UNews - Indigenous Studies

New U of L series to highlight research in social sciences and humanities

caroline.zentner — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 15:48:24 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, thanks to funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), is launching a new series called Celebrating Connection: A SSHRC Exchange Series.

The series is designed to help disseminate research findings and provide opportunities for networking and collaborating in the humanities, social sciences, arts, education and management through events such as conferences, presentations and workshops.

“U of L researchers in the social sciences and humanities are conducting leading-edge research and a series like Celebrating Connection allows them to share their results and further involve their students in learning opportunities,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, associate vice-president (research). “This series will be of interest to the broader academic community, as well as the public at large.”

Eight proposals have been accepted and topics include a variety of disciplines, from art history and music to archaeology and philosophy. Most of the sessions will occur during the 2019-2020 academic year but the first is scheduled for June 14 and 15.

The first instalment of the series, titled The Line Crossed Us: New Directions in Critical Border Studies, brings together emerging scholars working on aspects of border studies. Organized by the Border Studies Group at the U of L — which includes Drs. Julie Young (Geography), Tier II Canada Research Chair; Sheila McManus (History) and Paul McKenzie-Jones (Indigenous Studies) — the conference will examine Indigenous and migration politics and also put contemporary border issues and crises into historical perspective.

“We’re excited about the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of this conference,” say Young, McManus and McKenzie-Jones. “Border studies often takes place siloed in three distinct disciplines—history, geography and political science—which is what makes our conference unique and important, especially in an era when nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise amidst calls for stronger borders.”

The conference includes a screening of the film El Muro: The Wall (2017), a documentary that focuses on the ancestral lands of the Lipan Apache in Texas and governmental efforts to dispossess them. Anyone interested in attending is asked to register for a free ticket through Eventbrite.

The conference schedule can be found online at Border Studies.

Early career researchers at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge secure SSHRC awards

caroline.zentner — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:06:39 +0000

A dozen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers have been awarded more than $600,000 in new funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for diverse projects, including agricultural supply chain management and repatriating Métis music.

These Insight Development Grants, announced earlier this year, are designed to support emerging scholars and research in its early stages, with up to $75,000 available over one or two years.

From the Dhillon School of Business, Drs. Duckjung Shin, Adriane MacDonald, Jocelyn Wiltshire (Calgary campus) and Alireza Tajbakhsh have secured more than $187,000 in funding for their projects.

Shin’s research looks at human resource management as a social system within an organization. He examines the interference between work and life domains, the diminishing power of unions under modern human resource practices, widening status differences within an organization and its societal consequences.

MacDonald’s research will examine the potential of sense-making tools to improve communication and problem-solving in multi-stakeholder partnerships, an approach espoused in the United Nations’ global sustainable development agenda. Engaging multiple stakeholder perspectives in complex problem solving can create new problems and ultimately prevent groups from reaching their goals. MacDonald’s study will focus on how sense-making tools, such as boundary objects, metaphor and storytelling, can help individuals in these partnerships overcome the inherent difficulties of collaborating at knowledge boundaries.

Wiltshire’s research looks at the dark side of leaders’ influence behaviour in the workplace, known as dark political skill. To what extent do manipulative and deceptive leaders contribute to a political workplace climate and impact employee behaviours and well-being? Along with Drs. Kelly Williams-Whitt and Mahfooz Ansari, Wiltshire will conduct a series of surveys and interviews. Their findings will speak to effective managerial and organizational practices that may mitigate or neutralize these harmful consequences.

Tajbakhsh will examine the existing literature on agricultural supply chain management in both crop and livestock sectors in Canada. The agriculture sector is at the nexus of world hunger and climate change. Tajbakhsh’s research will look at successful sustainable practices adopted in Canada and what corporate and government sustainability regulations have influenced agricultural networks in Canada.

Five researchers in the Faculty of Fine Arts — Dr. Dana Cooley (New Media), Dr. Bryn Hughes (Music), Jackson Two Bears (Art), Dr. Amandine Pras (Music) and Dr. Devon Smither (Art) — have secured awards worth nearly $280,000.

