Boozhoo/hello! My name is Deondre Smiles. My pronouns are he/them as well as the Ojibwemowin pronoun wiin. I am of Ojibwe, Black, and Swedish descent, and I am a citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. I am an Indigenous geographer whose research interests are multifaceted, including Indigenous geographies/epistemologies, science and technology studies, and tribal cultural resource preservation/protection.
I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada.
I received my bachelor’s degree in Geography (2013) from Saint Cloud State University, a master’s degree in Global Indigenous Studies (2016) from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and a Ph.D. in Geography (2020) from The Ohio State University, where I also spent a year (2020-21) as a President’s Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of History.
I currently serve in a number of leadership roles within the American Association of Geographers (AAG). I am also a member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), and the Canadian Association of Geographers. (CAG).
I serve as the PI of the Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory, or GIF Lab, a lab that focuses on Indigenous geographic methods and collaborations with Indigenous communities. This is alongside an affiliation with Dr. Heather Castleden’s HEC Lab (University of Victoria) and the EGESTA Lab (University of British Columbia).
I also serve as a member of the editorial board of the journal Native American and Indigenous Studies, and serve on the Board of Trustees of Leech Lake Tribal College.
I’m originally from occupied Dakota territories (Minneapolis), but am currently living on unceded Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ territories (Victoria, B.C.).
This website serves as a place where you can find out more about me and my academic background, but also as a venue for me to talk about developments in Indigenous geography more broadly. Welcome again! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles, Ph.D. 