Paul Gareau, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

Métis religion relationality co-constitutive identity Native/Indigenous Studies Métis Studies Religious Studies Research Methods Indigenous|Canada MOOC

About

Dr. Paul L. Gareau is Michif-French/Métis from the Batoche Homeland and is an associate professor and associate dean (graduate studies) in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada. His research, publications, and teaching explores the Métis (Indigenous) experiences of religion and spirituality, Indigenous critical theory and co-constitutive identity, and the legacy of colonial discourses on Indigenous and ethno-cultural minorities. Grounded in Métis Studies and Indigenous Studies as well as Religious Studies, Gareau’s work centres on theory and methodology around relationality, gender, Indigenous onto-epistemologies, land and place, nationhood/peoplehood, and sovereignty/self-determination. 

Research

Grants and Scholarships: Primary Investigator

2023–2024 Killam Research Fund, Cornerstone Grant, University of Alberta

Métis Religion and Spirituality Across the Métis Homeland ($50,000)

2023–2026    Métis Expressions of Spirituality and Religion Across the Homeland

    SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (PDG)

    Principal Investigator: Dr. Chantal Fiola (University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg)

    Co-Investigator: Dr. Emily Grafton (University of Regina)

Partnership Grant: $199,989 over 3 years.

2020–2023 KIAS Cluster Grant, University of Alberta

Métis Kinscapes Project ($91,019)

2020–2022 Intersections of Gender RIG, University of Alberta

Third Space Edmonton Playback ($6,000)

2018–2020 SSHRC Insight Development Grant (IDG)

Métis Kinscapes Project ($80,840)

2017–2018 KIAS Funding, University of Alberta

Team Grant ($6,780)

2017–2018 Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research, University of Alberta

Research Fellow ($6,000) 

2016–2017 EFF-SAS Funds for Research Assistant, University of Alberta

Seed Funding ($2,500)

Publications:

Gareau, Paul L. 2011. “History as the Rise Of a Modern Jewish Identity.” Ottawa Journal of Religion/ Revue de Sciences Des Religions d’Ottawa, 27–43.

———. 2013. “Le Providentialisme d’hier à Aujourd’hui: La Construction Idéologique Ultramontaine de l’identité Canadienne-Française Dans Le Développement de l’Armée de Marie.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 42 (3): 346–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008429813488348.

———. 2015. “Religious Providence for Religious Action: Investigating Roger Allen Laporte’s French-Canadian Catholic Heritage > The Religious Studies Project.” 2015. http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/2015/05/14/religious-providence-for-religious-action-investigating-roger-allen-laportes-french-canadian-catholic-heritage/.

———. 2016. “Journeying to the Father: Researching Faith and Identity in a Contemporary Catholic Youth Movement in Canada.” Thesis, Ottawa: University of Ottawa. http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-5824.

———. 2018a. “Canadian Catholic Experience: The New Evangelization and Identity in a Diverse Canada.” In Exploring Religion and Diversity in Canada: People, Practice and Possibility, edited by Catherine Holtmann, 157–82. New York: Springer.

———. 2018b. “Occupying the Margins of Society: Operationalizing Minority Identity Politics among Youth within the Canadian Catholic New Evangelization.” In The Changing Faces of Catholicism: National Processes and Central, Local, and Institutional Strategies, edited by Solange Lefebvre and Alfonso Pérez-Agote, 109–28. Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

———. 2018c. “Striking a Path through the Wilderness: The Negotiations of Catholic Evangelical Youth in a Secular and Diverse Canada.” In Youth, Religion, and Identity in a Globalizing Context: International Perspectives, edited by Paul L. Gareau, Spencer C. Bullivant, and Peter Beyer, 286–315. Youth in a Globalizing World Series. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

———. 2020. “The Army of Mary: Quebec Nationalism and Catholic Heterodoxy.” In The Mystical Geography of Quebec, edited by Susan J. Palmer, Martin Geoffroy, and Paul L. Gareau, 55–83. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33062-0_3.

———. 2021a. “CSSR: Historical Reflections.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 50 (3): 365–74. https://journals-sagepub-com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/eprint/2GWDD6QETUFEEYPQPFXI/full.

———. 2021b. “Indigenous Religions and Spiritualities in Canada.” Eurel: Sociological and Legal Data on Religions in Europe and Beyond. September 9, 2021.

———. 2021c. “Mary and the Métis: Religion as a Site for New Insight in Métis Studies.” In A People and a Nation: New Directions in Contemporary Métis Studies, edited by Jennifer Adese and Chris Andersen, 188–212. Vancouver: UBC Press. https://www.ubcpress.ca/a-people-and-a-nation.

