Chris Andersen, PhD, MA, BA(Hons)

Email

cta1@ualberta.ca

Phone

(780) 492-8178

Address

2-31 Pembina Hall

8921 - 116 St NW

Edmonton AB

T6G 2H8

Dr. Chris Andersen is a Professor, and the Dean of the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta . He is the author of two books including, with Maggie Walter, Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Indigenous Methodology (Left Coast Press, 2013) and “Métis”: Race, Recognition and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood (UBC Press, 2014), which recently won the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's Best Subsequent Book Award for 2015. With Evelyn Peters, he also co-edited the recently published Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation (UBC Press, 2013). Andersen was a founding member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Executive Council, is a member of Statistics Canada’s Advisory Committee on Social Conditions and is editor of the journal aboriginal policy studies. He was recently named to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. 

I have five major areas of research: 

1. The racialization of Indigeneity in Canada's courts. In particular, I am interested in the ways in which court decisions reproduce more widely circulating racialized understandings of Indigeneity, Metis in particular. Likewise, I explore how the cultural power of the Canadian courts generate particular depictions of Indigeneity (again, Metis in particular) that then get taken up and used in other contexts, such as the academic field of ethnohistory. 

2. Aboriginal statistics field in Canada. Why is the Metis population growing so quickly, far beyond demographic expectations? What are the dynamics through which Metis are counted statistically and in what ways are these dynamics deeply racialized by Canada's colonial past and present? My research in this area explore the growth and unfolding of what I have called the "Aboriginal statistics field" in Canada, including the rationalities, actors and technologies involved in the creation, collection, analysis and dissemination of 'Aboriginal statistics', exploring more specifically the role of racial logics in governing its contours. 

3. urban Indigenous identities. What makes urban Indigeneity specific, its own identity, related to but separate from those of older communities (such as First Nations and rural communities)? I have investigated the complexities of urban Indigeneity, particularly as it relates to policy and identity creation and have published numerous articles and an edited collection on urban Indigeneity. 

4. Critical Indigenous Studies. My research in this area focuses on the intellectual and institutional histories of critical Indigenous studies (in all its guises - Native Studies, Indigenous Studies, Native American Studies, American Indian Studies, etc.). What is Indigenous studies? When did it emerge and from where? What makes it a discipline (if, indeed, it is a discipline at all)?

5. Post-WW2 everyday Metis life. In 2013 I received a major SSHRC grant to explore the everyday life of Metis communities and their members living in the post-WW2 era of the parkland region of Saskatchewan. In particular, what did post-war modernity look like in western Canada and in what ways were Metis drawn into it while "standing on the outside looking in" (so to speak). 

PUBLICATIONS 

Books

2014 “Métis”: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood. Vancouver: UBC Press. 

2013. Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Research Methodology. (second author with Maggie Walter). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. 

Edited collections 

In progress. O’Brien, Jean and Chris Andersen (eds). Historical Methods in Indigenous Studies. Routledge Press. 

2013. Peters, Evelyn and Chris Andersen (eds.) Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation. Vancouver: UBC Press. 

2010. Brendan Hokowhitu, Nathalie Kermoal, Chris Andersen, Anna Petersen, Michael Reilly, Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez and Poia Rewi (eds.) Indigenous Identity and Resistance: Researching the Diversity of Knowledge. Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago Press.

2008. Da Gupta, Tania, Carl James, Roger Maaka, Chris Andersen and Grace-Edward Galabuzi (co-editors) Race and Racialization: Essential Readings. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

2006. Roger Maaka and Chris Andersen (co-editors). The indigenous experience: global perspectives. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

Book Chapters (refereed)

2015. “Global Indigeneity, global imperialism , and its relationship to twentieth century history”. in Sleeper-Smith, Susan, Juliana Barr, Scott Stevens, Nancy Shoemaker, and Jean O’Brien (eds.) Why You Can't Teach U.S. History Without American Indians. University of North Carolina Press. 287-304.

 2014. ‘From ethnic to categorical mobility: challenging conventional demographic explanations of Métis population growth’ in Frank Trovato and Anatole Romaniuc (eds.) Aboriginal Demography in Transition. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press. 276-98. 

2013. ‘urban Aboriginal planning: towards a transformative statistical praxis’ in Walker, Ryan and David Natcher (eds.) Reclaiming Indigenous Planning. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Press. 260-82. 

2013. ‘urban Aboriginality as distinctive, in twelve parts’ in Peters, Evelyn and Chris Andersen (eds.). Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation. Vancouver: UBC Press. 46-68. 

2013. (with Evelyn Peters). ‘Introduction’. in Evelyn Peters and Chris Andersen (eds.) Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation. Vancouver: UBC Press. 1-20.

2013. (with Evelyn Peters). “Aboriginal Urbanization in Canada: Background”. in Evelyn Peters and Chris Andersen (eds.) Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation. Vancouver: UBC Press. 21-27.

2013. (with Evelyn Peters). “American Indian Urbanization in the United States”. in Evelyn Peters and Chris Andersen (eds.) Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation. Vancouver: UBC Press. 167-171.

2013. (with Evelyn Peters). “Aboriginal Urbanization in Australia”. in Evelyn Peters and Chris Andersen (eds.) Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation. Vancouver: UBC Press. 230-236.

2013. (with Evelyn Peters). “Maori Urbanization in New Zealand”. in Evelyn Peters and Chris Andersen (eds.) Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation. Vancouver: UBC Press. 305-309.

