Biography

Dr. Amy Parent raises her hands in deep appreciation to the Xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Səl̓ílwətaɬ, and Skwxwú7mesh Nations for providing her with a place to live, study and teach. She acknowledges that she is an “uninvited guest” (K. Kellipio, personal communication, February 21, 2017) on their traditional, ancestral, unceded, and overlapping territories. Dr. Parent is Nisga’a from the Nass Valley of Northwestern British Columbia on her mother’s side of the family. Her Nisga’a name is Noxs Ts’aawit (Mother of the Raven Warrior Chief). They belong to the Ganada (frog) clan from the village of Laxgalts’ap. On her father’s side of the family, she is of Settler ancestry (French and German). Dr. Parent's doctoral work inspired her to work with Indigenous youth, communities, and research-intensive universities across British Columbia in order to identify proactive ways to transform Indigenous students’ transition to higher education. Her postdoctoral work investigated Indigenous doctoral programming, supports and initiatives at 100 tier one universities around the world.

Research Interests

Dr. Parent's research is grounded in Indigenous methodologies through collaborative partnerships with Indigenous communities to support self-determination needs through community based research in two areas: (1) teaching and mentoring practices aimed at capacity-building in Indigenous communities, K-12 contexts, teacher education, and higher education in British Columbia; and; (2) Nisga’a language revitalization, educational governance and policy. She also recently produced a film series with highly respected Coast Salish Knowledge Holders and leaders titled “Critical Understandings of Land and Water: Unsettling Place at Simon Fraser University”. The film series aims to examine the praxis of land-based education by providing an understanding of the implications of Indigenous rights and sovereignty on Coast Salish lands and waterways while disrupting the glorified settler narrative of Simon Fraser. She is presently working on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Frontiers grant that expands her scholarship in the area of Indigenous visual methodologies through the use of virtual reality technology to support Nisga’a language revitalization and cultural repatriation. Dr. Parent is a Supporting Aboriginal Graduate alumni and a faculty mentor.

Teaching