News

Statement in support of our trans+, Two-Spirit, and Indigiqueer community members: These are troubled and troubling times, but such times also remind us what matters most. Amidst the rising tide of settler colonial transphobia, homophobia, racism, and anti-immigrant rhetoric at the highest levels of government in Canada and elsewhere across the industrialized West, the Institute […]

UBC Arts’ Top 5 Arts stories from 2024 features two contributions from CIS Faculty! Dr. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa’s How Pasang Yangjee Sherpa honours Indigenous wisdom on her quest for climate justice and Dr. David Gaertner’s Indigenous data stewardship stands against extractivist AI became two of the most read stories of the entirety of 2024. Read […]

Today we remember Murray Sinclair, who passed away yesterday, on November 3rd, 2024, at the age of 73. Sinclair, a member of he Peguis First Nation, is remembered for his lifelong commitment to reconciliation. Sinclair served as Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge from 1988 to 2009, and was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2016. […]

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Turin (Assistant Professor; CIS, Department of Anthropology) Research Area: Implementing relational lexicography in four Indigenous language dictionaries Information: For under-resourced, Indigenous communities, dictionaries also contain crucial historical, cultural, territorial, and dialectal information. When languages become endangered, dictionaries become primary tools for their reclamation. This research project expands on the theoretical findings […]

Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies professors Dr. Tricia Logan (jointly appointed with the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs) and Dr. Pasang Sherpa (jointly appointed with the Department of Asian Studies) have been awarded grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.  Dr. Logan has been awarded an Insight Grant for her research […]

CIS alumni Amber Shilling has been featured as a part of Alumni UBC’s Volunteer Impact Stories! Amber graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in First Nations and Indigenous Studies in 2006 and has been involved at UBC in a variety of capacities since, including completing a Ph.D. and working as a sessional instructor. Read Amber’s […]

CIS Professor Tricia Logan has been jointly appointed with the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Tricia is a Métis scholar with more than 20 years of experience working with Indigenous communities in Canada. She has a PhD in History, specializing on settler colonial genocide and residential schools in Canada. Over the last 20 […]

Congratulations to Dr. Alice Te Punga Sommerville The Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies extends our congratulations to Dr. Alice Te Punga Sommerville (Māori – Te Āti Awa, Taranaki) for her recent appointment as Head of the UBC Department of English Language and Literatures. Dr. Te Punga Sommerville is cross-appointed in the Department of English Language and Literatures and the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies. The CIS community is excited to see Dr. Te Punga Sommerville bring her expertise in decolonial scholarship to this critical role. Please see the Department of English Language and Literatures for more information about her appointment and a brief interview. Department of English Language and Literatures

Glen Coulthard, associate professor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program, joined Nahlah Ayed on the May 21st episode of CBC’s Ideas. The episode covers the Dene fight for self-determination and sovereignty, and its deep historic ties to liberation efforts around the globe, with Coulthard tracing those influences — and how they shape our […]

Dr. Dory Nason was elected to serve a second term as President of the Faculty Association, the union representing all faculty across UBC campusses. To view the results of the election please click below.

Dr. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Department of Anthropology. She is internationally recognized for her contributions to discussions on Indigeneity in the Himalayas and inter-related discussions on climate justice. Please click the link below to learn more about Dr. Sherpa’s work on the UBC […]

CIS Associate Professor Dr. Mark Turin and UBCO’s Dr. Christine Schreyer have guest edited the new Special Issue of Dictionaries: The Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. This publication features a focus on Indigenous Lexicography and is fully open access! Find it for free here.

We are thrilled to extend our congratulations to CIS Faculty member, Daniel Heath Justice, for being awarded the Distinguished University Scholar Award of 2023! This award, presented every two years, serves as a testament to Dr. Justice’s outstanding scholarship in the areas of English and Critical Indigenous Studies. His commitment to these areas has been […]

CIS would like to give a warm welcome to Dr. Tricia Logan who will be joining as an Assistant Professor in FNIS! Tricia is a Métis scholar with more than 20 years of experience working with Indigenous communities in Canada. She has her PhD in History and has held roles at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, […]

Dr. Turin has been awarded the 2023 Dean of Arts Mentorship award. This award celebrates mentors in the Arts and those who foster a community of inclusion and respect at UBC. Mark Turin is described as a mentor who goes above and beyond to help and encourage students. His adaptive approach to mentoring enables him […]

Congratulations to Dr. Linc Kesler, who has been appointed as a member of the Panel on Responsible Conduct of Research (PRCR). Dr. Kesler’s role will be to help foster ethical research practices, as well as provide valuable advice on responsible research environments. Created by Canada’s three federal research agencies, CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC, the PRCR […]

The University of British Columbia welcomes Dr. Bernard C. Perley as the new Director of the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies in the Faculty of Arts. An Indigenous anthropologist and leading scholar in the field of language revitalization, Dr. Perley will assume the role for a five-year term starting July 1st, 2020. “We are pleased and fortunate […]

January 2021 Congratulations to FNIS Professor Daniel Heath Justice, who has been appointed Officer of the Order of Canada. Those appointed to the Order of Canada are recognized for their extraordinary contributions to the nation that inspire, teach and show the way forward to creating a better country. Daniel, who is a Cherokee Nation enrolled […]

April 2021 Congratulations to Dr. Candace Galla, Associate Professor with the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and Language and Literacy Education in the Faculty of Education, for her receipt of the Killam Research Fellowship award! For more information about the award, visit UBC’s Faculty Research Awards page. Dr. Galla’s research and scholarship focuses on Hawaiian […]

March 2021 Congratulations to Dr. Sheryl Lightfoot, Associate Professor with First Nations and Indigenous Studies, Political Science and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, for her recent appointment as the North American member on the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In an interview with SPPGA, Dr. Lightfoot described EMRIP […]