2013. (with Evelyn Peters). “Indigenizing Modernity or Modernizing Indigeneity?”. in Evelyn Peters and Chris Andersen (eds.) Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation. Vancouver: UBC Press. 377-387.

2013 ‘settling for community? juridical visions of historical Métis collectivity in and after R. v. Powley’ in St.-Onge, Nicole, Carolyn Podruchny and Brenda MacDougall (eds.) Contours of a People: Métis Family, Mobility and History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 392-421.

2012 (with Jenna Strachan). ‘urban aboriginal policy in a coordination vacuum: the Alberta (dis)advantage’ in Peters, Evelyn (ed.). Fields of Governance 2: Making Urban Aboriginal Policy in Canadian Municipalities. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press. 127-159.

2010. ‘Mixed Ancestry or Métis?’ in Brendan Hokowhitu, Nathalie Kermoal, Chris Andersen, Anna Petersen, Michael Reilly, Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez and Poia Rewi (eds.) Indigenous Identity and Resistance: Researching the Diversity of Knowledge. Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago Press. 23-36. 

2008. ‘Racism and the Criminal Justice System’, in Da Gupta, Tany., Carl James, Roger Maaka, Chris Andersen and Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Race and Racialization: Essential Readings. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press. 

2008, with Roger Maaka. ‘Colonialism and the Construction of Race’, Da Gupta, Tany., Carl James, Roger Maaka, Chris Andersen and Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Race and Racialization: Essential Readings. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press.

 2008, with Roger Maaka. ‘Indigeneity and Colonialism’, Da Gupta, Tany., Carl James, Roger Maaka, Chris Andersen and Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Race and Racialization: Essential Readings. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press.  

2005 ‘Residual Tensions of Empire: Contemporary Métis Communities and the Canadian Judicial Imagination’, in M. Murphy, (ed.) Reconfiguring Aboriginal-State Relations. Canada. The State of the Federation, 2003. Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen's University Press. 295-325.

2000. ‘The Formalization of Métis Identities in Canadian Provincial Courts’, in Laliberte, Ron, Priscilla Settee, James Waldram, Rob Innes, Brenda Macdougall, Leslie McBain and Laurie Barron (eds.) Expressions in Canadian Native Studies. Saskatoon, SK: University of Saskatchewan, University Extension Press. 95-115.

Journal Articles (refereed)

2015. McHugh, T.-L., Holt, N., & C. Andersen, C. “Community-based sport research with Indigenous youth”. Retos, 28: 219-224.

2015. McHugh, T-L, A. Coppola, N. Holt and C. Andersen. ““Sport is community:” An exploration of urban Aboriginal peoples' meanings of community within the context of sport”. Psychology of Sport and Exercise 18: 75-84.

2014. “More Than the Sum of Our Rebellions: Métis Histories beyond Batoche”. Ethnohistory. 61(4): 691-633. 

2013. “Underdeveloped identities: the misrecognition of Aboriginality in the Canadian census”. Economy & Society. 42(4): 626-650. 

2012 (2nd author with Michael Evans, Devin Dietrich, Tricia Logan and Judy Hughes) ‘Funding and ethics in Aboriginal community based research: the complications of a contemporary context’. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies. 5(1): 54-66.

2012. “Critical Indigenous studies in the classroom: exploring “the local” using primary evidence”. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies. 5(1): 67-78. 

2011 ‘moya ‘tipimsook’ (‘the people who aren’t their own bosses’): racialization and the misrecognition of Métis in upper Great Lakes ethnohistory. Ethnohistory. 58(1): 37-63.

2009. ‘Critical indigenous studies: from difference to density’, Cultural Studies Review. 15(2): 97-115. 

2008. ‘From nation to population: the racialization of ‘Métis’ in the Canadian census’, Nations and Nationalism, 14(2): 347-368.

2007, with Brendan Hokowhitu. ‘Whiteness: naivety, void and control’, Junctures: the Journal for Thematic Dialogue. 8(June): 39-49

2003 (with Claude Denis). ‘Urban Native Communities and the Nation: Before and After the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples’, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology. 40(4): 373-390. 

1999 ‘Governing aboriginal justice in Canada: Constructing responsible individuals and communities through tradition’, Crime, Law and Social Change. 31(4): 303-326.  

Graduate Courses:

Native Studies 503 – Aboriginal Identity and Post-Structuralism 

 Native Studies 504 – Critical Race Theory

Undergraduate Courses (University of Alberta)

Native Studies 520 – Honor’s Seminar

 Native Studies 490 – Community Research

 Native Studies 485 – Urban Aboriginal Issues and Identities* 

  (Formerly Native Studies 404 – Special Topics)

 Native Studies 470 – Métis Politics

 Native Studies 442 – Colonialism and the Criminal Justice System*

  (Formerly Native Studies 403 – Special Topics)

 Native Studies 404 – The Politics of Aboriginal Statistics*

Native Studies 403 – Special Topics

Native Studies 403 – Aboriginal Gangs*

 Native Studies 372 – Métis Politics§ 

  (Formerly Native Studies 470 – Métis Politics)

Native Studies 240 – Introduction to Aboriginal Legal Issues§

 Native Studies 211 – Issues and Insights II§

Native Studies 210 – Issues and Insights I

Native Studies 200 – Aboriginal Canada: Looking Forward/Looking Back (developed the pilot and taught the course) 

 Native Studies 100 – Introduction to Native Studies

Undergraduate Courses (Carleton University)

Canadian Studies 4101 – Métis Politics (winter, 2004)