ICE has no place on Dakota lands, or on Ojibwe lands, or on any Indigenous lands anywhere.

I am frustrated that once again, my childhood home, South Minneapolis, is host to unwarranted fatal violence at the hands of the state. ICE has no reason to be in Minneapolis. A legal observer did not need to lose their life today. The settler state is going to keep on settler state-ing.

Last fall was probably my worst semester teaching-wise, according to my own standards. There was A LOT I could have done better. I just read my evaluations — my students did not feel the same way. Several of them said it was the best class they've taken so far at university. 🥹

I’m wondering how many of the folks on local Canadian subreddits and social media pages yelling about Venezuela protests “doing nothing” are trolls or bots sponsored by the United States? I think we in Canada actually have a lot to worry about from American foreign policy.

Happy second gotcha day to our lovable black furry void.

I don’t know whether to be pleasantly surprised at the shout out by Dr. Kocher (an old grad school friend of mine) or dismayed at the fact that my article is yet again relevant. Maybe both at the same time.

My academic take: Trump is doing a very good job at moving faster towards a multipolar world than one would expect from a man whose entire political brand revolves around “making America great again”. His misadventures in Venezuela are only going to hasten that movement.

🚨 Thread collecting actionable steps to help civilians in Venezuela, Venezuelan refugees fleeing to neighboring countries, and Venezuelan immigrants in the US. 🚨 ✅️ Please post ideas / links, especially to local frontline groups. ❌️ Please avoid non-actions, and be cautious regarding sanctions. 👇

I think I will restart my Indigenous geographies threads in the new year! I need to get more academic takes out there into the Bluesky ether.

There’s a very interesting geography article that could be written about this. Personally, the slower pace of travel is why I really enjoy playing Red Dead Redemption 2. Even on horseback, it takes about 25-30 minutes to get from one end of the map to the other.

I feel like I am in a liminal space where I feel culturally and socially Canadian now, at least far more than I did when I moved here, but I am not “officially” Canadian yet, at least not for at least another year until we apply for citizenship. Looking forward to checking off that last “box”.

I’ve been pretty good about not giving my hot takes on social media as of late, but: I don’t think that descendants of European settlers to these lands should be telling anyone that they seem “comically foreign”. I’m sure Caldwell’s just espousing good ol fashioned racism, but c’mon.

Spent the day out and about in Tofino, Ucluelet, and Clayoquot Sound!

When l was back at Ohio State a few weeks ago, I got up close and personal with the latest version of the food delivery robots they have roaming around campus. I’m sure there’s some commentary about the dangers of autonomous robots I could be making, but these little fellas are pretty adorable.

For Christmas and my wife’s birthday, we took a drive up to Sombrio Beach and got priority access to a hidden waterfall! Apparently folks are usually lined up for this, but we had the place to ourselves!

For the 9th time in the last 10 years, I am a #Whamageddon winner!

I know I am supposed to be off of academic work, but I also managed to trim my CV from a 27-page behemoth to a smooth, polished 15-page document, and I am proud of myself for doing so. Back to time off from academic things now.

I'm going back to school! Well, sort of. I am going to be completing a course on Indigenous cultural competency and trauma-informed training through York University's continuing education program this spring.

New professional photo: 🔥

2026 will mark my fifth year living in Canada and I think I have finally decided what is the biggest surprise of living here- The fact that Canadian Tire is not really a tire store.

I just learned about this book 5 minutes ago, and I need it in my library and all of my syllabi right now.

Grades posted, and that's a wrap for Fall Term! I'll look at my student evals in two weeks. Lol.

*JOB/GRADUATE STUDY ALERT* We are looking to recruit several research assistants to our research group at UBC! The selected candidates will assist us with our NFRF-T-funded project to decolonize chemical risk assessment & education! We are also looking for postdocs! www.egesta-ubc.ca/get-involved

Before this week, I hadn't presented a poster at a conference since...my undergraduate research symposium in 2013! But at the AGU Annual Meeting this week, I shared two posters focusing on ethical research in geoscientific contexts and on the state of water justice and security in Minnesota.

