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Indigenous Faculty Members

Get to know more about Concordia's Indigenous faculty members.

Concordia is home to Indigenous faculty members who teach and research in variety of disciplines. Read through the list below to learn more about the Indigenous faculty members in Concordia's different faculties.

Faculty of Arts and Science

First Peoples Studies, School of Community and Public Affairs 
Nicolas Renaud

Nicolas Renaud is an Assistant Professor in First Peoples Studies, in the School of Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University and is part of the Indigenous Futures Research Centre. He is also a filmmaker and installation artist who has been creating documentary and experimental work for the past 25 years, including the 2013 Hot Docs award-winning film Brave New River (La Nouvelle Rupert), and the short film Florent Vollant: I Dream in Innu (produced by the NFB, 2021). He is of mixed Québécois and Indigenous heritage and is a member of the Huron-Wendat First Nation of Wendake.

Catherine Richardson/ Kinewesquao

Dr. Catherine Richardson/Kinewesquao is Métis with Cree, Gwichin and Dene ancestry. She was born on Coast Salish territory on Vancouver Island. Her mother’s community is Fort Chipewyan, Northern Alberta. Catherine is an associate professor and Director of the First Peoples Studies program at Concordia. Prior to that, she held positions in social work at the Université de Montréal and the University of Victoria. Catherine is a clinical counsellor and the co-founder of the Centre for Response-Based Practice. Her work is dedicated to violence prevention and recovery and her research focuses on responses to colonialism and state violence. Catherine is the 2019 recipient of the Indigenous Practice Award with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. Currently, she is the Quebec lead on the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative.

Journalism
Kristy Snell 

Kristy Snell is an award-winning multi-platform journalist currently on leave from CBC Montreal, where she has been delivering morning radio newscasts for the past 14 years. She has filled-in as a news anchor for The World This Hour and has anchored CBC television newscasts in four provinces and nationally on CBC News Network. She has taught radio skills, broadcast writing, and "Reporting in Indigenous Communities" within CBC for several years.  Before joining CBC, Kristy spent five years with CTV as an anchor and reporter. Kristy is a member of Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation in Saskatchewan.  She is currently working on a Master of Education in Indigenous Education at the University of British Columbia.

Sociology and Anthropology
Dr. Theresa (Isa) Arriola

Isa (Chamorro) was born and raised in the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. Her work explores the intersection of militarism, indigeneity, and the cultural politics of nature. She is an Assistant Professor at Concordia University in the Sociology & Anthropology Department. Isa’s academic work is deeply connected to her personal life where she works to uplift Indigenous sovereignty in Oceania.

Faculty of Fine Arts

Art History
Michelle S.A. McGeough  

Michelle McGeough (Cree /Métis and Settler) is originally from Amiskwaciwâskahikan, located in the treaty six region of what is presently referred to as Alberta. Dr. McGeough’s family names are Berard, Moreau, Belcourt, dit Sapin and L'hirondelle. Her father was from Northern Ireland.  

Michelle is currently an Assistant Professor at Concordia University. She received her Ph.D. in Indigenous art histories from the University of New Mexico. Dr. McGeough’s research interests have focused on the Indigenous two-spirit/Indigiqueer identity. Other areas of her research include the application of Indigenous research methodologies and the incorporation of these ways of knowing into the development of curriculum and the curation of contemporary and historic Indigenous art.

Painting and Drawing
Mark Igloliorte 

Mark Igloliorte (Inuk, Nunatsiavut) is an artist, essayist and educator. He is an associate professor of Frameworks and Interventions in Indigenous Art Practices, Department of Studio Arts, at Concordia University. His work investigates relating to Indigenous futures through a grounding in embodied practices and language. His use of the kayak, kamutik (Inuit sled) and skateboard speak to the land and how it is traversed and with specific ties to a pre-colonial past and an indigenized future. Igloliorte’s new public work Saputiit - Fish Weir Skateboard Plaza has been commissioned for Nuit Blanche Toronto October, 2022.

John Molson School of Buisness

Management
Ronald J. Abraira

Ron Abraira has worked in the field of entrepreneurship and economic development for over thirty years. After serving in the United States Navy, he attended the State University of New York at Buffalo where he achieved a BS in Business Administration in 1986. Subsequently, he worked as a Business Services Officer in the community economic development agency in Kahnawake primarily writing business plans for local entrepreneurs, and performing industry and market research duties for community economic development projects and studies.


In the spring of 1990 he was named the Executive Director for the economic development agency in Kahnawake and guided the development of both the capital corporation (a business development investment fund) and the employment and training agency (a program that amongst its training activities helps educate potential entrepreneurs). During this time he also attended Concordia University and achieved his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 1995. His MBA research paper was a cross cultural study of entrepreneurship. Besides teaching entrepreneurship at the John Molson School of Business (Concordia University), he also works as a management consultant, and is a member of the Investment Committee of the First Nations Venture Capital Fund of Quebec.

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