Education

Ph.D., Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University, 2012
Dissertation Title: Redefining Pollution: Plastics in the Wild

M.F.A., Studio Art, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2006
Advanced Graduate Certificate in Cultural Studies, 2006

B.F.A. with Distinction, Mount Allison University, 2002

Appointments

• 2023-present: Professor, Department of Geography, Memorial University
• 2020-2023: Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Memorial University 
• 2020-2021: Distinguished Visiting Indigenous Faculty Research Fellow, Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto
• 2018-2020: Associate Vice-President (Indigenous Research), Office of the Vice President Research, Memorial University (1-year position, renewed once)
• 2016-2020: Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Memorial University
• 2015-201: Chair of Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, Memorial University (Elected, 2-year term)
• 2014-2016: Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Memorial University
• 2013-2014: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, Northeastern University
• 2012-2013: Postdoctoral Fellow, Intel Science and Technology Center in Social Computing (ISTC-S), New York University

Publications

See Writing page.

Grants (In Progress)

2023-2030: IndigeLab Network (IN):   Building research collectives through gendered Indigenous theories of change, SSHRC Partnership Grant. PI/Co-Director: Max Libioron. Co-Director: Stephanie Carroll (U Arizona). Co-Applicants: Catharyn Andersen (MUNL), Erica Hurley (MUNL), Eve Tuck (U Toronto), M. Murphy (U Toronto), Kristen Bos (U Toronto), Emily Simmonds (Woman’s College Hospital), Kelsey Leonard (U Waterloo), Cheryl Ellenwood (Washington State U), Rosie Alegado (U Hawaii), Andrea Gomez (UC Berkeley), Sarah Aarons (UC Davis), Dominique David-Chavez (Colorado State U), Kat Milligan-Myhre (U Connecticut), Mukhtara Yusuf (NYU), Katherine Crocker (U Puget Sound), Lydia Jennings (U Arizona). Partners: First Nations Information Governance Centre, Native BioData Consortium, ORCID Inc., The Carpentries, Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, ArcticNet, University of Arizona, University of Toronto. Amount of Award: $2,500,000.

2022-2028: Indigenous and decolonial quantitative methodologies. Discovery Horizons (NSERC). PI: Max Liboiron. Collaborators: Stephanie Russo Carrol (University of Arizona), Katherine Crocker (Albert Einstein College of Medicine), Krystal Tsosie (NativeBio Consortium). Amount of award: $497,235.

2022-2028: A pluriverse of Indigenous Sciences, SSHRC Insight. #435-2022-0310. PI: Max Liboiron. Collaborators: Stephanie Russo Carrol (University of Arizona), Desi Rodriguez (UCLA), Andrea Gomez (UC Berkley), Sarah Aarons (UCSD). Amount of award: $498,909.

2026-2028: IMPACTS: Indigenous Metrics and Practices for Assessing Community-based Tracking of Plastics, SSHRC Indigenous Science and the Impacts of Plastic Pollution #1018-2025-00080. PI: Max Liboiron. Co-I: Paul McCarney (Yukon University, formerly VGFN), Christine Creyke (VGFN). Partner: Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation (VGFN). Amount of award: $466,144

2026-2027: CB-61 Pilot Program for Community-Based Plastics Monitoring in the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Traditional Territory, Northern Contaminants Program. PIs: Christine Creyke (VGFN), Paul McCarney (Yukon U). Collaborator: Max Liboiron, Jess Melvin (Memorial University). Amount of award: $120,031.

Awards

• 2026: Shortlisted, Popular Preprints of the Decade Award 2016–2026, Social Sciences section, preprints.org, for “Community Peer Review: A Method to Bring Consent and Self-Determination into the Sciences.”
• 2025: Presidential Achievement Award, American Association of Geographers. Chosen by the AAG Past President recognizing individuals who have made long-standing and distinguished contributions to the discipline of geography.
• 2023-2024: Dorothy Killam Fellowship Award. A national award to provide support ($70k/yr) “to [mid-career] scholars of exceptional ability by granting them time to pursue research projects of broad significance and widespread interest” by providing relief from teaching and administrative duties to focus on research
• 2024: Nomination, Paper of the Year, Cambridge Prisms. Cambridge University Press. For: Liboiron, Max, Riley Cotter. (2023). Review of participation of Indigenous peoples in plastics pollution governance. Cambridge Prisms: Plastics, e16: 1-24.
• 2022: The Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award, for Pollution is Colonialism
• 2022: Honorable Mention, Rachel Carson Prize, Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S), for Pollution is Colonialism
• 2022: Marilyn Harvey Award to Recognize the Importance of Research Ethics,Office of the Vice-President Research, Memorial University
• 2021: College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, Royal Society of Canada (RSC). A national system of multidisciplinary recognition for the emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership. Members have the capacity to help Canada and the world address major challenges and seize new opportunities including those identified in emerging fields.
• 2021: Clay Morgan Award for Best Book in Environmental Political Theory, Western Political Science Association (WPSA), for Pollution is Colonialism
• 2021: Finalist, Victoria Davion Award for Intersectionality in Environmental Ethics, International Society for Environmental Ethics. The award honors scholars engaged in intersectional work that describes, considers, or responds to overlapping forms of exclusion, discrimination, or injustice
• 2020-2021: Distinguished Visiting Indigenous Faculty Research Fellow, Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto. This position for a senior Indigenous scholar is by invitation only.
• 2019-present: Circle Holder, Science for the People. Begun in 1969, Science for the People is a USA-based group of activist-scientists committed to the practice of science to end oppression and violence. This award is one of two inaugural life-long fellowship positions for the society.
• 2018: Nature Inspiration Award (adult category), Canadian Museum of Nature/Musee Candien de la Nature. This award, “recognizes individuals and organizations that, through their work or specific projects, encourage Canadians to take an interest in natural history, create links with nature and contribute to its preservation.” Amount: $5,000 to be donated to organization of awardee’s choice.