Cooley’s project, To Hear a Shadow, is an interactive installation that translates a participant’s EEG (brain activity) data through a Rube Goldbergesque chain of digital and early scientific measuring devices that spin and flutter, turning the signals into light, sound, and movement. Behind a partial wall, a second participant tunes in to the audio transmissions through a specially equipped headset. Proximity sensors respond to the second participant’s movements which affect the colour and intensity of light in the room. The perceptual feedback loop constructed by Shadow draws our attention to the interconnectedness we have with each other and our environment.

Hughes plans to delve into the factors that allow people to activate different musical languages. He wants to determine what musical features contribute most to syntactic violations and why some musical gestures sound wrong in one kind of music but not in another.

Two Bears’ research will explore the ways in which the creative use of digital technologies can support the innovation, transmission and transformation of Indigenous creative and cultural practices, while providing a site for critical dialogue and reflection. Two Bears plans to create an immersive 360-degree video and audio art installation and a multimedia app that will feature mobile media artworks.

Pras' research focuses on the democratization of the 21st century recording studio and the production techniques and creative processes that define it. Her multidisciplinary project includes three complementary case studies — an ethnography on street recording studios in Bamako, Mali, a longitudinal survey in the international Audio Recording Engineer Practicum of the Banff Centre and an experiment that will examine the learning process of a young Malian studio practitioner when attending the Banff Practicum for one semester.

Smither is conducting a study that looks at the marginalization of women artists and artistic realism during the first three decades of the 20th century. Specifically, she will focus on Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and the women artists she collected and supported from 1905 to 1930. The works formed part of the founding collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, which opened in 1931.

The other recipients include Drs. Monique Giroux, Canada Research Chair and a professor in Indigenous Studies; Kara Granzow, a professor of sociology; and Julie Young, a professor of geography and Canada Research Chair.

Giroux’s research centres on the repatriation of Métis music. It includes three key elements: understanding what constitutes musical repatriation, creating an inventory of Métis musical belongings housed in archives and private collections, and determining the priorities of Métis communities for the repatriation of these musical belongings. Through consultations with Métis advisory boards, she will create a strategy for musical repatriation, including the possibility of establishing programs to support musical revival and resurgence.

Granzow and Dr. Amber Dean, co-investigator and professor at McMaster ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, seek to understand and contribute to preventing sexualized colonial violence through exploring the enduring relationships between an economy based on resource extraction and the ongoing high rates of sexualized violence against Indigenous women in Alberta.

Young’s research examines the impacts of Canadian refugee deterrence policies. Phase one analyzes how the Canadian government conceptualizes and operationalizes deterrence via the Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement, the Mexican visa policy, the Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program and the recent information campaign in U.S. cities. Phase two involves fieldwork in Windsor-Detroit and Leamington to assess the local consequences of these policies.

Breadth of research highlighted by latest CRC announcements

trevor.kenney — Thu, 03 May 2018 15:28:47 +0000

A trio of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are among 186 persons who have been announced as new or renewed Canada Research Chairs (CRC) by the Government of Canada.

Drs. Monique Giroux (Indigenous studies), Trushar Patel (chemistry & biochemistry) and Julie Young (geography) were all named Tier II Canada Research Chairs as the Government of Canada unveiled a $158-million investment in the Canada Research Chairs program. An additional $8.3 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for research infrastructure is also associated with the new Chair awards.

Dr. Erasmus Okine, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s vice-president (research) says the appointments represent the breadth of research that is ongoing at the U of L.

“I am very pleased to see the federal government’s investment in these researchers and the valuable work they are doing,” says Okine. “From Indigenous studies to geography and chemistry & biochemistry, Drs. Giroux, Young and Patel are among the brightest ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in their respective fields and have made valuable contributions to the betterment of our society. I look forward to what these appointments will further yield.”

