The JHI is excited to announce our 2024-25 Distinguished Visiting Fellow—Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. She will join us from January 12 to 26, 2026 during our theme year Dystopia and Trust.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the intersections between politics, story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity. Working for two decades as an independent scholar using Nishnaabeg intellectual practices, Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe and has over twenty years’ experience with Indigenous land-based education. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba and is a member of Alderville First Nation. Leanne is the author of eight previous books, including A Short History of the Blockade and the novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies which was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and the Dublin Literary Prize. Her newest work, Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps for the Times Ahead will be released in April 2025. Leanne is also a musician. Her latest release Theory of Ice was named to the Polaris Prize short list, and she is the 2021 winner of the Prism Prize’s Willie Dunn Award.