Research Team Support

Mike Makwa Auksi

Born and raised in Toronto, Mike’s journey of self-discovery brought him to Sioux Lookout to play hockey for his ancestral community, the Lac Seul First Nation Eagles in 2002. In 2013, he traveled his mother’s country of origin and would represent Team Estonia three times in IIHF competition. Currently a doctoral student in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education at McGill University, his dissertation is titled, “Indians Don’t Cry”: the Hockey History of the Anishinaabeg of Lac Seul First Nation.

Alex's research program investigates group dynamics, with an aim of understanding how groups shape our experiences as individuals, and how individuals shape the groups to which they belong.

Kalley Armstrong

Kalley is an PhD student in Anthropology at Western University. She completed her BA at Harvard, where she was captain of the Women’s Hockey Team. She currently coaches in the minor league in London, Ontario, and is coach of Team Ontario South at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships and the Little Native Hockey League.

Alex Benson

Michael Gauthier

Mike is a member of the Taykwa Tagamou First Nation, and has been involved with hockey as a player and coach for over 30 years. He holds a PhD from Queen’s University. Mike has extensive experience working with Aboriginal people within the criminal justice system as a police officer, correctional officer, Aboriginal Community Development officer, parole officer, and youth worker.

Research Team Leads

Janice Forsyth

Janice is an Associate Professor in Sociology and Director of First Nations Studies at Western University. Her research, which focuses on Indigenous sport and culture, has helped to inform policy and program development in Canada. She is President of the Aboriginal Sport Circle and a member of the Fisher River Cree First Nation.

Robert Henry

Robert Henry is a Métis scholar in sociology at the University of Calgary. His research areas include Indigenous street gangs and gang theories, Indigenous masculinities, Indigenous and critical research methodologies, youth mental health, and visual research methods.

Shane Keepness

Shane Keepness is Saulteaux from the Muscowpetung First Nation. He is a PhD student at the University of Victoria. His work centers around food sovereignty, land-based practices, and Indigenous masculinities.

Jordan Koch

Jordan Koch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at McGill University. His research examines the provision and uses of sport, physical education and health promotion programs in both rural First Nations and urban Indigenous contexts.

Sam McKegney

Sam McKegney is a settler scholar of Indigenous literatures at Queen’s University. He studies masculinity, decolonization, and sport and is the author of the books Magic Weapons and Masculindians: Conversations about Indigenous Manhood.

Rick Monture

Rick Monture is a member of the Mohawk national, Turtle clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. He is currently the Associate Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies and Indigenous Studies.

Taylor McKee

Taylor is a PhD Candidate at Western University studying the confluence of violence, media, and masculinity in Canadian hockey history. Taylor is also an editor and co-founder of the Journal of Emerging Sport Studies.

Dallas Hauck

Devi Mucina

Devi Dee Mucina is an Indigenous Ubuntu from the Ngoni and Shona people of southern Africa. He received his PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, department of Sociology and Equity Studies, University of Toronto.

Andrew Pettit

Andrew is a PhD student at Western University. His research interests bridge the gap between sport and transitional justice. He is co-founder and editor of Emerging Sport Studies. He has an enduring fascination with hockey as an important social practice in Canada.

Dallas is a Masters student in Anthropology at Western University studying the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships through the lens of coaches, team managers, and tournament organizers to better understand settler colonialism’s impact on Indigenous hockey

Jamieson Ryan

Jamieson studies the intersections of hockey, gender, sexuality, and nationalism; his dissertation focuses on these intersections in women’s hockey, and how women build personal and communal narratives in hockey. He grew up on the traditional lands of the Anishabek and Haudenosauneega.

Jeremy Speller

Jeremy Speller is from Gesgapegiag First Nation. While at STU, he used an exhibition basketball game as a platform for social justice to raise awareness about MMIWG. Jeremy is currently a MA student pursuing a Master's in Governance.,

Darren Zanussi

Darren is a settler scholar from Parry Sound, Ontario, located in the Robinson-Huron Treaty Territory, and a Cultural Studies PhD Candidate at Queen’s University. His research interests include Indigenous-settler relations, settler-colonial studies, and the critical examination of reconciliation. Darren’s doctoral research is based in settler-colonial studies and focuses on how rural settler-Ontarians in close proximity to First Nations conceive of reconciliation.