Giroux’s research explores Métis/Indigenous cultural and political revival and resurgence across Canada, with her current work focusing on Métis cultural festivals in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Drawing on her experience as an ethnomusicologist and on research emerging from the areas of critical theory and Indigenous studies, Giroux examines how members of the Métis nation are engaging with the settler state through cultural events, and how cultural events are embodying broader political goals such as rebuilding the Métis nation, developing a nation-to-nation relationship with Canada, or, alternately, reinforcing the status quo.

Patel will unravel the principles underlying RNA-protein interactions during viral infections by employing sophisticated biophysical techniques. This will enable him to develop rational, targeted therapies for a range of viral infections. His strategy is innovative as it aims to target host proteins, rather than viral proteins that are subjected to genetic variability. His strong background in structural-biophysical characterization of RNA, DNA and proteins is highly beneficial to this program. The relevant experience of Patel and collaborators, the availability of infrastructure, and a very strong commitment from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ will ensure his success as a Canada Research Chair.

Young aims to establish the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge as a leading institution for critical border studies, with a focus on displacement and border control in settler colonial contexts. Her research program has three key objectives: to analyze migration management and resistance along the NAFTA corridor; to develop a community of scholars (locally, regionally, nationally, globally) around border studies in the context of settler colonial nation-states; and, to mobilize Lethbridge’s strategic location as a borderlands city and regional hub negotiating indigenous-settler histories and contemporary relations and more recent experiences with refugee resettlement.

Both Giroux and Young are Tier 2 Canada Research Chairs funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Patel is also a Tier 2 CRC with funding coming from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Hanrahan earns Parkland grant, to study water security in Metis communities

trevor.kenney — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 22:00:36 +0000

For the vast majority of Canadians, the concept of not having readily available drinking water is literally foreign – something only developing countries have to face. Unfortunately, residents of rural and remote communities, many of which are indigenous, face the problem of trying to find potable water every day of their lives.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professor Dr. Maura Hanrahan has studied this problem and is currently embarking on a research project to examine the state of water security in Métis communities in Alberta. Her work has earned her the support of the Parkland Institute as the recipient of the Parkland Institute/U of L Faculty Research Grant.

Dr. Maura Hanrahan says that residents of rural and remote communities, many of which are indigenous, face the problem of trying to find potable water every day of their lives.

“While the applications were all of a very high standard, Dr. Hanrahan's proposal to study water quality and infrastructure in Alberta’s Métis communities is especially timely,” says Dr. Trevor Harrison, director of the Parkland Institute and a professor in the Department of Sociology. “In Canada’s 150th year, it is crucial to acknowledge the disparities faced by First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples, and, as with Dr. Hanrahan’s research, to work towards understanding these inequities and finding solutions.”

Hanrahan, a faculty member in the Department of Native American Studies for just over a year, has spent the majority of her professional career working with indigenous organizations. She has spent time on land claims and negotiations, helped develop health policy and as an academic, been at the forefront of research projects. Originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, she has both Irish and Mi’kmaq heritage, making the research that she does that much more personal.

“Most of my career has been responding to community needs because that is a cultural imperative. The academic piece comes out of that and I see research as a very good way to highlight issues, such as drinking water problems, that need to be brought into the open,” she says. “Water security is so basic. The United Nations recognizes it as a human right and yet Canada isn’t living up to its responsibilities in that regard.”

She has worked in communities such as Black Tickle, Labrador, an Inuit community in the Canadian sub-arctic that has no potable piped water. She describes people trying to lead productive lives but having to worry every day about whether they can access water.

“What really bothers me are the mental health implications. In some of these communities, people think about water all the time,” she says. “Water shortages are treated like an emergency when they happen in the south and in urban areas but not in rural and indigenous areas, where they are almost normalized. People are faced with these long-term boil-water orders and they get tired of it, so they begin to take chances with it.”

Her focus on the Métis population in Alberta is unique because there has been no research into the water security issues they face. With Alberta being home to more than 66,000 Métis and the only province with Métis land bases, she says the time is right to investigate their contaminated water and water access problems.

