Colonized Classrooms: Racism, Trauma and Resistance in Post-Secondary Education

In Colonized Classrooms, Sheila Cote-Meek discusses how Aboriginal students confront narratives of colonial violence in the postsecondary classroom, while they are, at the same time, living and experiencing colonial violence on a daily basis. Basing her analysis on interviews with Aboriginal students, teachers and Elders, Cote-Meek deftly illustrates how colonization and its violence are not a distant experience, but one that is being negotiated every day in universities and colleges across Canada.

Sheila Cote-Meek is Anishinaabe from the Teme-Augama Anishnabai. She is a professor and interim vice-provost, Indigenous Engagement at Brock University. She was the inaugural vice-president of Equity, People and Culture at York University, where she led the development of the Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (DEDI) strategy and York’s Black Inclusion Strategy. She was the inaugural associate-vice-president of Indigenous and Academic Programs at Laurentian University, where she developed and led the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre, the Maamwazing Indigenous Research Institute and the Master of Indigenous Relations. Dr. Cote-Meek co-edited Decolonizing and Indigenizing Education in Canada (2020); Critical Reflections and Politics on Advancing Women in the Academy (2020); and Perspectives on Indigenous Pedagogy in Education: Learning from One Another (2023). She is well-known nationally for her work in advancing Indigeneity, equity and inclusion in higher education.