Chris Furgal
Associate Professor
Indigenous Environmental Studies Program

Chris Furgal holds a BSc (Biology) from the University of Western Ontario, MSc (Biology) and PhD (Environmental Studies – Planning) from the University of Waterloo. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Indigenous Environmental Studies Program, cross-appointed between the Departments of Environmental Science and Indigenous Studies at Trent University. He is the co-Director of the Nasivvik Centre (Inuit NEAHR Centre) for Inuit health and changing environments co-administered between Laval and Trent Universities. His research focuses on environmental health risk assessment, management and communication with northern Aboriginal communities. He is a member of various northern environmental health advisory committees and national and international Arctic science advisory panels for climate change and contaminants. His teaching focuses on Indigenous people's health and environment connections and relationships.

Office: Enweying Room
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext 7953
Email: chrisfurgal@trentu.ca

Personal Research Website

 

Daystar/Rosalie Jones

I was born on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. My Native American ancestry is Pembina Chippewa, as passed through my mother's side.

"Native American people have volumes to speak, not only to non-Indian society, but to each other as well. I personally feel that all of us, Indian and non-Indian alike, could benefit, especially now, from Native American philosophy and life experience. I intend to continue not only as a performer, teacher, and choreographer, but also as a catalyst for inter-cultural understanding".

ACADEMIC EDUCATION
POSTGRADUATE: Juilliard School, New York City, 1969-70
M.S. DEGREE: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 1968 Dance major, Music minor
Thesis: The Blackfeet Medicine Lodge Ceremony:Ritual and Dance-
Drama 1968. Production film: The Sun Dance 1968.
B.F.A. DEGREE: Fort Wright College, Spokane, Washington, 1964. Music (piano) major.

Office: GC Room 324
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 x7921
Email: rosaliejones@trentu.ca

Website www.daystardance.com

 

Roronhiake:wen (He Clears the Sky) - Dan Longboat
Assistant Professor Indigenous Studies
Director Indigenous Environmental Studies Program

Roronhiakewen Dan Longboat is a Turtle Clan member of the Mohawk Nation, a citizen of the Haudenosaunee; he was born in Ohsweken – The Six Nations Grand River Territory. Dan graduated from Trent in 1973 with an undergraduate degree in Native Studies, developing a special interest in psychology from the University of Toronto in 1979. He has been teaching on a part time basis, in the Department since 1995 and served as the first Director of Studies for the Native Studies PhD Program in 1998, while he was completing his graduate degree. He holds both a Master’s Degree and a PhD in Environmental Studies from the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. Dan originally designed, developed Trent’s Indigenous Environmental Studies Program in 1996, the first university program of its kind in North America. He officially joined the Department in 2003 as Acting Director of the Indigenous Environmental Studies Program and was appointed as its Director in 2004, prior to which he held a teaching position in the BES and MES Programs at York University. He also is a board member of the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force and a cultural advisor and instructor for several programs at First Nations Technical Institute with St. Lawrence College, Sir Sandford Fleming College and Ryerson University.

Professor Longboat’s areas of research and expertise are in Haudenosaunee cultural teachings, Kanyen’keha language programs, Indigenous environmental knowledge systems with regard to: Indigenous Peoples health and the environment, traditional foods and medicines, natural resource and ecological restoration, Indigenous community sustainability and international Indigenous environmental networking. He continues to develop and maintain strong linkages to community, providing lectures, presentations and workshops for organizations, governments, business and industries focusing on "partnership" and "capacity" building. He regularly gives guest lectures at conferences, community schools, various colleges and universities on both sides of the border.

Professor Longboat will be teaching INDG 100 – Introduction to Indigenous Studies, INDG/ERST 260 – Introduction to Indigenous Environmental Studies and INDG/ERST 473 – Sustainable Indigenous Communities.

Office: Enweying Room 302
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext 7844

 

Don N. McCaskill
Professor, Indigenous Studies
Director, Thailand Year Abroad Program

Don McCaskill has been teaching in the Indigenous Studies Department since its inception. During this time, he has played an instrumental role in developing numerous programs and events offered to Indigenous Studies students. He grew up in Manitoba and received his BA from the University of Winnipeg, MA from Carleton University and Ph.D. from York University.

He has edited seven books including: Indian Education in Canada: The Legacy and The Chalenge (with Jean Barman and Yvonne Hebert) UBC Press, 1986; Indian Cosmology, Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 1988, In the Words of the Elders (with Peter Kulchyski and David Newhouse), UofT Press, 1994; Development or Domestication? Indigenous People of Southeast Asia (with Kenn Kampe), Silkworm Books, 1997; Living in a Globalized World: Ethnic Minorities in the Greater Mekong Subregion (with Prasit Leechpreecha and He Shaoying), Mekong Press, 2007 and Challenging the Limits: Indigenous People ot the Mekong Region (with Prasit Leepreecha and Kwanchewan Buadang), Mekong Press, 2008.

He has received over one million dollars in research grants conducting numerous research projects for Aboriginal communities, organization and government departmants in Canada, the US and Asia including a major study of urban Aboriginal people as Research Director for the Urban Aboriginal Task Force (2007). He has been an editor of the Canadian Journal of Native Studies since 1984. His areas of expertice include: Indigenous people and urbanization, education, justice and correstions, community development. culture and identity and international development.

