Cultivating Indigenous Studies: Supporting and Growing the Field

Sponsored by Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Recorded on 07/20/2022
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 267

Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition book cover

Supporting an emerging field requires innovation, investment, and infrastructure. Leaders must focus on community-building and engagement to foster sustained interest and growth. Even further, transformation in the academy—only one part of the scholarly ecosystem—must reach beyond campus to the publishing and librarianship sectors.

In this third episode, Deanna Reder, Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and English at Simon Fraser University and author of Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition, discusses initiatives that she has introduced and supported in the Indigenous Studies field. In the past decade, she has worked to build a community of scholars, widen the discipline’s scope, and cultivate a new generation of Indigenous editors in publishing. Deanna walks through the conception and evolution of the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA), the professional development purpose of the Indigenous Editors Association, and publisher support for the Indigenous Voices Awards.


Deanna Reder headshot

About the guest:

Deanna Reder
Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and English
Simon Fraser University

Deanna Reder (Cree-Métis) is Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and English at Simon Fraser University. Her research project, The People and the Text, focuses on the understudied archive of Indigenous literary work in Canada, and she has co-edited several anthologies in Indigenous literary studies.


Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:


Check out our previous series with Wilfrid Laurier University Press:
– Michelle Porter and the Métis Way
– Looking at Community Music
– The Making of DisPlace
– Prison Life Writing
– The Queer Evangelist


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