Deanna Reder facts for kids

Deanna Helen Reder is a Cree-Métis professor of English. She is also the Chair of Indigenous Studies at Simon Fraser University in Canada. In 2018, she became a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada.

At Simon Fraser University, Deanna Reder helped start the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA). She was on its council from 2015 to 2018. In 2019, she also helped create the Indigenous Editors Association (IEA). She served as its "Past-President" from 2020 to 2021.

Early Life and Education

Deanna Reder's family comes from the Canadian prairies. Her Cree and Métis family are from La Ronge, Île-à-la-Crosse, and nearby places in Saskatchewan. Her father was in the Canadian Armed Forces. Her family lived on army bases until she was ten years old. Her parents did not finish high school.

Reder learned how important life stories (autobiographies) are when her mother read "Halfbreed" by Maria Campbell. Her mother was very happy to read a book that truly showed her life. Reder says that when she was growing up, schools taught very little Indigenous literature. The only Indigenous author she read in school was Pauline Johnson, who wrote the poem "The Song my Paddle Sings."

When she was studying for her Master of Arts degree at York University, Reder wanted to focus on Indigenous literature. But it was hard to find enough courses on this topic. Instead, she studied Canadian literature from the 1800s. She noticed that these books focused on settlers, not Indigenous authors. After her Master's degree, Reder took a break from school. She returned in 2001 to start her PhD.

Career

In 2007, Deanna Reder started working as a professor at Simon Fraser University. She worked in the English Department and the First Nations Studies Program.

In 2010, Reder published a book called "Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations." She wrote it with Linda M. Morra. This book was a collection of essays. They were all about the "trickster" stories found in Indigenous literature.

In 2012, the First Nations Program at Simon Fraser University became its own department. It was called the Department of First Nations Studies. (In 2019, its name changed to The Department of Indigenous Studies.) This new department offered different study programs. These included certificates and majors in First Nations studies.

The next year, Reder helped create the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA). She worked with other Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. As president of ILSA, she helped organize the Indigenous Voices Awards. These awards celebrate new Indigenous authors in Canada.

In 2015, she joined a project called The People And The Text. This project aimed to find and collect literature by Indigenous authors. Many of these writings were never published or were hard to find. Two years later, Reder helped edit another book. It was called Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island.

In 2018, Reder and Alix Shield shared some important documents. These documents were left out of Maria Campbell's book "Halfbreed" in 1973. This happened against the author's wishes. That same year, Deanna Reder was chosen as a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada.

She is also on the Board of Directors for the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. In June 2019, Reder was part of a group at Simon Fraser University that decided to remove a piece of art. This art showed Aboriginal people in a way that was not accurate or respectful.