Michael Marker, PhD

Department of Educational Studies

It was with sorrow that the MET program acknowledged the sudden passing of Dr. Marker, a longtime MET faculty member, in January 2021.

Dr. Marker worked with advisors and developers to create ETEC 521: Indigeneity, Technology, and Education to both advance Indigenous thought and content in the MET program and to introduce graduate students to emergent conversations and scholarship in Indigenous media and technologies. He explained that introducing graduate students to Indigenous knowledge systems and place-based understandings of the natural world was challenging in a context of digital “placeless-ness.” While the course is cross-culturally challenging, it is also rewarding because of the enthusiasm and the respectful, advanced thinking MET students bring to this online context. Dr. Marker’s own research focused on the history and cosmology of the bordered/borderless Coast Salish world. He weaved much of his own research and ongoing questions about the deep meaning of places and the often violent disruptions of settler colonialism into the course. Dr. Marker also served on the MET Executive for many years.

To learn more about Dr. Marker and his work, visit this In memoriam page.