Dr. Robyn Bourgeois was appointed Brock University’s Acting Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement in October 2020, and was formally hired into this role in November 2022. She is an associate professor in the Centre of Women’s and Gender Studies and is affiliated with the graduate programs in Critical Sociology and Social Justice and Equity Studies.
Robyn is nêhiyaw iskwew (a Cree woman) from Treaty Eight territory, born and raised in Syilx and Splats’in territories, of mixed Nêhiyaw, French, English, and Scottish ancestry. She is also connected through her three children and adopted family to the Six Nations of the Grand River. As a survivor of multiple forms of violence including sex trafficking, Robyn has spent almost twenty years involved in community organizing and activism addressing violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. She is also an artist who dabbles in multiple genres including hand drumming, painting, drawing, and film.
Trained as a sociologist and social justice educator, Dr. Bourgeois’ scholarly foci include violence against Indigenous women and girls, Indigenous women’s anti-violence resistance, and Indigenous women and leadership. Having published and presented nationally and internationally, Robyn was called to testify as an expert and experiential witness on sexual violence and human trafficking for the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2018. Dr. Bourgeois is the founder of the Decolonial Reading Circle (DRC) which since 2019 has led collective readings and discussion of the final report of the National Inquiry and other Indigenous content (books, films, oral presentations) in the Niagara region. She also serves as a board member for the Nii’kinaaganaa Foundation, a grassroots organization that collects rent from settlers and redistributes it to Indigenous peoples.