Hadley Friedland, Ph.D. student

"My research interest is in Indigenous legal traditions and legal theory, with a particular focus on Cree law. I was drawn to the University of Alberta because Val Napoleon, my supervisor, is one of the leading Indigenous legal theorists in North America, and her research has gone further than any other theorist at this time in articulating and theorizing Indigenous legal traditions.  I completed my LLM here in 2009, and after articling for a year with the Federal DOJ, and being called to the bar, I returned to pursue my PhD this September. I have two wonderful kids and they are along for this exciting ride!

So far I have enjoyed the warmth and collegiality within the University of Alberta graduate program, and the broader graduate research community at the University. The faculty is very supportive and engaged, so I have had opportunities I would not have had elsewhere. Dr. Napoleon is a great supervisor because she not only provides a huge amount of support and intellectual stimulation, she also has a gift of connecting students to each other. There is a growing graduate community at the University of Alberta interested and committed to Indigenous issues so there are great interdisciplinary opportunities available as well.”

Val Napoleon, Graduate Supervisor

“Hadley Friedland’s LLM thesis is entitled, “The Wetiko (Windigo) Legal Principles: Responding to Harmful People in Cree, Anishinabek and Saulteaux Societies – Past, Present and Future Uses, with a Focus on Contemporary Violence and Child Victimization Concerns". This was such a brilliant and important thesis that it is already being incorporated into the curricula of several law schools – so Hadley needs to turn it into a book as soon as she can! Her doctoral research will expand her substantive work on Cree law and will contribute much important new thinking to the scholarship of law in general and indigenous legal traditions in particular.

Teaching is one way I am able to contribute positively to the world around me. I believe that higher education in the form of indigenous studies and the law (generally and inclusive of indigenous legal traditions) itself is a way to cultivate humanity and to build an engaged citizenry inclusive of all relationships of knowledge, power and subjection that governs the conduct of those subject to it, from the local to the global. I am absolutely optimistic about human potential and intellectual capacity. Through teaching, I strive to express my optimism and to support the capacity of the students to make the world a better place for themselves and for their families, communities, peoples, country and ultimately, their planet.

Teaching is a political act because it is fundamentally about the generation of ongoing dialogues, the fostering of creativity and genuine inquiry, and the development of relentless and ongoing political reflexivity that hopefully extends far beyond the classroom."      

 

Val Napoleon is an Associate Professor with the Faculty of Law and received her PhD from the University of Victoria.

Hadley Friedland started her PhD program in 2010.