Official Bio (2026): Dr. Zoe Todd (she/they) (Citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation) is an artist, storyteller, philosopher, writer, scientist, and founder of the emerging field of Critical Indigenous Fish Philosophy. Entangling anti-imperialist fish science, prairie stories, Red River Métis onto-sovereignties, humour, art, and feeling, Dr. Todd is a fishy troublemaker intent on leaving prairie waters better than we found them.
Longer bio: I am the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Governance and Freshwater Fish Futures at Simon Fraser University and founder of the Fish Futures Lab and the Institute for Freshwater Fish Futures. My contributions to contemporary scholarship include the concepts of critical Indigenous fish philosophy, fishy refraction, my work since 2013 on fish futures, my critiques of the coloniality of the ‘ontological turn’ in North Atlantic anthropology, fossil fuels as weaponised fossil kin, anti-imperialist fish science grounded in prairie fish futures, fish pluralities, kin studies in lieu of case studies, anti-colonial critiques of the concept of the Anthropocene, and critical engagement on the appropriation of Indigenous existence by the Canada academy.
Dr. Courtney Chetwynd and I apply our work and care to workshops at the Hollyhock Centre on Cortes Island, which brings diverse practitioners together to imagine art, research-creation, community, and scholarship that is grounded in ethics of entanglement, co-becoming, and compassion with and for the fish we share time and space with in our respective homelands. Our next workshop is coming up on October 2-7, 2026.
I am a practice-led researcher-artist, philosopher, and scientist who studies the relationships between Indigenous sovereignty and freshwater fish futures and freshwater fish well-being in Canada. I unapologetically centre my work in the discipline of Critical Indigenous Studies and unapologetically work with the freshwater fish I grew up with — fish who have sustained my existence for decades. I have a BSc in Biological Sciences (Alberta), an MSc in Rural Sociology (Alberta), and a PhD in Social Anthropology (Aberdeen). I have studied the social and legal dimensions of freshwater and anadromous fish conservation and protection in Alberta and the Northwest Territories, and also have experience working on arctic food security. My work is deeply shaped by my ongoing obligations as a Métis person to the watersheds my Indigenous ancestors moved through in western Canada. My current projects examine how Indigenous legal orders shape and refract western fish conservation paradigms. I am a member of the Fluid Boundaries team that was shortlisted to represent Canada in the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale. I was a 2018-2019 Yale Presidential Visiting Fellow in the Program in the History of Science and Medicine. I am a member of the 2020 Class of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars. I am a co-PI, with Dr. Janelle Baker, on a project about bull trout conservation in Bighorn Country in southwestern Alberta titled ‘Plural Perspectives on Bighorn Country: restor(y)ing land use governance and bull trout population health in Alberta”, funded through an inaugural New Frontiers in Research Fund grant.
I have previously worked as a project coordinator of a bicycle nonprofit in Edmonton; as a part-time constituency assistant for former Alberta NDP leader Dr. Raj Pannu; as a Research Assistant in the Gastroenterology and Nutrition lab of Dr. Alan BR Thomson; as the International Week programmer and also communications assistant for the University of Alberta’s International Week through the Global Education Program; and was the Co-Director for the Seminar on the United Nations and International Affairs (SUNIA). I have extensive experience in program planning, fundraising, grant writing, knowledge mobilization, publicity/communications, science communication, social science research, and community organizing. I’m keen to connect with other folks doing work at the crossroads of Indigenous advocacy, environmental protection, science communication, knowledge mobilization, and policy development.
You can peruse more of my work and achievements on this site (navigate to the menu banner and scroll through for more options).