Fiona P. McDonald

Fiona P. McDonald is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies at the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO). Her office is located in ASC 266 and she serves as a graduate student supervisor with expertise spanning visual anthropology, material culture, and Indigenous studies.

Dr. McDonald's educational background includes:

• PhD in Anthropology from University College London (UK), 2014
• Graduate Diploma from University of Auckland (Aotearoa New Zealand)
• MA from University of Alberta
• BA from University of Alberta

Her research explores the intersections of art and anthropology, with particular attention to Indigenous perspectives, material transformations, and climate justice. She is recognized for her ethnographic work on woollen blankets as cultural artifacts across Canada, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and the United States, examining both historical and contemporary uses through the lens of material culture.

Dr. McDonald co-founded the Ethnographic Terminalia Collective (ETC) in 2009, which curates exhibitions at the intersections of arts and anthropology across North America. In 2019, she secured major funding from Canadian Funding for Innovation (CFI) and British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) to establish the Collaborative and Experimental Ethnography Lab (CE² Lab) at UBCO, where she leads projects on Climate Justice + Social Change including 'Resilient Indigenous Housing' and 'Sensory Storytelling.'

Her scientific recognition includes:

• Canadian Funding for Innovation (CFI) grant
• British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) grant

Dr. McDonald actively engages with public audiences through her multimodal open-access publication 'An Anthropocene Primer' and maintains research and lab websites to share her scholarly work. Her teaching portfolio encompasses visual and media anthropology, arts-based ethnography, fieldwork methodologies, and cultural anthropology, demonstrating her commitment to innovative pedagogical approaches in anthropology.