Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression
Overview
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Dr. Verna St Denis (Chair ARAO) is Professor in Educational Foundations. She graduated with her teaching certificate from the Indian Teacher Education Program in 1980, earned her Ph.D. from Stanford in 2002 and on faculty since 1992. A member of Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation and grew up as a non-status Indian and Metis in parkland Saskatchewan. Her scholarship has advanced anti-racist education. In addition to teaching anti-oppressive education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, she supervises graduate students research in anti-racist education, and provides professional in-service for schools and other educational organizations. (Read more here) |
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Robert (Bob) Badger is the Cultural Coordinator in the Office of the Vice-Provost Indigenous Engagement |
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Sarah Buhler (Sabbatical) joined the College of Law's faculty of 2010. Prior to that, she practiced law in a Saskatoon firm, taught as a sessional lecturer at the College of Law, and served as the Executive Director and Supervising Lawyer at CommunityLegal Assistance Services for Saskatoon Inner City (CLASSIC). (Read more here) |
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Dr. Lalita Bharadwaj (Sabbatical) Research areas include: Barriers and key issues to the access of safe and sustainable drinking water sources in First Nations communities; Community-based participatory research with Indigenous communities; Human and environmental health risk assessment; Community-based education. |
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Dr. Geraldine Balzer (Sabbatical) Dr. Geraldine Balzer is an Associate Professor of Curriculum Studies in the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan. Her experiences teaching Inuit students led to her interest in decolonizing pedagogies and transformative education. Her teaching focuses on ways of disrupting the hegemony of standard English and embracing the diversity of Englishes within our world, incorporating Aboriginal and postcolonial literature into secondary classrooms, and preparing teachers to be advocates of social justice. Her research focuses on decolonization and social justice. She works with teachers to explore the use of diverse literary texts and literary theory in order to engage students in critical thinking about societal issues. (Read more here)
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Colleen Bell, PhD, Associate Professor, Faculty Member in Political Studies (Sabbatical) Dr. Colleen Bell is an international relations scholar who specializes in theories of security and war, the contested boundary between military and civilian modes of intervention, and the politics of Western counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. Her work is embedded in critical theoretical approaches, including post-structuralism, de-colonialism and feminism. Currently, she is examining the role of public relations management in Western ways of war. She is also working on an adjacent project which critically examines the role of police power in stabilization and counterinsurgency campaigns. She is editor of the journal Critical Studies on Security. (Read more here) |
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Carolyn Brooks, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Tenured, Department Head of Sociology, Faculty Member in Sociology. |
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Lynn Caldwell is a Professor of Church and Society, St. Andrew's College; Adjunct Faculty, Department of Religion and Culture, St. Thomas More College; Adjunct Faculty, Department of Educational Foundations, College of Education. Her research and teaching interests include: Anti-oppressive education; critical race theories; feminism and gender studies; social ethics; adult education and lifelong learning; qualitative research; cultural studies; interlocking equity issues (race, gender identity, sexual diversity, disability, class); critiques of settler colonialism; national and regional mythologies; nostalgia, public memory and commemoration; community-engaged learning; academic skills support and development. |
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Elizabeth Duret, CPHR, Senior Consultant, Diversity and Inclusion Elizabeth (Liz) Duret joined the University of Saskatchewan in April 2015 as a Senior Consultant for Diversity and Inclusion with a strategic focus on Indigenous engagement. Previously, Liz was a probation officer with the Department of Corrections and Public Safety before transitioning into post-secondary in 2005. With over 20 years of human resources and consulting experience, Liz brings a wealth of experience, training, and passion to the work she does in the areas of diversity and inclusion, intercultural competency and Indigenous engagement. Liz is a Certified Life Skills Coach and Group Facilitator, and holds her professional designation as a Chartered Professional in Human Resources. On a more personal note, Liz is a proud Métis woman born and raised in Saskatoon, and has two sons. |
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Dr. Rachel Engler-Stringer (Sabbatical) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan and a researcher with the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit. She is currently the chair of the Saskatoon Food Council. She has a doctorate in Nutrition and her research interests include community food security, food environments and food access, food system sustainability, health promotion, and community-based and participatory research. While her research and teaching do not directly focus on anti-racism she tries to integrate it into her teaching on research methods and food systems and health, as well into all of her research. (Read more here) |
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Dr Holly Graham is a member of the Thunderchild First Nation. She has worked as a Registered Nurse (RN) in a variety of northern communities, in addition to various other health care environments since 1985. Holly is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing, at the University of Saskatchewan. She maintains an active practice as a Registered Doctoral Psychologist, working primarily with individuals who have experienced trauma and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Holly's research is focused on Indigenous health, mental health, and well-being. (Read more here) |
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Carmen Gillies Research areas include: Critical race theory; anti-racism education; Indigenous education; critical mixed-race studies.
