Indigenous Futures at the Centre for Comparative Literature
For many years the Centre has hosted scholars working on Indigenous issues, including emeritus professor Ted Chamberlin, who has worked extensively on land claims by Indigenous and Aboriginal peoples in Canada, the U.S., South Africa and Australia. Our current faculty includes Sarah Dowling, who works with contemporary Indigenous literatures and with critical frameworks from Indigenous studies. The Centre has also hosted thesis work on Inuit literature (Keavy Martin) and Indigenous Narratives (Élise Couture-Grondin). The Centre offers courses and supports thesis work on oral forms of expression and material culture in addition to written forms. Students in our programs regularly take up to half their courses outside the Centre and may do so in the English Department, at OISE, or elsewhere.
We believe that future work with Indigenous issues and cultures at the Centre depends on welcoming members of Indigenous communities here as faculty and as students. We are committed to supporting these scholars in a sustained fashion. As part of this institutional shift we have been excited to host events with Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, artist, and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Northrop Frye Professor, December 2018) and Cree writer and academic Billy-Ray Belcourt (February 2019). As these recent invitations suggest, we support expanded approaches to theory and theoretically informed creative work. The Centre has also established Awards for Indigenous Students (see below), along with explicit support for MA and PhD research involving an Indigenous language or languages. We are actively engaged in building our networks on campus and beyond, and we are working toward becoming a space where Indigenous-led research can thrive.
Awards for Indigenous Students
As of fall 2019, one award of $10,000. on top of the basic funding package will be offered to an Indigenous student enrolling for the one-year MA program at the Centre for Comparative Literature.
As of fall 2019, one award of $10,000. per year for 5 years will be offered to an Indigenous student enrolling for the PhD program at the Centre for Comparative Literature.
