Graduating PhD Student Analyzed Bullying and Racism Towards Indigenous Students in Northern Ontario

Robyn O’Loughlin is graduating from the PhD program in Legal Studies at Carleton.

“My PhD has afforded me the knowledge and skills to recognize gaps in law and policy and discuss potential impacts on Indigenous peoples,” notes O’Loughlin.

She also says that her knowledge of Canadian Indigenous Peoples grew in the PhD program through her experiences working with the Nokiiwin Tribal Council in Thunder Bay, and through the completion of her dissertation on the Ontario Anti-Bullying Framework and its potential impact on Indigenous Students in Northern Ontario.

O’Loughlin shares that, “Growing up in Thunder Bay, I witnessed racism against Indigenous people. I witnessed violence against Indigenous people, and I witnessed harassment against Indigenous people. As a child, I did not know what Indigenous peoples had faced – why did the larger community disregard their existence? Why were they viewed as problems?”

It was these experiences, along with her grandmother’s recollections, that led her to pursue her PhD thesis research, under the supervision of Dr. Vincent Kazmierski.

Now, she has been hired as a postdoctoral fellow at EPID@Work Research Institute (Enhancing the Prevention of Injury and Disability at Work) at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, ON, working with Dr. Vicki Kristman. Her position is in Indigenous Workplace Studies, funded by a MITACS Elevate PostDoctoral Fellowship. The partner organization for this research is the Institute for Work and Health in Toronto, ON (Organization Supervisor: Dr. Monique Gignac).

Her postdoc research will parallel her PhD work as she will study how workplace bullying, violence and harassment potentially impact First Nations workers. This research will hone her knowledge of labour studies and help recognize how employers are moving forward the calls to action that were published by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015.