Laurier expert alert: Canada Day

June 28, 2022
For Immediate Release

WATERLOO – Wilfrid Laurier University is home to many scholars who are examining Canada’s history and contemporary culture in the spirit of truth and reconciliation. Throughout the week of Canada Day, Laurier experts are available to speak about issues related to Indigenous-settler relations, national politics and Black Canadian history.

This list includes Laurier experts who are available to speak at this time but does not represent the full breadth of expertise that exists at our institution. For a more comprehensive inventory of our faculty researchers, please consult the Experts at Laurier database.

Cynthia Comacchio is a professor in the Department of History. She is an expert on the history of childhood, gender and families in Canada in the late 19th to 21st centuries, and the social and cultural impacts of war in Canada.

Percy Lezard is an assistant professor of Indigenous Studies. They are an expert in Indigenous knowledge, two spirit pedagogies, community Indigenous health, missing and murdered women and 2SLGBTQ+, and gender-based violence in 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Lezard is outma sqilxw of the Penticton Indian Band in B.C. and centres Indigenous knowledge, teaching and research methodologies in their work. They are a survivor of the multi-generational impacts of the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop. Read more about their work. Contact: plezard@wlu.ca

Susan Neylan is an associate professor in the Department of History and an expert on the history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations in Canada. She is available to speak about the relationship between Indigenous people and the church in British Columbia in the 19th and 20th centuries, Aboriginal-Missionary relations and forms of Indigenous Christianity. Contact: sneylan@wlu.ca

Kevin Spooner is an associate professor of History and North American Studies and director of the Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada. His research focuses on Canadian and American culture, identity and history; Canadian-American relations; and Canada’s history of peacekeeping and foreign policy. Contact: kspooner@wlu.ca

Brian Tanguay is a professor in the Department of Political Science. He is an expert on political parties and party systems, particularly on the transformation of social democratic (NDP) and nationalist (Parti Québécois) parties in Canada, and electoral reform in liberal democracies. Contact: btanguay@wlu.ca

Darren Thomas is Laurier’s associate vice-president of Indigenous Initiatives. As the most senior Indigenous leader at Laurier, Thomas provides strategic advice, support and expertise to academic and administrative units across the institution to achieve goals related to Indigeneity. As a researcher, he focuses on Indigenous rights, resource governance and self-determination. Thomas has worked in the educational, health care and child welfare sectors to support efforts to improve services as they work toward reconciliation and Indigenization. Contact: dthomas@wlu.ca

Barrington Walker is Laurier’s associate vice-president of equity, diversity and inclusion and a professor in the Department of History. Walker is leading the creation of a university-wide EDI strategy and providing expertise, guidance, mentorship and support to faculty and staff working toward EDI-related goals. Walker has written about and taught Black Canadian history, race, law and immigration, and Canadian social history.