Our live recording with UBC professor and author Glen Coulthard is now available! Click here to listen to the episode in full. Read below for more information on this special episode of our podcast Below the Radar.

Glen Coulthard spent time in Kelowna, East Vancouver and went on to become an academic and tenured professor at the University of British Columbia. Returning to school as an adult, Glen studied at Langara College and then transferred to the University of Alberta. Glen is of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation from Denendeh.

As a professor, Glen is a part of the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program, and the Department of Political Science at UBC. He teaches courses such as “Indigenous Politics and Self-Determination,” which explores the “cultural, historical, political, economic, and gender dynamics that structure the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state in Canada.”

Alongside his academic work, Glen is the author of the acclaimed book, “Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition.” In addition, he continues his work as an activist with projects such as the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, a decolonial, Indigenous land-based post-secondary program operating on the traditional territories of Denendeh.

Red Skin, White Masks

In Glen’s book, he questions “the assumption that contemporary difference and past histories of destructive colonialism between the state and Indigenous peoples can be reconciled through a process of acknowledgment. He examines an alternative politics, seeking to revalue, reconstruct, and redeploy Indigenous cultural practices based on self-recognition.” His book has won numerous international awards, including the Frantz Fanon Outstanding Book award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.

Activism Work Today

During the episode, Glen also talks about being the co-founder of the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning. He explained about how the centre delivers land-based programming including university accredited post-secondary programming in Denendeh. 

Glen also delves into his current work examining the crossroads between gentrification and displacement of Indigenous peoples, using the City of Vancouver as a clear example of this.