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Giselle Dias (Niigaanii Zhaawshko Giizhigokwe) is a queer, disabled Métis community organizer, writer and educator. She has been engaged in prisoners’ rights, penal abolition and transformative justice for the past 28 years. Her ancestors travelled from the Red River, Ireland, India and the Seychelle Islands and settled in Treaty 1 Territory. She is currently living on the on the Haldimand tract, traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples.
Dias is doing a PhD in Social Work in the Indigenous Field of Study at Laurier University. Her search is focused on understanding Indigenous queer, Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer visions of abolition from a land-based lens.
Dias has worked as the program coordinator and is a facilitator at the Centre for Indigegogy: Indigenous Wholistic Professional Development for the past five years.
Dias' research interests are focussed on Indigenous activism including abolition, land defence, transformative justice, decolonizing anti-carceral practice and defunding the police. Her work is rooted in an Indigenous queer, disabled, feminist and land-based lens.
Dias, G. (2022). Teachings from spruce: The nature of prisons. In Jacobs, N. Gaehowako & Leduc, T. B. (Eds.), Ǫ da gaho dḛ:s: Reflecting on our journeys. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.
Absolon, K., & Dias, G. (2020). Indigegogy. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Social Work. Oxford University Press. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.1354
Ware, S. M. & Dias, G. (2020). Revolution and resurgence: Dismantling the prison industrial complex through Black and Indigenous solidarity. In Diverlus, R. & Ware, S. M. (Eds.), Until we are free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (pp. 32–56). Regina, SK: University of Regina Press.
Ware, S. M., Rusza, J., & Dias, G. (2014). It can’t be fixed because it’s not broken. In Liat, B, Chapman, C., & Carey, A. C. (Eds.), Disability incarcerated: Imprisonment and disability in the United States and Canada (pp. 163–184). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Contact Info:
E: gdias@wlu.ca