2014: Regna Darnell

Regna Darnell (award 2014) is Distinguished University Professor in Anthropology

First Nations Studies at Western University. She was the

recipient of the Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology

in 2005, the American Anthropology Association’s highest honour.

She is a member of the American Philosophical Society, received a

Doctor of Letters Degree from The University of Waterloo in 2009

and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2007-2008, she

served as President of the Canadian Anthropology Society.

Professor Darnell has mentored many anthropology students and First

Nations scholars, and is the founding director of Western

University’s First Nations Studies Program. Through applied,

collaborative research and teaching, she has made a significant

contribution to the retention, revitalization and preservation of

First Nations languages in Canada. She has carried out research in

Northern Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, West Africa, and

Southern Ontario into language, Indigenous knowledge and

traditional medicines, identity, mobility and social change, the

risk of contaminants on First Nations, water and ecosystems health.

Her extensive archival work has explored the history of

anthropology in North America. She has published widely on First

Nations languages and cultures, as well as Edward Sapir, Franz

Boas, and anthropological theory and linguistics in the United States and Canada.

CANADIAN ANTHROPOLOGY SOCIETY