Courageous Conversations: Sept 21

About the speakers

The Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is hosting the first Courageous Conversations Speaker event for the 2021-2022 year. This session focuses on Decolonization, Disciplines, and Indigenous Knowledges in the University.

Dr. Marie Battiste holds the position of Professor Emerita at the University of Saskatchewan, and is Mi’kmaq from the Potlotek First Nation. She is also a Fellow of the 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, advancing scholarship in the theme of power and knowledge. She is an honorary Officer of the Order of Canada, an elected Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada, and has four additional honorary doctorate degrees (St. Mary’s University, University of Maine at Farmington, Thompson Rivers University and University of Ottawa).

Dr. Battiste’s widely cited authored publications include Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit (Purich/UBC Press, 2013) and Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge (Purich Press/UBC Press, 2000). She has edited several collections, including Visioning Mi’kmaw Humanities: Indigenizing the Academy (2016); Living Treaties: Narrating Mi’kmaw Treaty Relations (2016); Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision (2000); and First Nations Education in Canada: The Circle Unfolds (1995). She has also guest edited several journals, including Canadian Journal of Native Education, Canadian Race Relations’ Directions, and the Engaged Scholar Journal.

Dr. Catherine Odora Hoppers is a scholar and policy specialist on International Development, education, North-South questions, disarmament, peace, and human security. She is a UNESCO expert in basic education, lifelong learning, information systems and on Science and Society; an expert in disarmament at the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs; an expert to the World Economic Forum on benefit sharing and value addition protocols; and the World Intellectual Property Organisation on traditional knowledge and community intellectual property rights.

She received a Masters and PhD in International Education from Stockholm University, Sweden; was a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from Orebro University (Sweden), and an Honorary Doctorate in Education from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa. In South Africa, Professor Hoppers was awarded Professor Extraordinarius in 2019 at University of South Africa (Pretoria). She held a South African Research Chair in Development Education at the University of South Africa (2008-2018) a National Chair set up by the Department of Science and Technology. Prior to that, she was a technical adviser on Indigenous Knowledge Systems to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (South Africa) and led the Task Team to draft the national policy on Indigenous Knowledge Systems. She was a Distinguished Professional at the Human Sciences Research Council; an Associate Professor at the University of Pretoria; a visiting Professor at Stockholm University (Sweden) where she led the Systems Research Collaboration (Sweden and South Africa), bringing together policy makers and professionals in the academia in the two countries. She is a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University (New York) and was formerly a member of the International Faculty of the United Nations International Leadership Academy (Amman-Jordan); and more recently, Prof Hoppers was appointed to the Faculty in the Master of Arts in Indigenous Science and Peace program at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica (2021).