Michael Belgrave joined Massey University in 1993 on the opening of the university's Albany campus. A historian and previously a research manager at the Waitangi Tribunal, he taught in the social policy and social work programme until 2014, as well as Māori studies and history. In 1995 he began a long involvement with social workers and schools, managing and evaluating Massey University's pilot of the programme, and becoming the leading advisor and evaluator in the development of a government pilot and in the generalisation of the programme throughout New Zealand. The programme is now provided to all decile 1-3 schools. He continued to maintain a strong interest in Treaty of Waitangi research and settlements, providing substantial research reports into a wide number of the Waitangi Tribunal's district inquiries. More recently, he has been heavily involved in assisting iwi in negotiating the historical aspects of Treaty settlements. He has published widely on Treaty and Maori history, including being lead editor of Waitangi Revisited: Perspectives on the Treaty of Waitangi (Oxford University Press). He received a Marsden Fund award in 2015 for study into the re-examination of the causes of the New Zealand wars of the 1860s.