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Dr. Angela Jaime will join the University of Saskatchewan (USask) in the role of vice-dean Indigenous for the College of Arts and Science. A member of the Pit River and Valley Maidu Tribes of Northern California, Jaime earned her Master of Arts (ethnic studies, American Indian studies) from San Francisco State University and her PhD (curriculum and instruction, curriculum studies) from Purdue University. (Read more here) |
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Lori Hanson research area(s) include: Political Economy of Global Health: Critical approaches; Activism and social movements; Nicaragua: The politics of health and crisis; Extractivism and community resistance (Latin America); Gender and health (including midwifery, gender-based violence, women’s mental health); Opioid crises: Socio-economic contexts; Alternatives: Activist scholarship; Community-based, participatory, and arts-informed research; Transformative pedagogies; Integrated knowledge translation. (Read more here) |
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Monica Hwang, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Faculty Member in Sociology. Her research interests include: Racial and Ethnic Stratification; Immigration and Diversity; Political Sociology; Social Inequality; Social Capital; Education. |
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Robert (Bob) Henry, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Faculty Member in Indigenous Studies. His research interests: Indigenous street gangs; Indigenous methodologies; Indigenous health and wellbeing, Indigenous urban issues; Survivance; Indigenous criminology; Visual research methods; Community-engaged research. (Read more here) |
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Julie Kaye is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan. Working in the areas of critical criminology, community research and organizing, and feminist, decolonial scholarship, Dr. Kaye’s research examines settler-colonialism and Indigenous-led responses to varying forms of colonial gender violence and criminalization as well as harm reduction, consent, self-determination, and body sovereignty. (Read more here) |
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Dr Alexandra King is a citizen of the Nipissing First Nation (Ontario). She is an Internal Medicine Specialist with a focus on (HCV) and HIV/HCV co-infection. Dr. King had a successful career in web-based software engineering and management before pursuing her passion for medicine. She got her MD at the University of Toronto in 2009, completed her core internal medicine residency at the University of Alberta, and did a general internal medicine fellowship at the University of British Columbia. She taught courses in Indigenous health at Simon Fraser University, where she also mentored the Faculty of Health Sciences in the implementation of their response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. (Read more here) |
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Katheryn Labelle is a historian and associate professor who works collaboratively with Indigenous communities in Canada and the United States to country colonial narratives and historic trauma. (Read more here)she/her |
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Dr. Maurice J. Labelle's anti-racism/anti-oppression work focuses on how ideas and practices of decolonization (both historical and contemporary) become universalized modes of liberation. (Read more here)he/him |
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Autumn LaRose-Smith is currently the President of the University of Saskatchewan's Student Union. Her platform was based on combining student-centred decision making with social economic and environmental responsibility. She believes in the importance of successful community building. (Read more here) |
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Jaime Lavallee is an Assistant Professor in the College of Law. Her research areas include: Nation Building, Governance- Indigenous and Corporate; Indigenous entrepreneurship and economic development; Repatriation of ancestors and cultural items. (Read more here) |
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Marie Lovrod is a Ph.D. and an Associate Professor English/Women's and Gender Studies; a Faculty member in English; Program Head of Women's and Gender Studies; Associate Member in Sociology. Her research interests include: Transnational Feminism; Intergenerational trauma and resilience; Feminist theory and methods; Creative methodologies; Autobiography/collective auto-ethnography. (Read more here) |
