From: Trevor Young, Vice-President & Provost 
Date: June 26, 2026
Re: Appointment of Professor Michelle Daigle as Director, Indigenous Research Network (IRN)

I am pleased to announce that Professor Michelle Daigle has been appointed Director of the Indigenous Research Network (IRN), effective July 1, 2026.

Professor Michelle Daigle is Mushkegowuk (Cree), a citizen of Constance Lake First Nation in Treaty 9, and a scholar of Indigenous Studies and Human Geography.  She is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Centre for Indigenous Studies and the Department of Geography & Planning in the Faculty of Arts & Science. Professor Daigle also holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Geographies. Drawing on more than 20 years of collaborations with Indigenous communities and organizations in Canada and the U.S., her research contributes to Indigenous politics and theory by examining how land-based practices, care work, kinship relations and mobilities provide nuanced and expansive conceptions of Indigenous liberation. Grounded in small-scale collaborations with Cree, Anishinaabe and Oji-Cree Elders and Knowledge Keepers in Treaty 9, Professor Daigle seeks to understand how they embody care work, and land-based and water-based governance, amid the impacts of colonial policies and land dispossession, gendered and racial violences, and extractive industries and environmental destruction.

As Director of the IRN, Professor Daigle will work to increase the visibility of Indigenous scholars’ research by sustaining a cross-divisional, institutional wide, interdisciplinary network of Indigenous scholars.  She will facilitate robust research engagement across the University of Toronto and beyond while supporting both Indigenous researchers and those doing research in and with Indigenous communities. Professor Daigle will work closely with Shannon Simpson, Executive Director of Indigenous Initiatives, and with the Office of Indigenous Initiatives, as well as with the U of T Elders’ Circle and our Indigenous community partners.  

I would like to thank Professor Dale Turner for his work as Director of the IRN for the past four years, and for all the care and thoughtful guidance he provided in that role.  

I am confident that Professor Daigle’s expertise on Indigenous scholarship and research will be key to furthering the University of Toronto’s commitment to the calls to action laid out in Answering the Call: Wecheehetowin – the University’s response to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  

Please join me in welcoming Professor Daigle to her new role at the Indigenous Research Network.