Presenter: Dr. Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair
Workshop Description
(Timed, asynchronous. This keynote link will be emailed to you at 9 am on August 15th to the email you used to register for the conference. Please check your spam folders around 9 am and put FESI on your “trusted sender” list)
Our conference starts off with a keynote address from Dr. Nigaan Sinclair. Dr. Sinclair has been with the department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba since 2012, researching a variety of topics including Indigenous literature, graphic novels, and masculinities. He is a regular commentator on CBC, CTV, and APTN regarding current Indigenous issues and recently testified at the Clean Environment Commission of Manitoba hearings on the Keeyask Generating Station and Bipole III transmission line. An activist as well as a writer, he has helped organize Idle No More Winnipeg events and has co-edited three award-winning collections: Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories, Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water, and The Winter We Danced: Voices of the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement.
Dr. Nigaan will share his thoughts on Dreaming and Liberatory Education and set the stage for rich learning and collective dreaming as we begin our two days of rich learning together.
Bio
Dr. Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair
Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter’s/Little Peguis) and an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba. He is a regular commentator on Indigenous issues on CTV, CBC, and APTN, and his written work can be found in the pages of The Exile Edition of Native Canadian Fiction and Drama, newspapers like The Guardian, and online with CBC Books: Canada Writes. Niigaan is the co-editor of the award-winning Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (Highwater Press, 2011) and Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories (Michigan State University Press, 2013), and is the Editorial Director of The Debwe Series with Portage and Main Press.
Niigan obtained his BA in Education at the University of Winnipeg, before completing an MA in Native- and African-American literatures at the University of Oklahoma, and a PhD in First Nations and American Literatures from the University of British Columbia.
To see a video clip of Niigaanwewidam’s summer 2012 course at the University of Manitoba, entitled “Super Savages and Aboriginal Images in Graphic Novels,” click HERE.