Also, other fun professional news — I have been offered a gig as one of the readers/scorers for the AP Human Geography exam! I've been wanting to do this for a few years, and this year I finally got around to applying! :-)

Tomorrow morning, I submit grades and close the book on my...18th semester of teaching? Howah, I've been doing this a while.

I have a CV that would likely earn me tenure at most American R-1s--I've come away with job rejections in this past cycle. Blaming the very tough academic job market on one being male and white is false and is willingly ignorant of the structural advantages that white male scholars still possess.

There's a great article out about how Indigenous students often struggle in STEM/STEMM spaces due to a lack of available mentoring and institutional barriers: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Another clip from my appearance on the Resistant Communiques podcast!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Indigenous Peoples' Specialty Group of the AAG has released a statement of endorsement and support for the Geographers for Justice in Palestine Organization (see below).

Me downloading articles off of my Google Scholar e-mail updates as if I have the time and energy to read them all:

The hubris of settlers demanding constant access to the Indigenous dead has not gone anywhere. Whether it’s white scholars claiming that NAGPRA is anti-science, or residential school denialists demanding exhumation of remains to validate the stories of survivors, this ghastly hunger is insatiable.

It is also an Ndn movie. The original draft of the script shows that John McClane has distant relatives from Leech Lake. This explains how he was able to handle a bunch of chamooks. (/s, but I do like OP’s theory)

A clip from my recent appearance on the Resistant Communiqués podcast!

Getting a journal article accepted to a top ranked journal in my field:

One of the really cool things I learned in my graduate school readings was about the amount of Mohawk ironworkers who helped to build many of Manhattan’s skyscrapers, including 30 Rockefeller Plaza!

One of the best Secret Santa gifts I have ever received—a set of wild rice knockers! I suppose this means that I will now have to find a way to come back home every year and go riding, eh? Nimanoominike!

I am truly spoiled, living on Vancouver Island. Yesterday, I had coffee with my friend in Victoria, and was able to walk around outside without a coat. This morning, in Winnipeg, I stepped outside for 5 minutes and distinctly felt my moustache begin to freeze.

If students have the opportunity to live at home and commute to university, good on them. Speaking from experience, students either have to deal with inflated rents, poor housing conditions, or both at the same time.

My (academic yet personal) thoughts on the Pretendian discourse itself. 1. Yes, identity fraud happens in Indigenous communities. 2. Involved communities have the right to decide how to address it, not outsiders. 3. Anti-Pretendianism provides cover for anti-Blackness and lateral violence.

There is once again Pretendian discourse going on within Indigenous circles. There is a lot that is very problematic about that discourse. Still, this current round has given rise to another very problematic discourse that I feel compelled to address: the fetishization of Indigenous trauma.

I received the excellent news this morning that a paper authored by me and two wonderful co-authors on the colonial/racist spaces that racialized Americans must navigate when road tripping across the country has been accepted for publication in Western Geography!

I saw an article that I am definitely citing in my manuscript if I get revisions back:

Good morning from the campus of The Ohio State University, my alma mater, and the site of our symposium on Black and Indigenous Citizenship, the final event of our Mellon Grant that I and my co-PIs have held for the last three years!

Support for genetic modification and meddling, whether in humans or more than human kin, is not a given, even when there is potential benefit. There has been research, for example, into making manoomin (wild rice) more genetically resilient against climate change and warming water temperatures.

Unfortunately, “any effort to produce desired genetic characteristics” is actually the definition of eugenics. Sterilization and other racist pseudoscientific methods are simply vectors through which eugenics operates. Eugenics is still practiced—genetic counselling is one such means.

Folks who know me from the bird app will remember Winry, aka Land Orca. Winry/Land Orca passed away in November 2023 after a courageous battle with feline lymphoma, but on what would have been her 13th birthday, I wanted to share some photos of her:

In 48 hours, I’ll be back in Columbus, Ohio for the final event of the grant I’ve been a co-PI on, and I am extremely excited and also feeling a little homesick. I’d forgotten how much that city has grown on me since I first visited it in 2016 as a prospective PhD student at Ohio State.

Very happy to have been a guest on the Resistant Communiques Podcast! Give the episode a listen: