Dr. Maura Hanrahan

Maura Hanrahan

Adjunct Faculty

Email: maura.hanrahan@uleth.ca

Dr. Maura Hanrahan is appointed as an Adjunct Professor to EPI and Grenfell’s Humanities Program. She is also on the Board of Governors Research Chair and Associate Professor in Indigenous Studies at the University of Lethbridge. She does interdisciplinary work in water security, Indigenous history, and Arctic exploration. Her work employs methods rooted in anthropology, ethnohistory, the humanities, and Indigenous learning.

Maura’s academic work has been published in many academic journals and she is the author or editor of 11 books in various genres, some of which have won awards. Maura’s latest book is Unchained Man: The Arctic Life and Times of Captain Robert Abram Bartlett (2018). With Marg Ewtushik, Maura co-edited A Veritable Scoff: Sources on Foodways and Nutrition in Newfoundland and Labrador, the first annotated bibliography on foodways in Canada.  Maura was Memorial’s first Special Advisor to the President for Aboriginal Affairs. She is the 2015 recipient of the Polaris Award from the NL Branch of the Canadian Coast Guard, in recognition of her work in preserving the maritime culture of the province.

Education

  • PhD, Sea-Use Law, Economics and Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science (Rothermere Fellow and LSE Graduate Fellow
  • M.A, Sociology & Anthropology, Carleton University
  • B.A with first class honours & University Medal for Academic Excellence, Sociology & Political Science, Memorial University

Research Interests

  • Water security: its multiple dimensions, including health impacts; crises in drinking water access; water insecurity and Indigenous communities in Canada
  • Arctic exploration: the heroic masculine, the meaning of the Arctic in the western imagination, Captain Robert Abram Bartlett, the Shackletons, women and Indigenous people and Arctic exploration
  • Indigenous health, history, and land-use, especially the Mi’Kmaq of Newfoundland

Projects

  • Water Insecurity in Black Tickle, Labrador, Engineering Phase: Partners are NunatuKavut Community Council and Black Tickle Local Service District (Artic Anthropology; Canadian Journal of Geography)
  • Cultural & Historical Significance of the Labrador Husky: Partners are the Labrador Husky Committee, Northern Lights Dog Sledding, and NunatuKavut Community Council
  • Land-use Patterns of the Newfoundland Mi’kmaq
  • The Newfoundland Mi’kmaq in World War I (https://remembrance.library.mun.ca/contributions/mikmaq)
  • Indigenous water insecurity in Canada (British Journal of Canadian Studies)

Teaching

Examples of Recent Courses Taught:

  • Humanities 3100: Contemporary Indigenous Ideas (Memorial)
  • Humanities 6041: Indigenous Identity in Canada (graduate course at Memorial)
  • Humanities 4100: The Post-Modern World: Authority and Rebellion (Memorial)
  • Indigenous Studies 1000: Introduction to Indigenous Studies (U of L)
  • Indigenous Studies 3700: Indigenous Health (U of L)
  • Indigenous Studies 3850: Contemporary Indigenous Ideas (At Memorial and U of L)

Supervised Students

Master of Arts (M.A.) in Environmental Policy

Completed:

  • Mengjiao Li
  • Tsai Allen
  • Joel Hotham
  • David Barry

University of Lethbridge

Current:

