photo by Eugene Doudko
Clifford Atleo, Jr. (he/him) is Ts’msyen from Kitselas/Kitsumkalum and Nuu-chah-nulth from Ahousaht. He is an Associate Professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University and Grad Program Chair for the 2024-2025 academic year. He is interested in how Indigenous communities navigate/adopt/resist neoliberal capitalism while working to sustain their unique cultural identities, worldviews, and ways of living. Cliff is particularly interested in how Indigenous leaders continue to assert agency within the confines of settler colonial politics and economics and work tirelessly to lead their communities in more sustainable directions. He has recently published on Indigenous water and land relations, Indigenous community responses to the Trans Mountain pipeline and is working on several exciting research projects on cleaner marine transport and Indigenous community responses to crises such as COVID-19 and climate change.
His current research focuses on:
Exploring cleaner marine transport options for coastal Indigenous communities;
Indigenous self-determination, health governance, and territorial integrity in the era of COVID-19;
Fairy Creek, Indigenous forestry management, and settler solidarity;
Economic reconciliation and Indigenous economic alternatives to capitalism and, understanding Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, Indigenous self-determination, and resource relationships.
He lives on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Kwikwetlem Nations with his Anishinaabeg spouse, their two children + felines Pickles and Pepper. Together they own Iron Dog Books an independent bookstore located in the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood.
where am I? what am I doing?
I’m back on the mountain professoring.
latest in the news:
B.C. pauses plans to amend Land Act, CBC News Vancouver interview with Jackie McKay.
most recent publications:
Atleo, Clifford Gordon. “Water in my Veins: Reflections of a Coastal Indigenous Scholar.” In Elementals: Water, Volume 3 edited by Ingrid Leman Stefanovic, Gavin Van Horn, Bruce Jennings, Nickole Brown, and Craig Santos Perez. Libertyville: Center for Humans and Nature Press, 2024. Order online from Iron Dog Books here.
Atleo, Clifford Gordon. “Capitalism: Can it be Indigenized?” In Engraved on our Nations: Indigenous Economic Tenacity, edited by Wanda Wuttunee and Fred Wien. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2024.
Krawchenko, Tamara, Megan Gordon, Clifford Gordon Atleo, and Kara Shaw. “What is a ‘just transition’? Perspectives, processes, policy.” In Canadian Environmental Policy and Politics: Moving the Green Transition Forward, 5th edition, edited by Debora VanNijnatten. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2024.