also sheds light on the evolution of French Canadians’ work routines, the rhythms of their agricultural lives, and their responses to corvée policy.
For more information, contact Samuel Backer (samuel.backer@maine.edu).