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Marcia McKenzie, Professor, Educational Foundations (Sabbatical) Marcia McKenzie is a Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and Director of the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (www.sepn.ca). She has recently authored a number of reports for UNESCO, and leads the SSHRC-funded Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Change Education (MECCE) project, a six-year global partnership project to advance the quality and quantity of climate change education, training, and public awareness. Encompassed within Dr. McKenzie’s empirical projects are theoretical and applied contributions at the intersections of comparative and international education, global education policy research, and climate and sustainability education, including in relation to policy mobility, scale, affect, intersectionality, and other areas of social and geographic concern. (Read more here) |
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Sheila McLean, Ph.D. Educational Foundations |
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Dr. Melanie Morrison, B.A., M.Sc, Ph.D., Faculty member in Psychology Investigates forms of bias (the attitudes, behaviours, and psychophysiological reactions) that negatively affect the wellness of marginalized persons and the social groups to which they belong. Much of my research has documented the various forms of prejudice and discrimination harboured by primarily white, heterosexual, cisgender persons. Placing onus on dominant majority group members to effectively confront and reduce the biases that they may witness or enact is a key feature of the research that I, along with my students, conduct in the Saskatchewan Equity, Equality, and Diversity (SEED) Lab. (Read more here) |
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Dr Jacqueline Ottmann is Anishinaabe (Saulteaux), former elementary and high school teacher and principal, now a scholar. While at the University of Calgary, she was Coordinator of the First Nations, Métis, Inuit undergraduate teacher education program, and Director of Indigenous Education Initiatives within the Werklund School of Education (WSE). She also co-chaired the WSE Indigenous Strategy, and alongside the Provost, the university-wide Indigenous Strategy. (Read more here) |
Sheila Pocha (Gabriel Dumont Institute) | |
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Erin Prosser-Loose, EDI (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) Specialist, College of Medicine Erin supports our research community in addressing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) issues in research proposals, and project teams. (Read more here) she/her |
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Emily Snyder is a faculty member in the Department of Indigenous Studies and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at USask. Her research interests are in the areas of Indigenous legal issues, Indigenous feminisms (including Indigenous feminist legal theory), Indigenous-settler relations, and decolonial feminist approaches to legal education. Before joining USask, she worked as a Lecturer in Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo. Prior to that appointment, she was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Indigenous Law Research Unit (ILRU) in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria. Emily completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of Alberta. She is a white settler originally from Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe territories/the Waterloo region in southern Ontario. She recently published a book titled, Gender, Power, and Representations of Cree Law (UBC Press). (Read more here) |
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Dr Jaris Swidrovich (On leave) is an Assistant Professor in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan. He is a Two-Spirit Saulteaux First Nations and Ukrainian man and pharmacist from Yellow Quill First Nation. Dr Swidrovich is the first self-identified First Nations Doctor of Pharmacy in Canada and the first and only self-identified Indigenous faculty member across all ten faculties of pharmacy in Canada. He received a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (BSP) from the University of Saskatchewan and a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) from the University of Toronto. His areas of research and practice include HIV/AIDS, substance use disorders, 2SLGBTQ+ health, Indigenous health, social determinants of health, pharmacy practice, and pharmacy/health professions education. Dr Swidrovich is also a PhD Candidate in Education at the University of Saskatchewan, under the supervision of Drs. Margaret (Maggie) Kovach, Shaun Murphy, Jacqueline (Jackie) Ottmann, and Carmen Gillies, where he is studying decolonizing and Indigenizing pharmacy education. |
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Dr. Caroline Tait, Ph.D., Professor (Sabbatical) is a medical anthropologist with particular research interests in Indigenous health and social justice, and the challenges faced by women who are marginalized. In 2004, Dr. Tait returned to her home province of Saskatchewan to join the Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre—a collaborative initiative involving the First Nations University of Canada, the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan. In 2012, Caroline became a member of Faculty at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan. (Read more here) |
