
About NFUniversity
With classes on the second and fourth Thursday of each month from October through April, NFUniversity features experts, researchers, farmers, and others on topics ranging from climate change, agroecology, seed policy, carbon markets, and beyond. The sessions build upon the foundational knowledge many NFU members and others already have, delving deeper to advance our understanding to a higher level, and increase our capacities to analyze and advocate. Recordings of previous NFUniversity classes are posted on our Past Classes page.
Classes take place on Zoom, from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM Pacific time. Each class includes a question-and-answer period after the speaker’s presentation. French interpretation will be provided if requested when registering at least one week in advance.
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Upcoming Classes
Imagine the biggest of big-picture views. In his books, podcasts, and talks, Dr. Nate Hagens synthesizes thousands of years of history, knowledge of energy and food, psychology and sociology, and insights into economics and finance to give a panoramic picture of our civilizational predicament and ways we might redirect the human project away from catastrophe. Join us for some “connected-up thinking” that can generate new insights around responses and solutions.
RegisterWhat is the relationship between economic progress in the land now called Canada and the exploitation of Indigenous peoples? And what gifts embedded within Indigenous world views speak to miyo- pimâtisiwin ᒥᔪ ᐱᒫᑎᓯᐃᐧᐣ (the good life) and specifically to good economic relations? Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships draws on the knowledge systems of the nehiyawak ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐊᐧᐠ (Plains Cree people) to explain settler colonialism through the lens of economic exploitation. This talk looks at Indigenous knowledges and teachings on Indigenous economic relationships as tools that enable us to reimagine how we can aspire to the good life with all our relations.
Dr. Shalene Jobin is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Governance, and Director of the Indigenous Governance and Partnership program at the University of Alberta. Dr. Jobin’s most recent publication is the book Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships: Nehiyawak Narratives. She is also involved in Indigenous Approaches to Governance in the 21st Century and the Prairie Indigenous Relationality Network, co-founded the Wahkohtowin Law & Governance Lodge, and is co-creator and founding Academic Director of the Indigenous Partnership Development Program. Shalene is Cree from her mother (Wuttunee family) and Métis from her father (Jobin family) and is a member of Red Pheasant Cree First Nation (Treaty Six).
Register2023 Schedule
Thursday, January 12—Conserving Soil Carbon On Farms: An Ecosystem Perspective
Thursday, January 26—The surprising history of peasant abundance
Thursday, February 9—Seeds of Sustainability
Thursday, March 9—Solid Biofuels: Agricultural Biomass and BECCS (Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage)
Thursday, March 16—What We Knew a Half-Century Ago: The History of Environmental and Climate Knowledge
Thursday, March 23— Interest, debt and inflation – who’s winning?
Thursday, April 13—The Big Picture: Energy, Climate, Civilization, Money, and Everything
Thursday, April 27—TBA