Policy school welcomes Dr. Kurtis Boyer as its newest faculty lecturer

Saskatoon—The Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy is pleased to announce the one-year appointment of Dr. Kurtis Boyer to a faculty lecturer position at its University of Saskatchewan (USask) campus effective August 1, 2020.

Dr. Boyer (Michif/Métis) is a political scientist working in the areas of Indigenous governance and political psychology. Originally from Southern Saskatchewan, in 2018 Kurtis completed his PhD in Political Science from the University of Lund in Sweden. His dissertation, An Autocracy of Empathy, was featured in Norway’s national newspaper Aftenposten; and was nominated for the European Consortium’s Award for Political Research’s Best PhD Thesis. Much of his research continues to focus on how external conditions influence political behaviour, and how insights from evolutionary and embodied cognition, as well as social-neuroscience might be made accessible to policy makers. Prior to his PhD, he completed an MA in Political Science from the University of Northern British Columbia, and a BA in International Studies (minor in Indigenous Studies) from the University of Saskatchewan.

“Faculty lecturers play an important role in both the instruction of JSGS courses and in the development of new courses for online delivery,” says Doug Moen, JSGS executive director. “We are very fortunate to have found someone with Kurtis’ background, experience, and expertise, to join our school at such a pivotal time as we continue with online instruction for the fall semester.”

Boyer has developed and taught both online and in-person graduate and undergraduate courses related to politics, from gender and global governance, to environmental and social policy, to Indigenous issues and classical political philosophy. This past spring, he was hired as a sessional lecturer teaching online courses in Indigenous Nation Building (JSGS 898) and Indigenous Governance and Politics (USask POLS 222).

In addition to his teaching, Boyer has worked collaboratively for the past year as a postdoctoral fellow with Ken Coates, JSGS Professor and Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation.

“Kurtis has worked extensively on issues related to Indigenous politics, self-governance, and law,” says Coates. “Most recently, he conducted research and analyzed the potential for economic collaboration among the Municipality of Meadow Lake, the Métis Nation, Meadow Lake Tribal Council, and the surrounding rural municipalities. This work has already proven invaluable to the communities we work with, and his contributions in the area of Indigenous governance research will serve the school well as we continue to engage and partner with Indigenous communities.”

Boyer has published in a number of academic publications including Critical Norths: Space, Nature, Theory, and the Contemporary Justice Review. He has also served as editor of Journal of Politics and Animals, and was a researcher for Red Willow Law and Policy Inc., the National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation, the University of Ottawa and University of Northern British Columbia, the International Polar Year Project, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, and the Indigenous Law Centre of Canada.