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Meika Taylor is a Métis woman that grew up in northern Alberta with family roots in the Bresaylor, SK area. She is the Indigenous Initiatives Project Manager in the Office of the Vice-Provost Indigenous Engagement and also co-chairs the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Champions group at USask. She completed her BA (Anthropology) with Distinction from the University of Alberta in 2006, and her MA (Planning) with a specialization in Indigenous Community Planning from the University of British Columbia in 2015. |
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Debbie Venne Venne is a citizen of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and grew up in Saskatoon. An Alumni of the Edwards School of Business, she joined the University in 2018 as the Coordinator, Community and Government Relations in University Relations. Moving to the Office of the Vice Provost Indigenous Engagement in 2019, Debbie comes with vast and varied experience working with a number of Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations in Saskatoon. As the Executive Assistant to the Vice-Provost, Debbie provides high-level executive support to ensure the smooth functioning of the office and implementation of strategies, initiatives and projects. She is responsible for the day-to-day management of the office and is the primary contact for those seeking the Vice-Provost’s time or attention. She also assists USask’s Speakers Bureau, provides support for the Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression Committee and is a committee member for the māmowi āsohtētān (Let’s Cross This Together) Building Truth and Reconciliation Internal Forum. |
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Karla Williamson is an Assistant Professor in Educational Foundations. Areas of specialization include: Discourses on epistemologies; Cross-culturality; Multi-culturalism; World views - especially Inuit; Gender relations; Resilience and Aboriginal peoples; Aboriginal higher learning; Artic peoples and governance. (Read more here) |
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Dr Alex Wilson is Neyonawak Inniniwak from the Opaskwayaki Cree Nation. She is a professor with the Department of Educational Foundations and the Academic Director of the Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. She completed her BA (Psychology) from California State University, Sacramento in 1994; her EdM (Human Development and Psychology: Psycho-social and Cultural Development) from Harvard University in 1995; and an EdD (Human Development and Psychology) from Harvard University in 2007. (Read more here) |
No Image | Dr. Manuela Valle-Castro, is originally from Chile and has Mestiza (Spanish-Italian and Afro-Indigenous) background. She holds a Ph.D. in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice from the University of British Columbia and a master's degree in Women's and Gender Studies from the same university. Dr. Valle-Castro is an experienced educator both in University and community settings who is deeply committed to social, gender and racial justice and equity. (Read More here) |
Resources
“Confronting Racism, with Robin Diangelo”
Indigenous Voices Online Learning Module on “Power and Privilege”
Chapter 10 – Anti-Oppressive Education and Practise
“Aboriginal Consulting Services” is a Saskatoon company owned by John Lagimodiere that provides Indigenous awareness training
Office of the Treaty Commissioner Speakers Bureau
The Indian Act Teaching Guide from The Secret Life of Canada
The Players Tribune article by Kyle Corver on his privilege as a white NBA player
Education Week article on “How White Educators Can Move Beyond ‘White Fragility’”
“SAFE Anti-Racist Anti-Oppressive Educators” Facebook Group
City of Saskatoon Anti-Racism Education Webpage
Globe and Mail article on racism in Saskatchewan
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/after-boushie-its-time-for-honest-talk-about-racism-in-
CBC article on racism in Saskatchewan that features USask students and alumni
“Racism - Indigenous Perspectives with Senator Murray Sinclair”
Q&A begins at 59:08: https://youtu.be/Vj_YBOIHtFM?t=3548
Question on supporting university students when their professor devalues Indigenous ways of knowing:
“What can ordinary citizens do to expedite the reconciliation process?”
https://youtu.be/Vj_YBOIHtFM?t=4743
“White Fragility in the Workplace”
“Birth of a Family” Documentary
“nîpawistamâsowin We Will Stand Up” Documentary
“Two Worlds Colliding” Documentary
- University wide committee chaired by the Vice-Provost Indigenous Engagement
- March 27, 2019 Panel Event titled “Let’s talk about race: And let’s normalize conversations about racism, discrimination and oppression”
https://medicine.usask.ca/events/2019/03/vpie-panel-discussion.php
- EFDT 301.3: Educator Identity in Contexts Anti-Oppressive and Ethical Beginnings