“When I looked in the literature there was absolutely nothing on Métis water security,” she says. “There has been a lot of attention to First Nations and some attention to Inuit, and that’s all good, but we also need to bring Métis into the research.”

Hanrahan’s initial work is a pilot project with Faust, a Métis-majority community near Lesser Slave Lake, with a grant application in the works to expand it to a cross-case analysis involving other sites. She’s thrilled to have the support of the Parkland Institute and to be working in partnership with the Métis Nation of Alberta.

“I’ve found in my year here that the U of L is a very supportive institution and you are given the resources you need to do your job, so the Parkland award was like the icing on the cake,” she says. “I like the work that Parkland does on policy. They’ve given me the chance to expand my research from Labrador to here in Alberta, which is something I really appreciate.”

Little Bear appointment strengthens ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge commitment to Indigenous education

trevor.kenney — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 20:05:49 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has appointed respected and renowned Indigenous governance expert, Canadian education leader and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge alumnus Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) ’72, DASc ’04), as the institution’s first Distinguished Niitsitapi Scholar.

With the appointment, Little Bear will play a key role in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s continued commitment to truth and reconciliation as well as lead national and international conversations regarding truth and reconciliation – including at other Canadian universities.

“Leroy’s counsel and vision contributed to shaping the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge since the early days of the U of L,” says President and Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Mike Mahon. “The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ has a responsibility to undertake actions that respond to Truth and Reconciliation Report findings and to support actions across the country. Leroy’s new appointment will be of great benefit to our university and to our country.”

Little Bear will also continue to advise senior leadership on matters of protocol and ceremony pertaining to First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) peoples as well as advise on U of L initiatives that aim to remove barriers for Indigenous learners.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has always valued its location on traditional Blackfoot territory. Since 1975, when the Department of Native American Studies was formed by Little Bear, many Faculties and units across campus have undertaken projects to support Blackfoot and FNMI peoples. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is proud of this breadth of programming.

“The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is a large part of my life and I am so honoured to continue in service to this special place in southern Alberta that I know and love,” says Little Bear.

Little Bear is a member of the Small Robes Band and was born and raised on the Blood Indian Reserve in southern Alberta. Little Bear earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge before continuing his education at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Utah in Salt Lake City – completing a Juris Doctor degree in 1975. Following graduation, Little Bear was recruited back to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge where he led the creation of one of the first Native America Studies departments in Canada. He remained a member of this department until his retirement in 1997, though he continues to teach classes and supervise students as an adjunct member of the department.

Little Bear is one of the leading experts on Indigenous governance in Canada. His 1994 book (with Boldt and Long) Pathways to Self-Determination is used by law, political science, and Native American Studies students across the country. In 1995, Little Bear was asked to prepare a report, The Criminal Justice System and Aboriginal Men for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Little Bear also played a role in the self-governance of his own people drafting the Kainaisini, the constitutional document of the Blood Tribe governance in 1984, and the Blood Tribe Police Commission in 1985. In 2000, Little Bear was approached to draft the declaration formally re-establishing the Blackfoot Confederacy.

Little Bear has had an outstanding impact on the recognition and interpretation of Aboriginal Rights in Canada. From 1981 to 1987, he was an integral member of the legal team advising the National Indian Brotherhood on the negotiations for the inclusion of section 35 of the Canadian Constitution. His 1977 paper, A Native Concept of Title was the first Indigenous-authored paper cited by the Supreme Court of Canada. His contribution has extended internationally as well as he was a founding member of the UN working group on Indigenous Population, drafting the document that would become the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Most recently, Little Bear has been the Senior Advisor, Aboriginal Education to President Mike Mahon at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. He has led the IINII Initiative, a project to repatriate bison to the northern plains, which resulted in the reintroduction of bison to Banff National Park. He is a sought-after speaker on many topics, including native perspectives on science. He has received numerous awards and honours for his work, most recently the Alberta Order of Excellence.

UNews - Indigenous Studies

New U of L series to highlight research in social sciences and humanities

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