Kisha Supernant

Dr. Kisha Supernant (Métis/Papaschase/British) is the Director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology and an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta.  An award-winning teacher, researcher, and writer, her research interests include the relationship between cultural identities, landscapes, and the use of space, Métis archaeology, and heart-centered archaeological practice. Her research with Indigenous communities (including Métis and First Nations) in western Canada explores how archaeologists and communities can build collaborative research relationships. She leads the Exploring Métis Identity Through Archaeology (EMITA) project, a collaborative research project which takes a relational approach to exploring the material past of Métis communities, including her own family, in western Canada.  She is currently a co-director of a interdisciplinary research project on Métis kinscapes of Lac Ste Anne, Alberta with a team of Indigenous Studies scholars. Recently, she has been increasingly engaged in using remote sensing technologies to locate and protect unmarked burials around residential schools at the request of Indigenous communities. She has published in journals on GIS in archaeology, collaborative archaeological practice, Métis archaeology, and Indigenous archaeology in the post-TRC era. In 2019, she was named to Edmonton’s Top 40 under 40 by Avenue Magazine, and in 2021, she was elected as member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars. She is also a current Métis Director on the Board of the Indigenous Heritage Circle.

In 2020, Dr. Supernant was co-editor on two volumes: Archaeologies of the Heart with Springer and Blurring Timescapes, Subverting Erasure: Remembering Ghosts on the Margins of History with Berghahn Books.