Suzanne McLeod

Dr. Suzanne McLeod, an Anishinaabe-ikwe member of Sagkeeng First Nation MB, is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art, University of Manitoba. Specializing in Indigenous art histories and cultures of North America, her research dismantles colonial narratives in art history, focusing on pre-contact to contemporary Indigenous artistic practices and gender studies.

• PhD in Art History (University of New Mexico, 2023)
• M.A. in Art History (University of New Mexico)

Her award-winning dissertation 'Maa-Multh-Nii People Who Came Floating In' challenges colonial frameworks by identifying parallels between Spanish explorers and Pacific Northwest Indigenous nations in aesthetics, governance, and social structures. She is also developing a SSHRC-funded project on Renaissance Italy's visual representation of Indigenous peoples and the Doctrine of Discovery's legacy.

Dr. McLeod has developed courses spanning from ancient Woodland traditions to 21st-century Indigenous art, including specialized seminars on Indigenous Feminisms and Wahkotowin (kinship systems). Her upcoming book chapter on Anishinaabe artist Arthur Shilling will be published by University of Manitoba Press.

• 2023 SSHRC Insight Development Grant recipient
• Focus on Prairie First Nations artists (1870-1950)
• Advocate for Indigenous perspectives in art historiography