Thomas McIlwraith

Thomas McIlwraith is an Associate Professor and Interim Chair in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph, within the College of Social & Applied Human Sciences. He previously taught at Douglas College and has extensive experience as a consulting anthropologist with Indigenous communities in British Columbia and northern Alberta. His research focuses on Indigenous land rights, resource use, and confronting cultural appropriation in children's summer camps. McIlwraith holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico (2007).

His research interests include documenting territoriality and resource harvesting practices of Indigenous communities, analyzing biases in consulting anthropology projects, and addressing cultural appropriation in outdoor education. He collaborates with First Nations on land use planning, oral histories, and traditional knowledge preservation. Recent work explores the intersection of Indigenous land use and resource extraction projects like mining and logging.

McIlwraith supervises MA students in Public Issues Anthropology, emphasizing applied research. His publications span topics from Inuit perspectives on climate change to ethical challenges in AI-driven education. He actively contributes to debates on cultural sensitivity in outdoor programming and Indigenous rights advocacy.