April McInnes
Biography
My name is April McInnes, and I am a settler PhD student of Indigenous literary studies in the Department of English at 鶹 on Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee territory. I hold BAH, BEd, and MA degrees from 鶹's, and I am a certified teacher with the Ontario College of Teachers. My research investigates decolonial approaches to Indigenous literatures and their implications and applications in secondary-level classrooms in the public education system.
Research Interests
Indigenous literatures; Indigenous coming-of-age narratives; decolonization; Indigenous education; pedagogy studies; reading strategies; temporalities; Canadian literature; critical disability studies
Selected Publications
Articles (Peer-reviewed)
[Forthcoming] McInnes, April. “From ‘Burden’ to Gift: Disability in Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman by Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne Johnson.”&Բ;Canadian Journal of Disability Studies.
McInnes, April. “Memories, Manifestation, and Finding a Way Forward: Developing Agency through Spiralling Time in Michelle Good’s Five Little Indians.”&Բ;Canadian Literature, no. 260, 2025, pp. 101–21, .
Awards and Recognition
SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship (2025–2028)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2024–2025)
鶹's University Dean's Award for Social Justice (2024–2025)
Duncan and Urlla Carmichael Fellowship (2023–2024)
Margaret Craig Education Award (2022–2023)
鶹's University Dean’s Award of Excellence (2022)
Graduate Supervision
Sam McKegney
Additional Information
Conferences:
Moderator. “Challenging Archetypal Narratives and Paratext.” 鶹’s Undergraduate Conference on Literature, 鶹. (1 February 2025)
“Environmental Terrorism: BP, Art, and Indigenous Resistance in Canada.” Crude Representations: BP and the Cultural Imagination of Oil, The University of Edinburgh, online. (24 January 2025)
“Disrupting the Dominant Discourse of Victorian Studies with Decolonial Temporality: Challenging Chronological Time and Deploying Ceremonial Time in Drew Hayden Taylor’s The Night Wanderer: A Graphic Novel.” Re-imagining and Re-engaging with the Victorians, 鶹, online. (18 April 2024)
Current Positions:
Virtual Logistics Coordinator, 鶹's Graduate Conference in Literature, 鶹's University (October 2025 – present)
Communications Coordinator, 鶹's Graduate Conference in Literature, 鶹's University (October 2025 – present)
Recruitment Coordinator, Graduate English Society, 鶹's University (September – present)
Writing Consultant, Student Academic Success Services, 鶹's University (September 2024 – present)
Research Assistant, "Anishinaabemowin Language Acquisition Project," supervised by Dr. Lindsay Morcom, Faculty of Education, 鶹's University (January 2024 – present)