Dr. Dianne Newell

Interim Director | Professor Emerita | she/her/hers

Greetings. I am a settler-descendent of Irish and English immigrants to the Ottawa Valley. I grew up in Ottawa (in unceded Algonquin Anishinaabeg Territory), where I became fascinated with the two big, energetic rivers that converge there after they roll off the edge of Canadian Shield country. How I came to the UBC Department of history and gravitated to topics around Northwest Coast anadromous fishing and fish processing, and Indigenous fisheries and the law, is a very long and happy story for another time...

When I was appointed as an Emeritus Professor for the launch of the celebrated old Fisheries Centre (renamed the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; IOF), I took the opportunity to instigate and chair a comprehensive Aboriginal Fisheries Research Unit Strategic Plan (2017). We had the good fortune to hire Dr. Andrea Reid as our first Indigenous fisheries scientist for the approved new unit. Andrea launched the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries (her fine suggestion for a name) in January 2021. So much has happened at the Centre since then. I respect and enjoy everything about the Centre; it is my great honour to be involved.

Email: d.newell[at]oceans.ubc.ca

IOF Profile: oceans.ubc.ca/dianne.newell