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The 2022-23 Queen’s National Scholars (QNS) competition launched earlier this year to enhance capacity and academic excellence in the interdisciplinary Indigenous Studies Program at Queen’s. Following a call to all faculties and departments at Queen’s for expressions of interest, six scholar proposals – in addition to the newly created Chair in Indigenous Studies – were selected to move forward to the recruitment stage.

“These positions are critical for advancing Indigenization and decolonization, and for creating a network of Indigenous scholars across the range of subjects that we have at Queen’s who are sharing knowledge and research that affects Indigenous Peoples and communities,” says Matthew Evans, Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic). “The teaching and learning environment at Queen’s will benefit immensely from their expertise and scholarship, and I am delighted to see the QNS competition reach this important recruitment phase.”

Over the next several months, advertisements for the following seven positions will be posted on the QNS website:

• Chair in Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Studies Program, Faculty of Arts & Science
• Indigenous Knowledges and Perspectives, Indigenous Studies Program and Cultural Studies Program, Faculty of Arts & Science
• Indigenous Literary Arts, Indigenous Studies Program and Department of English, Faculty of Arts & Science
• Indigenous Food Sovereignty and Community Health, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
• Indigenous Sciences, Department of Biology and School of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
• Indigenous Legal Studies, Faculty of Law
• Indigenous Health and Aging, Department of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences

These faculty positions are open only to Indigenous applicants, and in accordance with the Hiring of Indigenous Specific Positions – Interim Policy, applicants will be required to verify their Indigenous identity.

These recruitments will also fall under the Queen’s Targeted Hiring Policy and Procedure, which follows the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s guidelines on Special Programs.

This Special Program and the requirement for applicants to be Indigenous will assist Queen’s in addressing persistent underrepresentation of Indigenous Scholars at the university. Queen’s continues to address longstanding inequities impacting Indigenous communities and the teaching and learning environment. This QNS initiative is an important step toward advancing Indigenous academic leadership and honouring the university’s commitments to reconciliation and Indigenous resurgence.

The Queen’s National Scholar program was established in 1985 and serves to “enrich teaching and research in newly developing fields of knowledge and traditional disciplines.” More than 100 QNS appointments have been made in a wide variety of disciplines, such as Radical Black Ecologies, Computational Neuroeconomics, African American Gender History, and Precision Molecular Medicine.

More information is available on the Queen’s National Scholars webpage.

Note: This article originally appeared in the ����ֱ�� Gazette.