The Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University announces the appointment of anthropologist Dr. Allice Legat as the 2012-2014 Roberta Bondar Fellow in Northern and Polar Studies, who will deliver a public lecture at Traill College on January 18, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Legat has worked with Indigenous communities the Northwest Territories for over two decades. Her work questions some of the assumptions that lie behind the distinction between universality and particularity in thinking about knowledge and caring for the land. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, and has a monograph with the University of Arizona press coming out in the spring, based on her dissertation.

“I am delighted to be associated with Trent University,” said Dr. Legat, “whose academic reputation in the north is grass-roots, practical, and applied. I look forward to meeting Trent students, staff, and faculty. I am committed to establishing links between Trent and the Northwest Territories in a way that will bring Trent students together with northern community researchers involved in research that makes a difference to their communities. I already feel very much at home in Peterborough."

Dr. Legat begins her two years as the Roberta Bondar fellow at Traill College, during which she will deliver a public lecture as part of The North at Trent lecture series, and teach a Canadian Studies undergraduate course at the University. As requested by the elders, she will be concentrating on several publications based on her work with the Tlicho people (formerly known as the Dogrib Dene). She will continue to support the Tlicho researchers in their commitment to using traditional knowledge to monitor the health of their land.

Her public lecture will take place at Bagnani Hall (Traill College) on January 18, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. entitled, “Tlicho Dene Monitoring the ‘Land’.” Dr. Legat will discuss how the Tlicho are maintaining their traditional knowledge system and ways of being while honouring the responsibilities of the boards, agencies, and governments as mandated in the Tlicho Land Claim and Self-government Agreement. All are welcome to this free and public event.

"The Frost Centre is very pleased that Dr. Legat will be joining us as the third Roberta Bondar fellow,” said Professor Julia Harrison, director of the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent. “She will be a great resource for both graduate and undergraduate students and a stimulating colleague for faculty across the University."

The Roberta Bondar Fellowship in Northern and Polar Studies is a postdoctoral teaching and research award. The fellowship is intended to bring a northern scholar to Trent for the period of two academic years. The fellowship named in honour of Dr. Roberta Bondar, renowned space scientist, neurologist, astronaut and former Trent University chancellor, is intended to foster interest in Northern Studies at Trent, and is based in the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies.

Dr. Legat is the third Bondar Fellow. The inaugural fellow was Dr. Derek Mueller, Trent alumnus and renowned polar scientist. The second fellow was Dr. Scott Heyes, a northern researcher specializing in Indigenous concepts of landscape and architecture.

Posted on Monday, January 9, 2012.