Jocelyn Thorpe

My research draws from critical race, feminist, and environmental studies scholarship to examine the history and legacies of, as well as challenges to, colonialism in the Canadian context. I seek to understand how past discourses and relationships of power lead to and naturalize present-day social and environmental inequities, and to open up possibilities for more just relationships among humans and between humans and the non-human world in which we live.

My most recent project explores the history of relationships among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Newfoundlanders and the territory they have come to share. I hope that this work contributes to decolonization, in part through centering Mi'kmaw actions in and perspectives on the past. In a similar vein, with Kaila Johnston, acting manager of Education, Outreach and Public Programming at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, and Jaimie Isaac, Curator of Indigenous/Contemporary Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, I organize the Decolonizing Lens film and discussion series, which features the work and words of Indigenous filmmakers from Winnipeg and beyond.