D'Arcy Vermette

Area of Study / Keywords

Anti-Indigenous racism in academic hiring and research funding

About

Citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta. 

Education:

• LL.D., (University of Ottawa) 2012
• LL.M., (Queen's University) 2004
• LL.B., (University of Toronto) 2003
• B.A (Hons.) 2000
  • Major in Native Studies

Prior positions held with very brief highlights:

St. Thomas University, Native Studies Programme

• Director.  Set teaching schedules, hired and assessed lecturers, created an Honours program, successfully applied for departmental status.
• Earned tenure and promotion

University of Alberta, Faculty of Law

• Assistant Professor
  • Teaching: Constitutional law, Select topics in Indigenous law, supervised Masters student researchers.
  • Moot court coach
  • Indigenous student mentor
  • Major SSHRC award recipient (team project)
  • Supervised student researchers

University of Alberta, Faculty of Native Studies

• Assistant and Associate Professor
  • Earned tenure and promotion
  • Teaching: historical and contemporary introductory courses, topics on law, Metis history, cultural survival, liberation.
  • Regular service as adjudicator of student award applications.
  • Supervised student researchers and teaching assistants
• Associate Dean, Research
  • Director of Graduate Studies Program
  • Established academic appeals process for students
  • Assessed applications and funding awards. Issued letters of acceptance and rejection.
  • Managed student/supervisor conflicts

Research

Developing research areas:

• Anti-Indigenous racism in academic hiring. 
• Awarding the symbolic in Indigenous research funding.
• Academics' hubris and the gatekeeping of Indigenous "identity".

My previous publications were primarily focused on law and Métis history.

• “Colonial Ideologies: The Denial of Métis Political Identity in Canadian Law” in Yvonne Boyer and Larry Chartrand eds., Bead by Bead: Constitutional Rights and Métis Community (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021) 131-155
• “Racism, Canadian Jurisprudence, and the De-Peopling of the Métis in Daniels” in Nathalie Kermoal and Chris Andersen eds., Daniels v. Canada: In and Beyond the Courts (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2021) 116-147
• "Rejecting the Standard Discourse on Métis Lands in Manitoba", (2017) Vol 6, No 2 aboriginal policy studies, 87-119. Online: http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/aps/article/view/28227
• “Dizzying Dialogue: Canadian Courts and the Continuing Justification of the Dispossession of Aboriginal Peoples”, (2011) 29:1 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, 243-260
• “Colonialism and the Suppression of Aboriginal Voice”, (2009) 40.2 Ottawa Law Review 225-264
• "Colonialism and the Process of Defining Aboriginal People”, (2008) 31 Dalhousie Law Journal, 211-246
• “Inclusion is Killing Us” – Teaching Perspectives Magazine, Issue 17, Fall 2012.
  • Reprinted in Bridges, University of Saskatchewan, Glen Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness, Vol. 11, no. 3, 16-18

Teaching

Upcoming courses:

Fall, 2026 -  NS110 "Historical Perspectives in Native Studies" (restricted section) and NS280 "Principles of Cultural Survival".

Winter, 2027 - NS111 "Contemporary Perspectives in Native Studies" (restricted section) and NS280 "Principles of Cultural Survival".

Note: I am on a gradual return-to-work after a long leave due to a work-injury. As I am still navigating that work-injury, I will have to manage my time and duties carefully.

NS 280 - Selected Topics in Indigenous Studies

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