Professor Porter is an interdisciplinary researcher of Indigenous historical themes in relation to treaties, the environment, Intangible Cultural Heritage, resource politics, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence & Data Ethics. She is PI of the , which brings together educators, Indigenous groups, museums, creative artists, NGOs and policymakers to make treaties and environmental concerns central to education, policy, and public understanding.
Professor Porter has a developed of globally-disseminated outputs, including four monographs published by major US presses, and (Pierre Savard Award 2024 Nominee, Bloomsbury, 2021). This first book-length analysis of Canadas premier poet of combat-induced trauma revealed a figure whose indigenous identity was deeply significant within the Bloomsbury literary milieu. It argues that Prewett exemplified a soft primitivism at the heart of modernity as an historical and social force.
Professor Porters forthcoming book is Canada's Green Challenge (contracted, McGill, 2025). It takes the reader beyond the solution-sets advanced by both left and right, confronting the reality of Canada as a mining economy, one of the worlds largest exporters of minerals and metals, selling over sixty different mineral commodities to over one hundred countries. The book argues it is unreasonable to look to Canadas Indigenous peoples to solve the climate crisis, despite their vital, ongoing efforts to protect Canadian land. However, Indigenous respect for balance will be central to a Canadian sustainable future.
Professor Porter is Project Lead for the 3-year AHRC Standard Research Grant, Historic Houses, Global Crossroads: Revisioning Two Northern Ireland Historic Houses and Estates (2024-27, 1.49M), exploring how historic sites can beneficially position themselves in a new way, as global crossroads, entangled intersections of diplomatic, material and intercultural exchange where conceptualisation of the international took place. She is also Project Lead for the 3-year AHRC Standard Research Grant (2021-24, 931k).
Alongside Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes), California State University and Dr Clint Carroll (Cherokee), University of Colorado, Professor Porter is Lead Editor of the Cambridge University Press book series, , which investigates how environmental issues and processes relate to Indigenous socio-economic, cultural and political dynamics.
Professor Porter has delivered keynotes and invited lectures across Europe and North America (Universities of Copenhagen, Geneva, Oxford, Cambridge, Westpoint, Yale, UCD, Harvard Law School and Virginia Commonwealth).
Sample of recorded events
, opening keynote of the 2023 AHRC International Conference, University of Oxford 18 September 2023.
, Annual Conference of Irish Association for American Studies, Dublin City University, 29 April 2022.
, Institute for Global Prosperity, Directors Seminar, UCL, 10 March 2022.
1.: Fully interactive, layered, immersive made using geo-rectified British Library historic maps, revealing a pre-Revolutionary Indigenous world not shown in post-1776 American mapping, co-produced with Kings Digital, Kings College London, final version available late 2024.
- , 2023.
- Public-facing , at beta stage, launch Fall, 2024.
Research Impact
- Consulting on .
- 2023 International Symposium, Queens University, Ontario. .
- 2022 Museum Exhibition, American Museum & Gardens, Bath: 19 March -3 July 2022 featuring Material Kwe by AHRC Co-I Celeste Pedri-Spade (Anishinaabe).
- 2022 International Workshop Plenary , Queens University, Ontario.
- 2022 Artists Residencies: ; NONAM, Zurich, Celeste Pedri-Spade (Anishinaabe).