A sixth generation settler from unceded Coast Salish Territories on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Vanessa’s research interests are centred upon human-land relations; relations that are seen as inextricably linked to Indigenous-settler relations within the current settler colonial context of Canada, broadly, and British Columbia, specifically. Since 2013, Vanessa has been involved with the Ecohealth Knowledge to Action Research Group as a Research Associate at the University of Northern British Columbia. They have worked on projects concerning stories at the interface of community, health, and environment within various socio-political climates. Vanessa is continuing their studies at Queen’s University’s Department of Geography. Exploring historical, environmental, and socio-political/legal intersections of power in place, Vanessa’s current program of research is intent on exploring ways of dismantling social inequities through arts-based and educational initiatives. This initiative has also expanded to involve an interest on the potential conversations that can be had between anti-colonial and anarchic theory and praxis for social change. When not feverishly trying to meet deadlines, Vanessa can be found frolicking with their four-legged companion, Halem.
PhD Thesis (in progress, Queen’s University): Beyond Colonial Confines: Responsibility as Redress within Geographies of Indigenous-settler Relations
Masters of Environmental Studies Thesis: The Maa-nulth Treaty: Huu-ay-aht youth visions for post-Treaty life, embedded in the present colonial conditions of Indigenous-Settler relations in British Columbia
Specific Research interests include:
Indigenous-settler relations; settler colonialism; human territoriality; anarchic theory and praxis; anti-colonial theory and praxis; critical pedagogy; arts-based methods
Journal Articles
de Leeuw, S., Parkes, M., Sloan Morgan, V., Christensen, J., Lindsay, N., Mitchell-Foster, K. & Russell, J. (in press). Going unscripted: A call to critically engage storytelling methods and methodologies in geography and the medical-health sciences. The Canadian Geographer.
Sloan Morgan, V., Castleden, H., & Huu-ay-aht First Nations. (2014). Redefining the cultural landscape in British Columbia: Huu-ay-aht youth visions for a post-treaty era in Nuu-chah-nulth territory.ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 13(3), 551580.
Sloan Morgan, V., & Castleden, H. (2014). An exploration of Indigenous-settler relations in the Port Alberni Valley, British Columbia regarding implementation of the 2011 Maa-nulth Treaty: Indigenous-settler relations and the Maa-nulth Treaty. The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe Canadien, 58(4), 469480. doi:10.1111/cag.12120
Sloan Morgan, V. & Castleden, H. (2014). Framing Indigenous-settler relations within a modern treaty context: A discourse analysis of the Maa-nulth Treaty in mainstream media. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 5(3). URL http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol5/iss3/5/
Sloan Morgan, V. (2014). Intervention – Empty words on occupied lands?: Positionality, settler colonialism, and the politics of recognition. Antipode Foundation: A Radical Geography Community. http://antipodefoundation.org/2014/07/02/empty-words-on-occupied-lands/
Castleden, H., Daley, K., Sloan Morgan, V. & Sylvestre, P. (2013). Settlers unsettled: Using field schools and digital stories to transform geographies of ignorance involving Indigenous peoples in Canada. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, doi: 10.1080/03098265.2013.796352
Masuda, J.R., Anderson, S., Letourneau, N., Sloan Morgan, V. & Stewart, M. (2012). Reconciling preferences and constraints in online peer support for youth with Asthma and Allergies. Health Promotion Practice, doi: 10.1177/1524839912465083.
Castleden, H., Sloan Morgan, V. & Lamb, C. (2012). ³I spent the first year drinking tea²: Exploring Canadian university researchers¹ perspectives on the tensions of community-based participatory research involving Indigenous peoples. The Canadian Geographer,56(2), 160179.
Castleden, H., Sloan Morgan, V. & Neimanis, A. (2010). Researchers¹ perspectives on collective/community co-authorship in community-based participatory Indigenous research. The Journal of Empirical Research on Health Research Ethics 5(4), 23-32.
Book Chapters
Sloan Morgan, V. (2016). Swimming against the current: Towards an anti-colonial anarchism in British Columbia, Canada. In M. Lopes de Souza, R. White & S. Springer (eds.) Theories of resistance: Anarchism, geography, and the spirit of revolt. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers: 177-206.
Castleden, H., Sloan Morgan, V. & Franks, A. (2016). ³Not another interview!²: Using photovoice and digital storytelling as props in participatory health geography research. In J. Baxter & N. Fenton (eds.). Practicing qualitative methods in health geographies. New York, NY: Routledge: 167-189.
Book Reviews
Sloan Morgan, V. (2016). Review of the book Anarchy, geography, modernity: Selected writings of Elisée Reclus, by John Clark and Camille Martin. AAG Review of Books, 4(2): 81-83. (Invited reviewer).
Sloan Morgan, V. (2016) Review of the book Can non-Europeans think?, by Hamid Dabashi. Journal of Contemporary European Studies,24(2): 305-306 (Invited reviewer).
Sloan Morgan, V. (2015). Review of the book On being here to stay: Treaties and Aboriginal rights in Canada. by Michael Asch. Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies, 1: 155-161; republished withIntercontinental Cry Magazine (2015), URL:
https://intercontinentalcry.org/on-being-here-to-stay-treaties-and-aboriginal-rights-in-canada/
Sloan Morgan, V. (2014). Review of the book Cartography of revolutionary anarchism, by Michael Schmidt. Antipode Foundation: A Radical Geography Community, URL:
https://radicalantipode.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/book-review_sloan-morgan-on-schmidt.pdf
Additional Writing:
In an ever-long struggle to make academic writing appealing, accessible,
and relevant, Vanessa is a correspondent for a magazine called
Intercontinental Cry. This magazine reports on Indigenous led and
anti-capitalist/colonial struggles around the world. Vanessa writes on
topics concerning Indigenous-settler relations. The magazine is open
access, crowd-funded, has a creative commons licence, and can be found at:
https://intercontinentalcry.org/
Academia.edu Profile:
https://queensu.academia.edu/VanessaSloanMorgan
Ecohealth Knowledge to Action Research Group 