Rachel Ariss
PhD, JD
Associate Professor
Legal Studies
Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
Contact information
Bordessa Hall
- Room 504
Downtown Oshawa
55 Bond Street East
Oshawa, ON
905.721.8668 ext. 5866
Office hours:
By appointment.
Background
Dr. Rachel Ariss focuses on the relationships between law, social justice and change, and how law shapes (and misshapes) community in research and teaching. Her research projects include Aboriginal land rights, the duty to consult and mining; the role of witnessing in social justice struggles; midwifery and social change; and regulation of parentage in gestational surrogacy. Together with John Cutfeet, Dr. Ariss authored Keeping the Land: Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Reconciliation and Canadian Law (Fernwood Publishing, 2012). She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Trent University, a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Osgoode Hall (York University), a Master of Laws (LLM) from Queen’s University, and a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) from the University of Toronto. She began her academic career in Lakehead University’s Sociology department in 2003, and joined the Legal Studies program at Ontario Tech University in 2010.
Education
- SJD University of Toronto
- LLM Queen's University
- LLB York University
Courses taught
- Gender, Sexuality and Law
- Indigenous Peoples, Law and the State in Canada
- Law and the Body
- Legal Research Methods
Research and expertise
- Aboriginal law and rights
- assisted reproductive technologies
- law and gender
Involvement
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Publications
Ariss, R., Nancy Stevens, “Planting seeds through Indigenous pedagogy: Picking up the reconciliation bundle in the academy” (2022) 41:1 Canadian Journal of Native Studies 79 - 105
Bearing Witness: Creating the Conditions of Justice for First Nations Children” (2021) 36:1 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, forthcoming
Ariss, R., MacCallum Fraser, C., & Somani, D. (2017). Crown Policies on the Duty to Consult and Accommodate: Towards Reconciliation? McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy, 13(1), 1-52.
Ariss, R., & Burton, N. (2014). Diversity in Midwifery Care: Working Towards Social Change. Canadian Review of Sociology, 51(3), 262-287.
Ariss, R., & Cutfeet, J. (2011). Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation: Mining, Consultation, Reconciliation and Law. Indigenous Law Journal, 10(1), 1-37.
Ariss, R. (2004). Bring Out Your Dead: Law, Human Remains and Memory. Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 19(1), 33-54.
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Presentations
Panel Presentation, “International Perspectives on Title to Submerged Lands” at Nothing About Us Without Us: Indigenous Jurisdiction over Mining and Marine Territories, Pacific Business & Law Institute Oct. 31- Nov. 1, 2023.
Ariss, R. Bearing Witness: Social Justice, Indigenous Peoples and Non-Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Walls, Borders, and Bridges: Law and Society in an Inter-Connected World, International Meetings of Law and Society Association (US), June 19 - 23, 2017.
Ariss, R., & McMorrow, T. Responses in University Education to the TRC Report. Maamwizing: Indigenizing the Academy, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Nov. 17-20, 2016.
Ariss, R. The Roles of Canadian and Indigenous Law in Platinex v. Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug. Invited Speaker on Panel Behn, C., Wanless, C., Deneault, A., & Choc, A., “Extractivism, Law and Human Rights” at State of Extraction Conference. Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, March 27 to 29, 2015.
Ariss, R. Gestational Surrogacy: On the Edge of Motherhood. Law on the Edge. Canadian Law and Society Association and Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand, UBC, Vancouver, British Columbia, July 1 to 4, 2013.
