Merissa Daborn

• INDG 1240 - Introduction to Indigenous Peoples in Canada, Part Two 
• INDG 2530 - Introduction to Indigenous Theory 
• INDG 3350 - Indigenous Organizations
• INDG 7230 - Methodology and Research Issues in Indigenous Studies 

Dr. Merissa Daborn is a white scholar and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba where she researches at the intersections of food, technoscience, surveillance, and whiteness. 

Her current research interrogates how food spaces are made carceral through metrics and technological interventions of whiteness, police presence, citizen surveillance, and privacy violations. Her research is concerned with what it means to safely access food, the implications of policed and surveilled food spaces for individuals to maintain food security, and how Indigenous people are pre- and over criminalized in carceral food spaces. Merissa is broadly interested in how Indigenous sovereignty and relationality can interrupt carceral systems. You can read more about her ongoing research at: www.merissadaborn.com

Merissa is a member of the abolitionist prisoner solidarity group Bar None (https://barnonewpg.org). Bar None operates a prison rideshare to connect people with their loved ones who are in prison. 

• PhD (Indigenous Studies), University of Alberta, 2021
• MA (Indigenous Studies), University of Alberta, 2017
• BA (Anthropology, Indigenous Studies), University of Alberta, 2015

Research affiliations/groups

• Research affiliate, Critical Environments Research Group (https://www.criticalenvironments.org/) 

• “Surveillant Metrics: Technologies of Whiteness and the Production of Food Insecurity.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience Vol. 11, No. 1 (2025): 1-23.
• “The Food Police: The White Possessive Securitization of Winnipeg Food Spaces.” aboriginal policy studies Vol. 10, No. 1 (2022): 33-62.
• “Beyond Food Security: Accounting for Community Food Needs in Kugaaruk, Nunavut.” Northern Public Affairs Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017): 52-54.
   

• 2023 - Outstanding Teacher Award for Significant Contribution to Excellence in Teaching, Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning