Julia Emberley, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and renowned scholar in the field of decolonization, Canadian indigenous studies and Middle Eastern conflict. She is an adjunct professor in the Center for Transition Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction, the Department of Women’s Studies and Gender Research and the Comparative Literature Department at Western University.

She is interested in different methods and functions of testimony in Aboriginal and Arab communities experiencing, or recovering from, conflict.  Emberley focuses on the ways indigenous visual artists, writers and storytellers use their craft as a form of testimony. These testimonies help to further understand past colonial conflicts and contemporary problems, such as truth and reconciliation with regard to residential schools. In addition, she studies indigenous literary and visual texts and the valuable knowledge they provide toward understanding indigenous conflicts. Her most recent research relates to media representations of indigenous women living in downtown Vancouver through coverage of the Robert Pickton murder trial. Emberley’s research related to the Middle East explores graphic novels as a form of testimony and documentation of the problems with war and civil war. 

She has won numerous awards for her teaching and scholarship including multiple SSHRC grants that have all lead to publications. Her latest book is The Testimonial Uncanny: Indigenous Storytelling, Knowledge and Reparative Practices.