Zoe Todd


Zoe Todd is a Métis anthropologist and scholar of Indigenous studies, human-animal studies, science and technology studies and the Anthropocene. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University and a Presidential Visiting Fellow at Yale University during the 2018–19 academic year.

Early Life

Todd was born to a Métis father and white settler mother in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1983. She credits her father, an artist, Gary Todd's engagement with his Métis heritage as an influential factor in her scholarship; especially his art and his knowledge of fish and wildlife of the Canadian prairies. Todd is a descendant of William Todd, a 19th-century surgeon from the British Navy. She received her BSc in biological sciences and an MSc in rural sociology from the University of Alberta and her PhD in social anthropology from the University of Aberdeen. She received the prestigious Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship in 2011 for her PhD research.

Research

Todd's research concerns human-animal relations, in particular, human-fish, relationships in the context of Settler colonialism in Canada. She is an assistant professor at Carleton University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She is most well known for her work on decolonizing anthropology and Indigenous perspectives on the Anthropocene. She has been a faculty at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity. In 2018, she became a Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale University's Program in History of Science & Medicine.
She has been featured on the CBC, Walrus Talks, Buzzfeed, Rabble and many others on Indigenous issues, feminism, environment, colonialism, capitalism and rape culture. Todd is also known for her artistic work, which are mostly inspired by the freshwater fish of Alberta. In 2018, she was interviewed by Sarain Fox on her work on Indigenous perspectives on the Anthropocene for the Art Gallery of Ontario podcast Into the Anthropocene.

Selected Works

Academic works:
Other writing: