How To Be Biased in the Classroom

Event Description

Building on her article, How To Be Biased in the Classroom, Dr. Jaime Lavallee will share the whiplash and backlash, and the successes and joys that have occurred since within the classroom, institution, and relationships within academia and the Indigenous community. The Kwayeskastasowin course is in it's sixth year and many lessons have been learned. As USask Law continues on their journey of "setting things right", it continues trying to implement this Cree principle into the entire law school experience. There will continue to be missteps and stumbles along this journey; however, it is more important to continue to move forward than to dwell on the lack of perfection. Dr. Lavallee and colleague, Robin Hansen, are currently working on an article about these pragmatic steps in this reconciliation journey. 

Speaker

Dr. Jaime M.N. Lavallee (J.D., LL.M., S.J.D.), Muskeg Lake Cree from Treaty 6, Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan, College of Law.

Dr. Lavallee has worked in international Indigenous rights and cultural rights through such positions as: First Peoples Worldwide; National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (NATHPO); and the National Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Program. Prior to joining the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law, she was the Director of Indigenous Governance, Law & Policy at File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council. Dr. Lavallee teaches Indigenous Nation Building according to the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (HPAIED). Her areas of scholarship are on repatriation of ancestors and cultural patrimony, anti-racism education and Indigenous-specific racism in the academy. In 2022, she published on her experience teaching law as an Indigenous professor, How To Be Biased in the Classroom: Kwayeskastasowin – Setting Things Right?, available here: https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/mhlr/vol48/iss3/3/