Aubrey Hanson, President (she/her)

Aubrey Hanson is descended from Red River Métis, German, Icelandic, French, and Scottish peoples and is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. She is an Associate Professor in Curriculum and Learning at the Werklund School of Education, where she currently serves as the Director of Indigenous Education. Aubrey’s scholarly work spans Indigenous literary studies, curriculum studies, and Indigenous education, dwelling in how Indigenous literary arts can precipitate relationships between non-Indigenous learners and Indigenous resurgence. Aubrey is the author of Literatures, Communities, and Learning: Conversations with Indigenous Writers (WLUP, 2020) and has served in leadership/service roles for the Alberta Métis Education Council, the Indigenous Literary Studies Association, and the Canadian Association for the Study of Indigenous Education.

Daniel Heath Justice, President-Elect (he/him)

‘siyo ginali. I’m an enrolled at-large citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a federally recognized Indigenous nation of over 468,000 citizens with reservation lands extending over nearly 7000 square miles in northeast Oklahoma. Through my late father, Jimmie J Justice, I’m a direct lineal descendant of Spears and Foreman Cherokee citizens and survivors of the Trail of Tears as well as Riley Cherokee Old Settlers who emigrated to Indian Territory before Removal, extended Traitor/Treaty Party relations, and intermarried white Shields, Crockett, and Bandy kin, among others. My late mother, Deanna Kathline (Fay) Justice, was of English, Jewish, and mixed European heritage. I was raised in the Rocky Mountain gold mining town of Victor, Colorado. Professionally, I work on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm territory as Full Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and Department of English Languages and Literatures at UBC.
 
My work in Indigenous literary and cultural studies takes up questions and issues of nationhood, kinship, citizenship, and belonging, with increasing attention to the intersections between Indigenous literatures, speculative fiction, and other-than-human peoples. My most recent book is Allotment Stories: Indigenous Land Relations Under Settler Siege, co-edited with White Earth Ojibwe historian Jean M. O’Brien. Current and forthcoming projects include the twentieth anniversary Citizenship and Sovereignty edition of Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History (focusing on Cherokee citizen writers), a book-length cultural history of the “Cherokee Princess” phenomenon, and a young-adult fantasy novel.

I was one of the co-founders of ILSA in our inaugural gathering at UBC in 2013 and have been involved with the organization since then. I’m honoured to take up this role in preparation for the 2026 community gathering and to continue in service to an organization doing such meaningful work in the world.

Niigaan Sinclair, Past President (he/him)

Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter’s/Little Peguis) and a professor at the University of Manitoba, where he holds the Faculty of Arts Professorship in Indigenous Knowledge and Aesthetics in the Department of Indigenous Studies. Niigaan is also an award-winning writer, editor and activist who was recently named to the “Power List” by Maclean’s magazine as one of the most influential individuals in Canada. He is also the co-editor of the award-winning Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (Highwater Press, 2011), Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories (Michigan State University Press, 2013) and The Winter We Danced: the Past, the Future and the Idle No More Movement (Arbeiter Ring Press, 2014). In 2018, he won Canadian columnist of the year at the National Newspaper Awards for his bi-weekly columns in The Winnipeg Free Press and is a featured member of the Friday "Power Panel" on CBC's Power & Politics. A former secondary school teacher, he won the 2019 Peace Educator of the Year from the Peace and Justice Studies Association based at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Matthew Tetreault, Early Career Representative (he/him)

Matthew Tétreault is Métis and French-Canadian from Ste. Anne, Manitoba. He is an incoming assistant professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba. He holds a PhD from the University of Alberta, where his dissertation, a literary history of the Red River Métis was awarded a Governor General’s Gold Medal for excellence. He has published work on Métis poetry and national literature, and his latest work can be read in the collection National Literature in Multinational States. Matt is also the author of What Happened on the Bloodvein, a collection of interrelated short stories, and Hold Your Tongue, a novel exploring francophone Métis experiences in southeastern Manitoba.

Krista Collier-Jarvis wearing a medallion made by local artist Crystin Edwards and gifted to Krista by Dr. Margaret Robinson on the day of her PhD defence. (Nick Pearce photos)

Krista Collier-Jarvis wearing a medallion made by local artist Crystin Edwards and gifted to Krista by Dr. Margaret Robinson on the day of her PhD defence. (Nick Pearce photos)

Krista Collier-Jarvis, Early Career Representative (nekm/she/her)

Dr. Krista Collier-Jarvis (Mi’kmaw) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Mount Saint Vincent University. Her doctoral research put forth an Indigenous-informed approach to the climate-contagion entanglement. She teaches American literature, cli-fi, film, and Indigenous literature. Collier-Jarvis is a third-generation survivor of the Shubenacadie Residential School—a topic she takes up in her unpublished “A Micmac Memoir,” which was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Non-Fiction prize. She has a chapter forthcoming on historical contagion in Blood Quantum as well as contributions to the epilogue in Global Indigenous Horror. She is also working on chapters on Indigenous weird, Indigenous Gothic, and Indigenous horror for forthcoming collections. She also hosts “Centring Indigenous Voices,” which invites Indigenous authors to share their work and lived experiences.

Cara Schwartz, Outreach Coordinator (she/her)

Cara Schwartz is a settler doctoral student at the University of Saskatchewan, located on Treaty Six Territory and the homeland of the Métis. Her research is situated at the intersection of Black and Indigenous literary studies. She has helped with the coordination of past conferences for the Indigenous Literary Studies Association and the Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture. Her work is forthcoming in Canadian Literature.

Benjamin Connor, Graduate Student Representative (he/him)

Benjamin Connor is a settler student currently living with his husband on the unceded territory of the Tongva and Acjachemen peoples. He is originally from the metro Vancouver area and grew up on the unceded territory of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem First Nation). He obtained an MA in English Literature from UBC before moving to the United States in 2023 to pursue a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. His research broadly investigates global Indigenous thought in dialogue with Black studies. He has previously co-organized student conferences, including UBC’s 2023 graduate student conference Occupation(s) and Survival. Additionally, he co-edited the e-zine Refugee Futurities: Speculating through Displaced (After)Lives for UBC’s decomp Journal.

Pauline Wakeham, Secretary (she/her)

Pauline Wakeham is a white settler who lives and works on the territory of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton (Neutral) peoples, along the shores of the Deshkan Ziibi. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Writing Studies at Western University. She is the author of Taxidermic Signs: Reconstructing Aboriginality (U of Minnesota Press) and the co-editor of Reconciling Canada: Critical Perspectives on the Culture of Redress (U of Toronto Press).

Ryan Stearne, Treasurer

Bio coming soon.