Biography
Rauna Kuokkanen is Assistant Professor in Political Science and Aboriginal Studies at the University of Toronto where she teaches Indigenous politics and law in Canada, comparative Indigenous politics, global Indigenous movements, indigenous human rights and globalization. She is the author of Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes and the Logic of the Gift (UBC Press, 2007) and Boaris dego eana: Eamiálbmogiid diehtu, filosofiijat ja dutkan (As Old as the Earth: Indigenous Knowledge, Philosophies and Research, 2009) and editor of the anthology on contemporary Sami literature Juoga mii geasuha (2001). After receiving her PhD from the University of British Columbia, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University, Hamilton. Before joining the University of Toronto in 2008, she was an assistant professor at the Sami University College in Kautokeino, Northern Norway. She has published articles on indigenous research paradigms and philosophies, education and critical theory, indigenous literatures, the gift paradigm, comparative indigenous politics, globalization and indigenous women in journals such as International Feminist Journal of Politics, American Indian Quarterly, Signs, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies and Canadian Journal of Native Studies. Her current research interests include gender, autonomy and self-determination, indigenous feminist theory and indigenous philosophy. She is a Sami woman from Northern Finland and continues to be involved in the public life of Sami society.

Statement
As someone with a long history of involvement in international organizations (such as Terralingua, an organization working on biocultural diversity) and indigenous organizations (such as the Sami Council, the Sami Women’s Forum) I bring to the NAISA Council my organizational skills and solid experience of board membership. As a Sami scholar living in Canada, I bring my strong comparative indigenous perspective and scholarship to NAISA’s work. I also bring my extensive international network of both scholarly and organizational contacts, including indigenous individuals and organizations involved in the work at the UN. In addition, I bring to the position my community ties both in Samiland and Canada which ensure my commitment to the advancement of indigenous societies locally and globally.