Alex Oehler

Alex Oehler is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) and is affiliated with the University of Regina, where he supervises MA and PhD students. His academic background includes a PhD from the University of Aberdeen and MA and BA degrees from UNBC.

His research focuses on environmental anthropology in the Circumpolar North, with an emphasis on human-animal relations, sensory ethnography, domestication studies, and posthumanist theory. Oehler leads the federally funded research project Sensory Acts, which investigates nonverbal interspecies communication in Arctic communities in collaboration with the Aklavik Hunters and Trappers Committee. His work explores interactions between people and species such as whales, bears, wolves, caribou, and geese, as well as human-plant relations and intuitive interspecies communication (IIC).

The recent publications of Alex Oehler reflect a consistent focus on multispecies ethnography, particularly in Siberia and the Canadian Arctic. His research integrates cognitive science, distributed cognition, and philosophical ethology, examining how humans and animals co-constitute knowledge, agency, and personhood through sensory collaboration and rhythmic alignment. Themes such as decolonization, heritage, and environmental change recur across his work, especially in nonverbal contexts.

Alex Oehler is actively involved in graduate supervision and is currently accepting MA and PhD students in anthropology at the University of Regina and as a co-supervisor at UNBC. His research is supported by federal funding and conducted in partnership with Indigenous communities, reflecting a strong commitment to collaborative and ethical scholarship.

He is affiliated with the following institutions:

• University of Northern British Columbia – Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology
• University of Regina – Graduate Supervisor, Anthropology

His academic contributions span books, peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and critical reviews, demonstrating a deep engagement with both theoretical and ethnographic dimensions of multispecies life in northern environments.