Author: Charles Menzies

As a public facing academic I get a lot of heat from people who feel I should automatically agree with them. When I don’t some folks shrug, other…

The following are speaking notes to an informal talk I gave in the UBC Anth Dept., October 9, 2024. Given time constraints the spoken version was condensed. Not…

As bombs descend on Gaza and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) slowly infiltrates the urban spaces of Gaza protesters around the world have taken to the streets. Pro-Israeli…

I’ve been to meetings were settler folks talk about how transformative their First Nation community visit is for them. They share these experiences as a kind of validation…

 The following are my speaking notes for a roundtable presentation at the CASCA/AAA meetings in Toronto. I’m not able to be there so I share my comments here…

Many of us have likely seen a copy of the UBC’s new President’s statement on ‘respect and compassion’.   I take this as an opportunity to reflect on…

“If you aren’t scared shitless, you aren’t learning,” the prof said to us. We all laughed. The prof doubled down, “Learning should shake you, disturb you, confront you…

This story is inspired by a project organized by the Society for the Anthropology of Work: “Jobs we had.” Work was simply something most of us knew was…

 A while back campus and community planning tweeted out a praise tweet on their campus vision 2050 plan. In it they mentioned a community connectors program. When I…

When one is a public academic there are many pitfalls one might encounter. This is compounded by being an elected member of the board of governors. Here is…

Interview with CBC Radio, Jan. 17, 2023.  I did an interview with CBC January 17th that contributed to a web story on that day and short news items…

A Message to UBC Vancouver Indigenous Faculty and Staff Members on behalf of the President and Vancouver Provost   To quote the UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan, “Truth before…

Its’ time UBC’s senior administration apologize for claiming Indigenous ‘identity’ had no role in Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s appointment. Even if they might ‘technically’ be correct that it wasn’t…

“What’s your Nation?” That’s one of the first questions I got asked in the First Nations Longhouse shortly after I was hired at UBC in 1996. I’d been…

The 2022 Board of Governors election for faculty governors came to a close Thursday, Dec. 8th at 4pm. Results were announced to the candidates late Friday afternoon. Declared…

Last Friday I was interviewed by The Ubyssey for a profile piece on faculty candidates for the current board of governors’ election. This is a slightly cleaned up…

Voting in the UBC Board of Governors’ faculty elections ends at 4pm on December 8th. If you haven’t yet voted and want to here’s how:   To Vote   Go…

UBC-V student governors took to twitter November 30th to call out #UBCBoG’s lack of transparency.  December 5th’s full meeting of the board has a mere one hour of…

I extend my thanks to those colleagues who have already voted, and to those who let me know they were supporting me. I always feel honoured to be…

My paperwork has now been accepted and I am officially a candidate. I seek your support for election to UBC’s Board of Governors.  I last served as an…

 I was interviewed for a story about a recent court filing by Katzie First Nation. I include, below, the section of the story that quoted me and the…

 I have formally submitted my papers for re-election as a Joint Faculties Senator at UBC-V Senate.  Here is the statement I included with the nomination forms. I seek…

 Global BC reporter, Kylie Stanton, interviewed me for her story on the Nachatlaht rights and title case. Here is her story.    The full transcript of my comments,…