Dr. Max Liboiron is Interim Associate Vice-President (Indigenous Research).

The Interim Associate Vice-President (Indigenous Research) works closely with the Vice-President (Research) and other academic leaders on the ongoing implementation of the Research Strategy Framework, the Strategic Research Intensity Plan and other strategic priorities.

Learn more about  Indigenous Research at Memorial.

Biography

Dr. Liboiron is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, cross-appointed to the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Marine Institute.

Prior to her appointment as Interim Associate Vice-President (Indigenous Research), she was Associate Vice-President (Indigenous Research) Pro Tempore and Chair of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Dr. Liboiron’s interdisciplinary training began during her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts at Mount Allison University, extending through a master’s degree in Fine Arts and Cultural Studies at State University of New York at Stony Brook and a PhD in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, where she specialized in science and technology studies (STS).

She has held postdoctoral positions at the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, Northeastern University, and with the Intel Science and Technology Center in Social Computing (ISTC-S) based out of the Intel Corporation in Irvine, California.

Dr. Liboiron’s laboratory, Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR), is at the forefront of developing anti-colonial methodologies and instruments in the natural sciences. CLEAR foregrounds Métis legal orders (law that is embedded in social, political, economic and spiritual institutions) to create place-based and deeply ethical scientific protocols in marine plastic pollution research.

She holds grants from Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR), Irving Shipbuilding, the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP), Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and Indigenous Community-Based Climate Monitoring (ICBCM), National Geographic, and Memorial University to support this work, conducted in partnership with both settler groups and Indigenous nations, including the Nunatsiavut Government and the NunatuKavut Community Council.

Dr. Liboiron has played leading roles in the establishment of the field of Discard Studies (the social study of waste and wasting), the Global Open Science Hardware (GOSH) movement, and is a figure in feminist science studies and justice-oriented citizen science.

You can follow Dr. Liboiron on Twitter; her handle is @MaxLiboiron, or learn more about her research online and on the CLEAR website.