waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy

waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy
Position
Associate Professor
Gender Studies
Contact
Office: CLE B121
250-721-7377
Credentials

PhD Indigenous Studies, Trent University

Area of expertise

Anishinaabe land-based economic sovereignty and gender; anishinaabewakiwiziwin (Anishinaabe relationships with our territories) through gender, history, critical, and embodied lenses; Anishinaabe knowledges, epistemology, and ontology in research; Indigenous/Anishinaabe feminist theorizing and methods; poetry and creative writing; Indigenous community-based research; Indigenous womxn, power, and anti-violence.


Joined UVic Gender Studies in 2016

waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy is makwa odoodem (bear clan) from Obiishkikaang Lac Seul First Nation in northwestern Ontario and Island Lake, a forested and lake-d area north of Bawating Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Hired ABD as a Lecturer in 2016, she was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2018 and Associate Professor with tenure in 2023. She contributes in the area of Indigenous Gender Studies and teaches an introductory course in Gender Studies. Christine is also an Adjunct Professor in Indigenous Nationhood.

Awards

2022    Həuistəŋ Award. Humanities Faculty. University of Victoria.
2021    Early Career Researcher Award. Humanities Faculty. University of Victoria.

Research Interests

  • anishinaabewakiziwin, anishinaabe giikendaasowin through a gendered lens
  • Anishinaabeg womxn’s history, labour, and material and economic-social security
  • intersections of indigeneity, gender, land across historical contexts
  • Indigenous/Anishinaabe feminist theories and practice
  • Indigenous feminist/gendered literary, material, and cultural production
  • the university and decolonization

Courses Designed/Taught

  • GNDR 203 Indigenous Womxn in Canada

  • GNDR 308 Indigeneity, Gender, Land

  • GNDR 310 Indigenous Feminisms

  • GNDR 340 Indigenous Cinema: Decolonizing the Screen

  • POLI 464/533 | Law 343 Indigenous Law and Policy

  • GNDR 490 Indigenous Womxn Writing Resistance (Directed Study)

  • GNDR 590 Directed Studies in Indigenous Gender Studies

  • THEA 690 Directed Study: Haida Gwaii Project

Selected Publications

In-Process, In-Review, Forthcoming

“persons on the side of the road.” Poem. Great Lakes Review: Writing and Photography from the     Great Lakes Review. Special Indigenous Issue, 2023.

Carlson, Bronwyn, Kora J-A Juanena, Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy, and Alex Wilson. “Transnational Indigenous Feminisms: Indigenous Womxn’s Boundary Crossing Cultural Productions, Resistance, & Resurgence.” In Global Networks of Indigineity: Peoples, Sovereignty and Future, eds. Bronwyn Carlson, Tristan Kennedy, and Madi Day, (England: Manchester University Press, 2023).

“’The Sweetness of this Moment’: Honouring Joyce and Her Indigenous Feminist Work.” Keynote Response. In Making Space for Indigenous Feminism, 3rd edition, ed. Gina Starblanket, (Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, 2024).

“Understanding Anishinaabeg Womxn’s Economic Sovereignty Through Story.” In Raven Talks: Indigenous Feminist Legal Studies, eds. Val Napoleon, Emily Snyder, and Rebecca Johnson, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2024). 

“x, labours.” Poem. Journal of Postcolonial Studies. Special Issue: Emerging Textual Cross-Sections, 2025.

Poetry

“living in the round.” Poem. Canthius: Feminism and Literary Arts, Issue 8 (2020): 16-21. First      published in anishinaabewiziwin, February 15, 2016.

“living in the round”. Poetry Reading. Creekside Concerts. Victoria, BC. July 31, 2020. First performed at Peterborough Film Festival. Peterborough, ON. February 16, 2016.

“my umbilical cord, map trail seasonal camps: a poetics of work.” Poem. Republished in Best Canadian Poetry in English. Guest editor, Hoa Nguyen, (Toronto: Tightrope Books, 2018): 57-61.

 "Grandmother.” Audio Poem. Commissioned recording. Aging Activisms. (2016): 4:52 min, https://www.agingactivisms.org/grandmother-waaseyaasin-christine-s. First published as text      in anishinaabewiziwin, May 8, 2016.

 Chapters

 “On Being with (a photograph of) Sugar Bush Womxn: Towards Anishinaabe Feminist Archival Research Methods.” In, Colonial Legacies and Decolonial Activism in Indigenous Photography, eds. Hilde Wallem Nielsson and Sigrid Lien, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021)

“(Making) Star Worlds from within Anishinaabe’aadiziwin.” In, Indigenous Celebrity, eds. Jennifer Adese and Rob Innes, (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2021)

Sy, w. C. with Aja Sy. “on anishinaabe parental kinship with black girl life: 21st century (de)colonial Turtle Island.” In Good Relation: History, Gender, and Kinship in Indigenous Feminisms, eds. Sarah Nickel and Amanda Fehr, (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2020)

“Considering Wenonah, Considering Us.” In Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters, eds., Kim Anderson, Maria Campbell, and Christi Belcourt, (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2018)

“Relationship with Land in Anishinaabeg Womxn’s Historical Research.” In Reshaping Women’s History: Voices of Nontraditional Historians, eds., Julie A. Gallagher and Barbara Winslow, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2018)

Policy Brief

Sy, waaseyaa’sin Christine with Yuxwelupton Qwal’qaxala (Bradley Dick), France Trépanier, Eli Hirtle, Charles Campbell, Mark Loria, Rance Mok, and Raj Sen. “Documenting Indigenous Knowledges: A Policy Brief for Open Space Arts Gallery”. Commentary. KULA Journal. Special Issue: Indigenous Knowledges 5(1), June 2021: 1-8. Guest Editors, Robert L. Hancock, Ry Moran, Carey Newman, Shelagh Rogers, and Andrea Walsh, https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/kula/2021-v5-n1-kula06185/1079229ar/  

Book Review

Non-fiction. Joshua Whitehead. Making Love with the Land. Toronto: Alfred J. Knopf Canada, 2022). Hardcover, 240 pg.. In The Malahat Review, Spring 2023, p. 113-117.

Dissertation

“Following ininaahtigoog Home: Anishinaabeg Womxn iskigamiziganing | Following Our Trees Home: Anishinaabeg Womxn at the Sugar Bush.” (Peterborough, ON: Trent University, 2019)