Education

• BA- Sociology, University of Alaska Anchorage, 2012
• MA-Sociology, Lakehead University, 2014
• PhD-Anthropology, University of Calgary, 2024

Biography

Kent Spiers is an interdisciplinary cultural anthropologist with extensive fieldwork experience across the circumpolar Arctic. His research has primarily concentrated on the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada, with a specific focus on the community of Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik / ᒥᑦᑎᒪᑕᓕᒃ). Dr. Spiers’ doctoral dissertation, titled Listening to Community: Towards Best Research Practices in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, provides a thorough ethnographic analysis of citizen-engaged research methodologies, including the impacts of colonization. This study was developed and conducted in close collaboration with local community members, addressing both historical and contemporary issues arising from colonial legacies. Furthermore, Dr. Spiers has applied his expertise in both private and public sectors, with particular attention to community-based monitoring, Indigenous knowledge, and the ramifications of climate change within the context of ongoing colonial dynamics.