Office: Enweying Room 311
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 7820

 

 

Neal G McLeod
Associate Professor, Indigenous Studies

Neal G. McLeod taught for ten years at the First Nations University of Canada before joining the Department this year. He received a BA and MA from the University of Saskatchewan, and Ph.D. from the University of Regina. He is from the James Smith Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan. His research interests include: Cree culture and history, oral history, Indigenous narratives and literature, Indigenous art, Indigenous philosophy and religion, Indigenous political history and the history of Indigenous people of western Canada. In addition to being an academic, Neal is also a painter and poet.

Office: Enweying Room 305
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 7544
Email: nealmcleod@trentu.ca

 

Marrie Mumford
Assistant Professor, Indigenous Studies
Canada Research Chair, Aboriginal Arts and Literature
Director, Nozhem, First Peoples Performance Space

Marrie Mumford joined the Indigenous Studies Department in 2004 and is the newly appointed Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Arts and Literature. Marrie has a BA from the University of Alberta in Theatre and an MFA from Brandis University in Boston. She comes to us from the Aboriginal Arts Program at the Banff Centre in Alberta, where she was Artistic Director. She has worked extensively in Canada and the U.S. in professional theatre. Professor Mumford will be teaching NAST 395 and 3952.

Office: Enweying Room 326
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 7310

 

David Newhouse
Chair of Indigenous Studies
Associate Professor, Indigenous Studies & Business Administration

David Newhouse is Onondoga from the Six Nations of the Grand River community near Brantford, Ontario. He was recently appointed Principle for the newly created First Peoples House of Learning/Gzowski College. Professor Newhouse is an Associate Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies and the Business Administration Program at Trent. He holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario.

"My interest is in examining the ideas that are forming the basis of collective, i.e. societal or institutional action within contemporary Aboriginal society. I want to try and counter the idea that we laid in front of the bulldozer of western civilization and waited for it to flatten us. The historical and contemporary record indicates that we have always understood the world around us, knew what was happening and tried to affect the world to make it more hospitable and amicable to us. For the most part, our agency as living, thinking human beings has been erased. I want to show how we used our imaginations to live in the world we found ourselves in."

Professor Newhouse will be teaching ADMN 410 Thinking About Management, NAST 100 Introduction to Indigenous Studies and NAST 603 Graduate Seminar in Aboriginal Governance.

Office: Enweying Room 301
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 7497

 

Paula Sherman
Assistant Professor, Indigenous Studies

Paula Sherman (Algonquin) joined the faculty in July of 2004 and will be teaching NAST 350: Indigenous Women; NAST 383H: Indigenous Oral History; and NAST 420:International Indigenous Peoples this academic year. Paula's ongoing research interests include the Atlantic World, the fur trade and Indigenous theatre and performance.

Office: Enweying Room 307
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 7904

Skahendowaneh Swamp
Chair of Indigenous Knowledge.

A highly respected Mohawk Faithkeeper from Ahkwesahsne, Skahendowaneh (pronounced ska-hen-DOE-wan-ay) Swamp is Trent University’s Chair in Indigenous Knowledge. The position within Trent’s Indigenous Studies Department is the first academic chair of its kind in Canada and all of North America to be awarded to a native Elder or traditional person.

"I’m really passionate about preserving and passing our traditions on," said Mr. Swamp. He is actively involved in research and in transmitting Indigenous knowledge to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to departmental and university colleagues. In addition, as chair Mr. Swamp is involved in several cultural facets of the Indigenous Studies program and the wider community.

"I put a lot of energy into what I teach my students, and make myself available for them for discussions outside of class time," explained Mr. Swamp, who sees being there for students as his first priority. "For what I teach, it’s really important to have a relationship with students and to have open communication with them."

Mr. Swamp is teaching two undergraduate classes in Indigenous Studies, as well as a course for Trent’s distinguished Ph.D. program, the first doctoral program in Indigenous Studies in Canada. In his classes, students are asked to interpret their understanding of Aboriginal teachings using traditional forms of expression, such as wampum belt weaving or carving, in addition to conventional essays and text-based assignments.

Mr. Swamp is also an artist who paints and carves detailed figures out of stone. He learned soapstone carving from his wife, Cheyanne, who is also a carver as well as a past student of Trent. Together they have four children.

Office: Enweying Room 306
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext. 7922

 

Shirley I. Williams
Professor Emeritus

Shirley Williams - Pheasant - is a member of the Bird Clan of the Ojibway and Odawa First Nations of Canada. Her Aboriginal name is Migizi ow Kwe meaning Eagle Woman. She was born and raised at Wikwemikong, Manitoulin Island and attended St. Joseph’s Residential School in Spanish, Ontario. After completing her NS diploma, she received her BA in Native Studies at Trent University and her Native Language Instructors Program diploma from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. Shirley received her Master’s Degree from York University in Environmental Studies. In June of 2004, Shirley retired from the Indigenous Studies Department and now holds the title, Professor Emeritus. Professor Williams will be teaching NAST 480.

Office: Enweying 315
Telephone: (705) 748-1011 ext 7477

PART-TIME FACULTY