Three faculty research centres have joined the ranks of Concordia’s university-recognized research units and infrastructure platforms, including the Milieux Institute’s Indigenous Futures cluster. Introducing, the Indigenous Futures Research Centre (IFRC).
“The IFRC evolved from the Indigenous Futures Cluster, formed in 2015, within the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology. It is an Indigenous-led research centre with a membership of 13 scholars and artists, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, whose research is focused on Indigenous peoples.
The Indigenous Directions Action Plan, produced by Concordia’s Indigenous Directions Leadership Council, directly called for the establishment of an Indigenous research centre at the university. In response, the IFRC was formed to support innovative research that operates across a range of interconnected goals and areas including the Indigenous Future Imaginary; Inuit Futures; Indigenous Art Practices; Indigenous STEAM Futures; Land, the Environment and Bioethics; Shaping Public Policy and Building Indigenous Postsecondary Research Capacity.
The centre’s members come from the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Arts and Science. They are currently supervising 31 undergraduate research assistants, 16 master’s students and 11 PhD students.
They also collaborate with a number of external partners including Tsi Ronterihwanónhnha ne Kanien’kéha Language and Cultural Center (Kanehsatà:ke); imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (Toronto); MacKenzie Gallery (Regina); Akpik Theatre (Yellowknife); Government of Nunavut; Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum (Iqaluit); Guilde canadienne des métiers d’art (Montreal) and the National Arts Centre (Ottawa).
Director: Jason Lewis, Tier 1 Concordia University Research Chair in Computational Media and the Indigenous Future Imaginary and professor in the Department of Design and Computation Arts.”