———. 2021d. “Storied Places and Sacred Relations: Métis Density, Lifeways, and Indigenous Rights in the Declaration.” In Honouring the Declaration: Church Commitments to Reconciliation and the Un Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, edited by Don Schweitzer and Paul L. Gareau, 131–58. Regina, SK: University of Regina Press.

Gareau, Paul L., Spencer C. Bullivant, and Peter Beyer, eds. 2018. Youth, Religion, and Identity in a Globalizing Context: International Perspectives. Youth in a Globalizing World Series. Leiden: Brill. https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Youth_Religion_and_Identity_in_a_Globali/enl_DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Youth+in+a+Globalizing+World+Series&printsec=frontcover.

Gareau, Paul L., and Mike Burns. 2008. “The Role of Religious Diversity in Creating Community Cohesion in Rural Canada.” Word in the World: Concordia Graduate Journal of Theological Studies 2 (1): 59–68.

Gareau, Paul L., and Jeanine LeBlanc. 2021. “Religion and Relationality: Insights from Indigenous Studies.” Center for Religion & the Human, Indiana University Bloomington. 2021. https://crh.indiana.edu/teaching-religion-in-public/engaging-religion/teaching-modules/gareau-leblanc.html.

———. 2022. “Pilgrimage as Peoplehood: Indigenous Relations and Self-Determination at Places of Catholic Pilgrimage in Mi’kma’ki and the Métis Homeland.” Material Religion 18 (1): 32–45. https://doi-org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/10.1080/17432200.2021.2015923.

Kermoal, Nathalie, and Paul L. Gareau. 2019. “Réflexions Sur l’autochtonisation Des Universités, Un Cours à La Fois.” Cahiers Franco-Canadiens de l’Ouest 31 (1): 71–88. http://www.erudit.org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/en/journals/cfco/2019-v31-n1-cfco04515/.

Koffman, David S., and Paul L. Gareau. 2023. “Jews and Métis in Canada: Ethnic Mobility and the Politics of Counting.” In The Ever-Dying People? Canada’s Jews in Comparative Perspective, edited by Randal F. Schnoor and Robert Brym, 214–29. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

LeBlanc, Jeanine, and Paul L. Gareau. 2022. “Indigenous Pilgrimage as Relations of Peoples and Place.” In Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes, edited by Molly Bassett and Natalie Avalos, 149–51. Sheffield, UK: Equinox Publisher. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/indigenous-religious-traditions5m/.

———. 2023. “Our ‘Spiritual’ Relations: Challenging Settler Colonial Possessiveness of Indigenous Spirituality/Religion.” Edited by Géraldine Mossière and Marie-Nathalie LeBlanc. Anthropologica 65 (1): 1–28.   

Martel-Reny, Marie-Paule, and Paul L. Gareau. 2019. “Religion, Faith, and Spirituality in Youth (Canada).” Educational. Bloomsbury: Education and Childhood Studies. November 28, 2019. http://www.becs-bloomsbury.com/becs/article.

Palmer, Susan J., Martin Geoffroy, and Paul L. Gareau, eds. 2020. The Mystical Geography of Quebec: Catholic Schisms and New Religious Movements. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-33062-0.

Schweitzer, Don, and Paul L. Gareau, eds. 2021. Honouring the Declaration: Church Commitments to Reconciliation and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Regina SK: University of Regina Press. https://uofrpress.ca/Books/H/Honouring-the-Declaration#:~:text=Honouring%20the%20Declaration%20provides%20academic,non%2DIndigenous%20peoples%20in%20Canada.

Teaching

Courses Taught as Assistant Professor: Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta

NS 110: Historical Perspectives in Native Studies

NS 201: Aboriginal Canada: Looking Forward/ Looking Back

NS 280: Religion and Relationality (Special Topics in Native Studies)

NS 290: Introduction to Research and Inquiry

NS 390: Research Methods in Native Studies

NS 503: Métis History (Reading Course)

RELI 580: Youth and Religion (Reading Course)

NS 290 - Introduction to Research and Inquiry

Basic research skills and concepts required in Indigenous Studies will be developed by exploring secondary sources.

NS 404 - Selected Topics in Indigenous Studies

Prerequisite: One 300-level NS course or consent of the Faculty.

NS 498A - Honors Paper or Project

For students in the Honors program in Indigenous Studies in their final year. Prerequisite: NS 390.

NS 498B - Honors Paper or Project

For students in the Honors program in Indigenous Studies in their final year. Prerequisite: NS 390.

NS 504 - Directed Advanced Readings in Indigenous Studies

Prerequisite: NS 503 or consent of the Faculty.

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