Congratulations to Dr. Mayana Slobodian, who successfully defended her doctoral thesis “Fixing Canada: A Century of Indigenous-Targeted State Commissions of Inquiry," on November 26, 2024. Mayana’s thesis was passed “as it stands.”
Mayana Slobodian wrote an excellent thesis that took the approach of writing three publishable articles, all three of which are either published or accepted in good journals, which speaks to the sophistication and originality of her research. What the three articles have in common is a concern, mainly historical but also political and theoretical, with the way in which Indigenous peoples in Canada have constantly posed a ‘problem’ for the state (provincial states as well as the federal one), and with the effects of the Canadian tradition of setting up a royal commission or a commission of inquiry to investigate the ‘problem’. Starting with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was not formally a commission of inquiry but shared many of the genre’s features, Mayana goes over some original case studies of knowledge-seeking activities that were meant to inform government policy. As her external examiner Renisa Mawani explained in her report, Mayana’s investigation of the ways in which Canadian state institutions, and to some extent civil society, gathered knowledge about Indigenous peoples, lands and issues is an excellent and much needed contribution to settler colonial studies, since throughout the thesis the settler colonial character of Canadian state personnel and institutions is highlighted. Congratulations, Mayana (the third Dr. Slobodian in her family of origin). - Professor Mariana Valverde
As supervisor, Professor Mariana Valverde would like to thank the members of the examining committee, including Professor Renisa Mawani (External Examiner, University of British Columbia), Professor Gail Super (Internal/External Examiner, Department of Sociology), the committee members, Professor Catherine Evans (Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies), Professor Brian Gettler (Department of History), as well as the Defence Chair, Professor Marvin Zuker (Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, OISE).
Please join us in congratulating Mayana!