Profile

Dr. Tracy Bear

Assistant Professor

Bio

I am a Nehiyaw’iskwew (Cree woman) academic and member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation located in Northern Saskatchewan. My dissertation entitled, 'Power in My Blood: Corporeal Sovereignty Through a Praxis of Indigenous Eroticanalysis' won the Governor General's Gold medal in 2016. My research areas are diverse, but all are rooted in decolonial methodologies and epistemologies of Indigenous Studies. Specifically, I engage in the areas of: Indigenous Erotics & Eroticanalysis; Indigenous Feminism, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Sovereignty, Land & Body Politics; Indigenous Queer & Two-Spirit Studies; Contemporary Indigenous Art. My embodied experiences, as a member of the National Collective of Walking With Our Sisters (WWOS), inform my theoretical framework and this in turn is reflected in my research practices. WWOS is a memorial art installation to honour and remember over 1400 missing and murdered Indigenous Women, girls and genderful people in Canada. I’m currently involved in a project called, Prairie Confessions: A Research-Creation Laboratory with Kim Tallbear, Natalie Loveless and Susanne Luhmann. This proposed project consists of a tri-annual series of erotically themed storytelling and performance based shows in Edmonton. These events will serve as jumping off points for decolonial and critical action based research at the University of Alberta.