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Indigenous Faculty Advisory Council
As a collective voice for Indigenous faculty, the Council offers guidance to the Office of Indigenous Initiatives (OII), the Provost, the Vice-President (Research), the Office of Faculty Relations, and the broader university community. Through this advisory role, IFAC helps shape strategies, policies, and initiatives that foster an environment in which Indigenous scholars can thrive and feel supported in their teaching, research, service, and leadership to the university.
All IFAC members have completed Western University’s MAPP 1.58 Affirming Declarations of Indigenous Citizenship or Membership policy process and have had their Indigenous membership/citizenship affirmed.
For more information, contact indigenousinitiatives@uwo.ca
IFAC Members
Vanessa Ambtman Smith
Assistant Professor, Joint Appointed with Indigenous Studies
Telephone: 519-661-2111, x. 89310
Email: vambtman@uwo.ca
Research Interest/Specialization
Indigenous traditional healing spaces within hospital contexts: Examining relationships to health, healing and reconciliation
Renée Bédard
Assistant Professor, GSWS and Indigenous Studies
Email: rbedard4@uwo.ca
Research Interest/Specialization
Anishinaabeg mothering, Maternal education, Contemporary issues facing Anishinaabeg women
Spy Dénommé-Welch
Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts, Knowledge Systems and Education - Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies
Research Interest/Specialization
Interdisciplinary scholarship; curriculum and assessment; qualitative research methodologies; wholistic methodologies; art & art education; Indigenous studies and education; theatre, music, opera; intercultural collaboration; community-based research; interdisciplinary performance; gender representation in art, music and performance; autoethnography; aesthetics; arts-based & land-based research methods.
Cortney Golkar-Dakin
Assistant Professor, Joint Appointed with Indigenous Studies
Telephone: 519-661-2111, x. 81551
Email: cdakin2@uwo.ca
Research Interest/Specialization
Indigenous geographies, political ecology, and energy justice
Teaching
Climate Change and Collective Action
Cody Groat
Assistant Professor, History and the Indigenous Studies
Email: cgroat@uwo.ca
Research Interest/Specialization
Commemoration, Indigenous governance, and Indigenous political sovereignty
Gabrielle Heil
Lecturer
Email: gheil@uwo.ca
Research Interest/Specialization
Indigenous Health (Indigenous Primary Health Care), Health Equity & Social Justice, Indigenous Cultural Humility and Cultural Safety and Decolonial Nursing Pedagogies
Rebekah Jacques
Assistant Professor, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry
Research Interest/Specialization
Forensic pathology, transplant pathology, death investigation systems, distinct populations, public health, bioethics, quality management, experimental models, transplant
Sally Kewayosh
Assistant Professor
Research Interest/Specialization
filmmaking, Indigenous culture, story development, screenwriting, hands-on film production
Jennifer Komorowski
Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies & Indigenous Studies
Research Interest/Specialization
Indigenous philosophy, storytelling, decolonial psychoanalysis, Indigenous feminisms, masochism, futurisms
Jackson Leween Two Bears
Associate Professor, Visual Arts and Indigenous Studies
Email: jackson.twobears@uwo.ca
Research Interest/Specialization
Studio practice, installation, interactive, performance, video, sound, interdisciplinary practices, indigenous creative and cultural practice, multimedia, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence
Dennis Michaelson
Assistant Professor
Research Interest/Specialization
Renewable Energy Systems and Microgrids; Small Modular Reactors; Real-time Embedded Systems; Indigenous Engineering Education.
Erica Neeganagwedgin
Associate Professor - Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies
Research Interest/Specialization
Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Intellectual Traditions; Indigenous Epistemologies; Indigenous History and Educational Policies; the History of Indigenous Education within and across diverse North American contexts; and Indigenous Research Methodologies.
Teaching
Indigeneity and Decolonizing Research (MA & PhD) GRADEDUC 9204, Doing Educational Research, 9454 (Aboriginal Education)
Sheri Osden Nault
Assistant Professor, Studio Art
Email: snault4@uwo.ca
Research Interest/Specialization
Cross-disciplinary studio art practice including: sculpture, installation, performance, drawing, and digital media; anti-colonial and Indigenous art, theory, and pedagogy; Critical queer, disability, feminist, and ecological theory; Indigenous Tattoo Revival
Nicole Redvers
Associate Professor
Research Interest/Specialization
Indigenous Health, Planetary Health, Traditional Medicine, Indigenous Knowledge Translation, Indigenous Global Health
Teaching
Epidemiology Field of Study
Chantelle Richmond
Professor, Canada Research Chair - Indigenous Health and the Environment
Research Interest/Specialization
Indigenous health, environmental change, Indigenous knowledge, environmental repossession, relational accountability, decolonization, structural determinants of health, community-based research, Indigenous methodologies, health training environments
Teaching
Indigenous Environments; Geography 4900-4901 (Undergraduate Thesis); Indigenous Health (Graduate); Qualitative Methods (Graduate)
Lina Sunseri
Professor
Email: lsunseri@uwo.ca
Research Interest/Specialization
Indigenous women, Gender and nationalism, Gender and popular culture, Community development, Decolonization, Indigenous mothering
Jeffrey Warnock
Assistant Professor
Research Interest/Specialization
Aboriginal Law, Constitutional Law, Indigenous Legal Traditions, and Public International Law (pertaining to Indigenous peoples)
Lewis Williams
Associate Professor, Joint Appointed with Indigenous Studies
Research Interest/Specialization
Indigenous and cultural studies; cultural-ecology and globalization; socio-ecological resilience; and social innovation
Teaching
Indigenous Knowledge and Traditions; Indigenous Research Methodology