Jocelyn Thorpe
Associate Professor, Women's and Gender Studies Program | University of Manitoba
Winnipeg , MB, CANADA
Professor Thorpe explores the history and legacies of colonialism in the Canadian context
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Biography
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 current major project, "Lost Encounters in the 'New-Found-Land,'" is supported by a five-year SSHRC Insight Grant (2013–2018). It explores the history of present-day relationships among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Newfoundlanders and the territory they have come to share, with the goals of: contributing a detailed analysis of a little-known history; advancing scholarly understandings of the workings of colonialism, including its relationship with the non-human world; and contributing to decolonizing relationships among humans and between humans and the rest of the world. Together with Newfoundland Mi'kmaq artist Joanna Barker, I am currently working on the oral history component of the research.
With my colleagues Stephanie Rutherford at Trent University and L. Anders Sandberg at York University, I recently completed co-editing a book called Methodological Challenges in Nature-Culture and Environmental History Research. The collection grapples with challenges of how to study human-environment relationships over time, and provides insight from scholars working in diverse geographical and theoretical contexts. Additionally, I am the author of Temagami's Tangled Wild: Race, Gender, and the Making of Canadian Nature, which studies the history of how Teme-Augama Anishnabai territory in Ontario came to be understood by non-Indigenous people as a site of wild Canadian nature, and the efforts of the Teme-Augama Anishnabai over time to enact their own relationships to their homeland.
Industry Expertise (2)
Education/Learning
Research
Areas of Expertise (6)
Critical Race Theory
Feminism
Environmental Studies
Colonialism
Social Inequality
Environmental Inequality
Accomplishments (1)
Teaching Excellence Award (New Faculty Category)
Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba, 2015
Education (3)
York University: Ph.D., Environmental Studies 2008
University of Toronto, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education: M.A., Sociology and Equity Studies 2003
University of Toronto: B.A. (Hons.), English Literature and Equity Studies 2001
Media Appearances (5)
Academia has a mom problem
Quartz
2016-11-25
This is without significant pressure from the university, but it also demonstrates, as my buddy Jocelyn Thorpe points out to me, that there is a bit of a disconnect between the gifts of the union and the realities of life. Sometimes we have to finish things we started, or do things we said we would do when we were more ambitious and better rested. I am deeply, profoundly sleep deprived, so I am certain that I do everything on that list very poorly...
Let's make cycling in this city safe for all
Winnipeg Free Press
2016-09-24
I love riding my bike. On my bike, I feel strong, free and joyful. When I heard feminist abolitionist Susan B. Anthony proclaimed in 1896 bicycling had done more for the emancipation of women than anything else, I knew instinctively what she meant...
We can start to reconcile now
Winnipeg Free Press
2015-06-16
Two weeks have passed since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its findings, since I had the honour of being packed into the ballroom of the Delta hotel in downtown Ottawa for the momentous occasion. I lucked out and got to sit tucked on the floor at the feet of residential school survivor and self-described victor Ted Fontaine, one of many indigenous leaders from Manitoba in the room...
Princess parties for all, including the boys
Winnipeg Free Press
2015-04-13
I tried to relax about the whole princess thing. You might say I worked hard to let it go. My six-year-old daughter seems OK so far. Yes, she pretends to be Princess Anna from Frozen. But she pretends also to be Piggie from the Elephant and Piggie book series, Paddington Bear, and Orphan Annie. The list goes on...
Girls struggle more to play sports longer
Global News
2014-10-09
“I do think that part of it is this idea that girls throw like a girl, run like a girl, pass like a girl,” said Jocelyn Thorpe, a women and gender studies professor at the University of Manitoba. “It makes it not appealing for someone to pass a ball to someone who supposedly doesn’t know what to do with it.”...
Event Appearances (5)
Youth-Led Reconciliaction, Winnipeg Branch
Pathways to Reconciliation Conference Winnipeg, MN.
2016-06-15
Making Colonialism National: The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the Promise of New/Old Stories
Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association Calgary, AB.
2016-05-30
Decolonizing Teaching: A Roundtable
Annual Meeting of Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes Ottawa, ON.
2015-05-30
Belaboured Introductions: Inspired Reflections on the Introductory Course in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Annual Meeting of Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes Ottawa, ON.
2015-05-30
Beyond Texts and Archives: Experiments with New Sources and Methods in Environmental History
2nd World Congress of Environmental History Guimaraes, Portugal
2014-07-08
Research Grants (1)
Lost Encounters in the 'New-Found-Land'
SSHRC Insight Grant
2013 - 2018
Articles (3)
The Intro Course: A Pedagogical Toolkit
Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice2016
Grassroots Empowerment and the Rise of the Newfoundland Aboriginal Women's Network (NAWN): A Report on NAWN's First Eight Years
Newfoundland Aboriginal Women's Network2014
Temagami's Tangled Wild: The Making of Race, Nature, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Century Ontario
Rethinking the Great White North: Race, Nature, and the Historical Geographies of Whiteness in Canada2011
