John Bird
Assistant Professor
Office: TBD
Email: jrbird@sfu.ca
Areas of Study: INDIGENOUS HISTORY / ANISHNAABE HISTORY
Biography
I am a member of Peguis First Nation and grew up in Treaty 1 territory in the city of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. In 2017, I began a PhD in History at the University of Saskatchewan. My dissertation revealed that nineteenth-century Anishinaabeg writers saw a deep connection between Indigenous history and their visions for their peoples’ future. I spent one year of my PhD at Yale University as the 2021–2022 Henry Roe Cloud Fellow. During my PhD, I participated in a number of community-engaged projects through the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre, NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project, and the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of History, College of Nursing, and office of the Vice Provost Indigenous Engagement. After completing my PhD in 2023, I began a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Oxford researching Anishinaabeg journeys to the British Isles from 1759 to the present. I joined the Department of History at SFU in 2025.
Research Interests
My research is focused on supporting and amplifying Indigenous voices, stories, and sovereignty. My master’s thesis used historical biography to analyze Anishinaabe celebrity George Copway’s engagement with Methodism, Freemasonry, and English writing. My PhD dissertation has evolved into a manuscript titled When the Great Drum Beats: Anishinaabe Histories and Future Visions. This book links the historical scholarship of nineteenth-century Anishinaabe writers to their activism and envisioning of Indigenous futures. My postdoctoral research on Anishinaabe journeys to the British Isles uncovered a wealth of sources linking military history, diplomacy, tourism, religious history, and the growth of academic fields like ethnology and anthropology. My manuscript, Anishinaabe Albion: Indigenous Diplomacy, Performance, and Resistance in the British Isles, grounds this sprawling collection of themes in the experiences of hundreds of individuals and groups who crossed the Atlantic to visit the distant fringes of the Anishinaabe world. My other ongoing projects include Indigenous Freemasonry, Indigenous students at elite Canadian boarding schools, and the role of dreams in Anishinaabe history.
Publications
- Bird, John R.E.; “’The Voice Was Not Human:’ Dreams and Visions in Anishinaabe History;” Past & Present Supplement on History, Dreams, and Visions (forthcoming).
- Bird, John R.E., “Settler Salvation and Indigenous Survival: George Copway’s Reconciliatory Vision, 1849–1851,” London Journal of Canadian Studies 35, no. 1 (November 2020): 138–53. DOI: .
Areas of Graduate Supervision
Indigenous history, Anishinaabe history, community-engaged research, religion, Freemasonry, intellectual history, imperialism and settler-colonialism
Accepting New Graduate Students: YES
Awards, Grants, Honours
- 2023-2025 Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford
- 2021-2022 Henry Roe Cloud Fellow, Yale University
- 2020-2022 St. Thomas More College Indigenous Graduate Student Fellowship, St. Thomas More College, Saskatchewan
- 2020 Viv Nelles Essay Prize for placing Canadian history in an international context, Wilson Institute for Canadian History
- 2020 John Webster Grant–John S. Moir Graduate Essay Prize, Canadian Society of Church History
- 2019 Indigenous Student Achievement Award for Leadership, College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, University of Saskatchewan
- 2018 Graduate Thesis Award in the Humanities and Fine Arts, University of Saskatchewan
- 2017-2020 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Scholarship