This post was written by Amanda Wakaruk, University of Alberta Library’s Copyright and Scholarly Communications Librarian and co-editor of the Hugo Book Club Blog (2021 Hugo Award nominee for best fanzine). Science fiction (SF) helps us reflect on and improve our understanding of the power and role of scientific discoveries and technological innovation in society — current, past, and speculative. It can also be a lot of fun to read, with stories…

Grace Dillon coined the term, Indigenous Futurism, a nod to Afrofuturism, to describe work that is centred around Indigenous people and features their ancient knowledge in a futuristic setting. “All forms of Indigenous futurisms are narratives of biskaabiiyang, an Anishinaabemowin word connoting the process of ‘returning to ourselves,’ which involves discovering how personally one is affected by colonization, discarding the emotional and psychological baggage carried from its impact, and recovering ancestral traditions…

Congratulations to all the 2021 Spring graduate students! Did you know that their theses are in ERA, our institutional repository? There are over 300 to explore that are open to everyone. Governor General’s Gold Medal This spring, Michelle Lavoie, as part of her PhD in Educational Policy Studies, won the Governor General’s Gold Medal for achieving academic excellence at the graduate level. At the University of Alberta, the award recognizes the doctoral…

This guest post was written by Christian Isbister who worked with our team at the University of Alberta Archives to help begin the process of decolonizing their collection. Tanisi, hello! My name is Christian Isbister, I’m a Métis librarian/archivist, and I most recently completed a contract with the University of Alberta Archives where I made some early steps towards decolonizing their collection. Here I’ll talk about some of the inherent difficulties in…