Don McCaskill

Department of Indigenous Studies

Education
Don McCaskill has been a Professor of Indigenous Studies at Trent University for 35 years. He received his Master's from Carleton University and PhD from York University. His doctorial dissertation was entitled The Urbanization of Native People in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver: A Comparative Analysis.

Research interests
Aboriginal urbanization, Indigenous education, community development, justice and corrections, Aboriginal-mainstream Canadian relations, culture and identity, globalization and social change, Indigenous knowledge and international Indigenous peoples.

Edited Seven books
Co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Native Studies for 25 years. Indian Education in Canada: Volume I: The Legacy and Volume II: The Challenge (1989) (with Jean Barman and Yvonne Hebert)
In the Words of the Elders (1996) (with Peter Kulchiski and David Newhouse) Development or Domestication? Indigenous Peoples of Southeast Asia (1997) (with Ken Kampe)
Living in a Globalized World: Ethnic Minorities of the Greater Mekong Subregion (2007) (with Prasit Leepreecha and He Shaoying)
Integration, Marginalization and Resistance: Ethnic Minorities in Southeast Asia (2007) (with Prasit Leepreecha and Kwanchewan)
Conducted research: for government and Aboriginal organizations including: the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, an evaluation of the Manitoba Self Government Framework; Heritage Canada and the National Association of Indian Friendship Centres, an evaluation of the Migrating Native Peoples Program; the Department of Indian Affairs, an evaluation of the Cultural Education Program; the Ministry of the Solicitor General, Patterns of Criminality and Corrections Among Native Offenders in Manitoba: A Longitudinal Analysis; the Ministry of Health, an evaluation of the Aboriginal Head Start Program; and CMHC, an evaluation of the Aboriginal Women's Shelter Program.
Internationally, he has worked with several NGO's including recently conducting research on the needs of Indigenous refugees from Burma residing in Thailand. He was also an author in the Aboriginal urban chapter of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and has contributed a chapter on Aboriginal education to the North American Indian Almanac.
He has also published academic articles in books and journals, case studies and reports, presented papers at academic conferences.

Grants
(2003) received a $350,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to conduct research on the impact of globalization, nationalism and regionalism on the Indigenous people of Thailand, China, Laos and Vietnam.
Received a $504,000 grant (2005) from the federal government, the government of Ontario and the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres to be Research Director for the Urban Aboriginal Task Force, a major study of urban Aboriginal people in Ontario.