Our Faculty

My research and teaching interests revolve around Indigenous-Settler relations, contemporary colonial cultural forms, and the anthropology of space and place. I approach the investigation of Indigenous-Settler relations ethnographically through those moments where complexes of cultural values, and historical and contemporary power relations come together to make themselves visible. Scanning contemporary political and cultural landscapes for those moments where Indigenous-Settler relations play out, our gaze is most often directed towards issues of land, territoriality, and place. Tensions often run high on these terrains, understood, valued, and experienced differently. As a result I am interested in how places are produced, maintained, contested and shifting while often being taken for granted as fixed givens. Most recently I have been exploring the production of touristic places like ski resorts and campgrounds as particular articulations of settler colonial desires on unceded Indigenous territories in the place most dominantly known as British Columbia.

My research and teaching interests revolve around Indigenous-Settler relations, contemporary colonial cultural forms, and the anthropology of space and place. I approach the investigation of Indigenous-Settler relations ethnographically through those moments where complexes of cultural values, and historical and contemporary power relations come together to make themselves visible. Scanning contemporary political and cultural landscapes for those moments where Indigenous-Settler relations play out, our gaze is most often directed towards issues of land, territoriality, and place. Tensions often run high on these terrains, understood, valued, and experienced differently. As a result I am interested in how places are produced, maintained, contested and shifting while often being taken for granted as fixed givens. Most recently I have been exploring the production of touristic places like ski resorts and campgrounds as particular articulations of settler colonial desires on unceded Indigenous territories in the place most dominantly known as British Columbia.

Approach your studies with an open mind and a respect for the knowledge of those who are teaching you. The world is changing rapidly, and you will never know beforehand what you will need to understand in the future. Courses and programs are well thought out by experts to provide you with skills and knowledge that can be extended to new areas of application. Have trust in your professors as guides. We are rooting for your success all the way.

Dr. Mehta was Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Thompson Rivers University, Principal of Richardson College for the Environment at the University of Winnipeg, Executive Director of the Population Research Laboratory at the University of Alberta, and Chair of a program on the social, ethical, political and legal impacts of biotechnology at the University of Saskatchewan.

He set up Canada's first Purple Air network of PM2.5 monitors with more than 50 across British Columbia, and has decades of experience in renewable energy and nuclear safety. He led development of Canada's first solar sidewalk system called the Solar Compass, and owned a solar energy company that completed several solar arrays in the province.

I am a critical race feminist sociologist and interdisciplinary scholar and my teaching interests are migration, feminism, critical race theories, transnationalism, activism, social justice, decolonial feminist theories, critical multiculturalism, Canadian Studies, Korean studies, and comparative studies.

I understand teaching, research and activism to be integrated practices, and I am trying to link my grassroots experiences with my scholarly work. I am also interested in building up intersectional pedagogies, which embrace diverse students' experiences.

Dr. Lindsey McKay is a feminist political economist of health, medicine, and care work. Equity is a central theme in her research and approach to teaching. Current areas of social justice research include parental leave inequality, critical organ donation, and, trust and policy during pandemics.

Dr. Mehta was Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Thompson Rivers University, Principal of Richardson College for the Environment at the University of Winnipeg, Executive Director of the Population Research Laboratory at the University of Alberta, and Chair of a program on the social, ethical, political and legal impacts of biotechnology at the University of Saskatchewan.

He set up Canada's first Purple Air network of PM2.5 monitors with more than 50 across British Columbia, and has decades of experience in renewable energy and nuclear safety. He led development of Canada's first solar sidewalk system called the Solar Compass, and owned a solar energy company that completed several solar arrays in the province.

Dr. Monica Sanchez-Flores (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at TRU. She has a PhD in Sociology and MSc in Social and Political Theory, both from the University of Edinburgh. She earned her BA in Public Administration at El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City. Dr. Sanchez-Flores is the author of numerous publications.

Jennifer Shaw (she/her/hers) is a cultural anthropologist, multimodal ethnographer, and creative facilitator. She completed her PhD in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University in 2018. Her teaching is transdisciplinary, bridging anthropology with sociology and political studies. She offers a particular focus in her courses on cross-disciplinary ethnographic research and investigations into precarity and persistence in everyday life.

Jenny is dedicated to public anthropology and open-access publishing: she is currently Co-Editor of Neos, an open-access and peer-reviewed publication of the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group (ACYIG). She previously worked for the Society for Cultural Anthropology and their flagship open access journal Cultural Anthropology for five years as a Social Media Editor.

ASK QUESTIONS! If you don't know, if you're unsure, ask! Whether in class, during office hours, online, in an email-ask! I would much rather have a ton of questions than have even one student say, 'I wasn't sure, but didn't want to ask.' What students may not realize, is that I get as much out of your questions as you do! Questions help me to be a better professor, and I learn so much from my students. So keep asking!