  • Ben Dosu

Selected Publications

  • (2019) Hanrahan, Maura and Nick Mercer. Gender and water insecurity in a subarctic Indigenous community. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien.
  • (2018) Hanrahan, Maura. Good and Bad Indians: Romanticizing the Beothuck and Denigrating the Mi’kmaq. In Traces of Ochre: Changing Perspectives on the Beothuk.  Fiona Polack, ed. Chapter. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (book chapter)
  • (2017) Hanrahan, Maura. Water (in) security in Canada: national identity and the exclusion of Indigenous peoples. British Journal of Canadian Studies, 30(1), pp.69-89.
  • (2017) Hanrahan Maura and Ben Dosu. The Rocky Path to Source Water Protection: A Cross-Case Analysis of Drinking Water Crises in Small Communities in Canada. Water 9, 6, 388. doi:10.3390/w9060388
  • (2017) Nick Mercer and Hanrahan Maura. Straight from the Heavens into your Bucket”: Domestic Rainwater Harvesting as a Measure to Improve Water-Security in a Remote Indigenous Community. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 76. doi:10.1080/22423982.2017.1312223
  • (2017) Hanrahan Maura. The Endurance of Polar Explorers’ Arctic Imaginaries and the Promotion of Neoliberalism and Colonialism in Modern Greenland. Polar Geography, 41(2), 1-19. doi:10.1080/1088937X.2017.1303754
  • (2016) Hanrahan, Maura, Making Indigenous Culture the Foundation of Indigenous Governance Today: The Mi’kmaq Rights Initiative of Nova Scotia, Canada. Native American and Indigenous Studies, 3(1), 75-95.
  • (2015) Hanrahan, Maura and Jennifer Brooke Dare Experiential Learning in Environmental Humanities Education: Preliminary Lessons from the Emerging Literature. Journal of Worldwide Holistic Sustainable Development, 1 (2): 71-80.
  • (2015) Review of I Never Knowed It was Hard: The Memoir of a Labrador Trapper. Louie Montague. Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 30 (1): 321-322.
  • (2015) Hanrahan, M., A. Sarkar and A. Hudson. Exploring Water Insecurity in a Northern Indigenous Community in Canada: The “Never Ending Job” of the Southern Inuit of Black Tickle, Labrador. Arctic Anthropology, 51 (2) 9–22.
  • (2014) People of Nation Caralit and their Southern Inuit Descendants: Exploring the Inuit Presence in the “Unknown Labrador”.  Kitaskino: Key Issues, Challenges and Visions for Northern Aboriginal Communities in Canada.  Herman Michell and Cathy Wheaton, eds. Vancouver: J Charlton Publishing, 1-22.
  • (2014) Captain Robert Abram Bartlett.  Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth’s Polar Regions.  Andrew Hund, ed.  Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 130-131.
  • (2014)  The Eskimo Coast Disaster. Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth’s Polar Regions.  Andrew Hund, ed.  Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 259-261.
  • (2014). Hanrahan, Maura. “A People of Nation Caralit and their Southern Inuit Descendants: Exploring the Inuit Presence in the Unknown Labrador.” In Kitaskino: Northern Aboriginal Communities: Key Issues, Challenges, and Visions for the Future, eds. Herman Michell and Cathy Wheaton. University of Saskatchewan Press.
  • (2013) Hanrahan, M. Revisiting”Learning to Mediate Social Change: Interviews With Two Community Leaders” (Bill Edmunds and Bart Jack) by Amarjit Singh. The Morning Watch: Educational and Social Analysis: 40th Anniversary Issue, theme: Indigenizing the Academy, 40 (3-4): 35-41.
  • (2013) Hanrahan, Maura. Indigenizing the Academy: An institutional case study of one university. The Morning Watch: Educational and Social Analysis, 40(3-4): 109-115.
  • (2013) Hanrahan, M. Rendered Invisible: An Analysis of the Print Media Reaction to the formation of Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation. Native Studies Review. 
  • (2012) Hanrahan, Maura. Pine-Clad Hills and Spindrift Swirl: The Character, Persistence and Significance of Rural Newfoundland Foodways.  In Edible Histories, Cultural Politics: Towards a Canadian Food History (F. Iacovetta, V. Korinek and M. Epp, eds.), 85-93.
  • (2012) Hanrahan, Maura. Tracing Social Change among the Labrador Inuit and Inuit-Metis: What does the nutrition literature tell us? In Settlement, Subsistence, and Change among the Labrador Inuit: The Nunatsiavummiut experience.  David Natcher, Larry Felt, and Andrea Procter, eds. 2012.Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.  This first appeared as an article in Food, Culture and Society (reference below).
  • (2008) Hanrahan, Maura. Human Rights in Canada: Submission to the Universal Periodic Review on Human Rights to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.  International Presentation Association (non-governmental organization with consultative status at the UN), New York.
  • (2008)  Hanrahan, M. Carrying the Pipe: Maliseet Elder, Healer and Teacher Imelda Perley.  Canadian Woman Studies, 31-37.
  • (2008)  Hanrahan, M. Tracing Social Change among the Labrador Inuit and Inuit-Metis: What does the nutrition literature tell us?  Food, Culture and Society: Special Issue on Canada. 11 (3): 315-333.
  • (2008) Hanrahan, M. Resisting Colonialism in Nova Scotia: The Kesukwitk Mi’kmaq, Centralization and Residential Schooling.  Native Studies Review, 17 (1): 25-44.
  • (2006) Hanrahan, Maura. Blueprint on Indigenous Health: a 10-year transformative plan. (Blueprint tabled at Kelowna First Ministers’ Conference, Dec., 2005 as part of the Kelowna Accord.)  Aboriginal Health Blueprint Secretariat, First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada.  Ottawa, ON.
  • (2006) Hanrahan, Maura. Identification of land claims and legal research requirements.  Research Council, Mi’gmawei Mawiomi Secretariat, Listuguj, Quebec.
  • (2006)  Hanrahan, Maura. Domino: The Eskimo Coast Disaster.  St. John’s: Flanker Press.
  • (2004) Hanrahan, Maura. Tsunami: The Newfoundland Tidal Wave Disaster.  St. John’s: Flanker Press.  Winner of the 2005 Heritage and History Award, Historic Sites Association; Short-listed for the 2005 Rogers Cable Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Non-fiction.
  • (2003) Hanrahan, Maura. The Lasting Breach: The Omission of Aboriginal People from the Terms of Union with Canada.  Royal Commission on Renewing and Strengthening Our Place in Canada, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NL.  Excerpts from this report have been incorporated into the school curriculum of Nunavut, Canada and appear on the collaborative web site The Inuit Through Moravian Eyes.
  • (2003) Hanrahan, Maura. The Doryman.  St. John’s: Flanker Press.
  • (2003) Hanrahan, M. Water Rights and Wrongs: Water Access in Indigenous Canada.  Alternatives; Canadian Environmental Ideas and Action, 29 (1): 31-34.
  • (2002) Hanrahan, M. Identifying Innu and Inuit Health Needs in Urban Health Care Settings.  Canadian Journal of Public Health, 93 (2): 149-152.
  • (2001) Hanrahan, M. With Marg Ewtushik (eds.).  A Veritable Scoff: Sources on Foodways and Nutrition in Newfoundland and Labrador.  St. John’s: Flanker Press.
  • (2001) Hanrahan, M. Salmon at the Centre: Ritual, Identity and the Negotiation of Life Space in Labrador Metis Society.  In From Red Ochre to Black Gold (D. McGrath, ed., St. John’s, NL: Flanker Press), 146-155.
  • (2000) Hanrahan M. Industrialization and the Politicization of Health in Labrador Métis Society.  Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 20 (2): 233-250.
  • (1998) Hanrahan, Maura. The Social and Economic Impacts of the Proposed Mine-Mill Project at Voisey’s Bay, Labrador: response to VBNC’s environmental impact statement. Labrador Métis Nation, NL/Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, Ottawa, ON.