Associate Professor Sheryl Lightfoot

Sheryl Lightfoot is Anishinaabe, a citizen of the Lake Superior Band of Ojibwe, enrolled at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Baraga, Michigan. In 2018, Sheryl was appointed to the role of Senior Advisor to the President on Indigenous Affairs, a position within the First Nations House of Learning. She is an associate professor in First Nations and Indigenous Studies and the Department of Political Science. Sheryl is Canada Research Chair in Global Indigenous Rights and Politics at the University of British Columbia. Associate Professor Lightfoot is a leading scholar and renowned expert in the fields of global Indigenous politics and Indigenous settler relations and has been appointed the North American Member on the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2021-2024).

Associate Professor Sheryl Lightfoot’s major areas of research expertise are in Indigenous politics, especially Indigenous rights and their implementation in global, national and regional contexts. Sheryl has research experience in the areas of comparative Indigenous politics and policy studies, Indigenous-settler relations, Indigenous diplomacies, Indigenous social movements, and critical international relations. Sheryl has undertaken extensive research in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in the United Nations.