After completing degrees in anthropology, linguistics and education, I worked for many years learning First Nations languages in northern Alberta and the Yukon, teaching those languages, and developing curriculum and teaching materials. In 1994, I returned to graduate study in anthropology, working with Doug Parks and Ray DeMallie at the American Indian Studies Research Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. My doctoral research documented and analyzed the Kaska language and Kaska historical narratives.

My main area of interest at UBC has been linguistic anthropology, and I have also taught courses in contemporary anthropological theory, field methods, and quantitative methods. I have worked extensively with Dene (Athabaskan) languages and communities; including a major language documentation project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation with Dane-zaa Záágéʔ (Beaver). As part of that research I transcribed video recordings and developed language materials for the Dane Wajich exhibit on the Virtual Museum of Canada. In addition to working with the Dane-zaa communities I continue to work on language and cultural revitalization projects with Dene Tha in northern Alberta and with Kaska in the Yukon and British Columbia, as well as with other Dene groups.

Students who I advise have conducted research on indigenous uses of media, the use of technology in language and cultural revitalization, land rights discourses, and the processes of reconstituting communities of formerly displaced persons through everyday practices.

First Nations Languages, Literacy and Orality, Oral Traditions, Dene (Athbaskan Languages and Cultures), Codeswitching, Gender, Indigenous Activism, and the Anthropology of Media

• In press The Contemporary Significance of Native Language Texts: Arthur John Sr’s Account of John Martin and the Kaska Stick Gamblers. In Transforming Ethnohistories, Sebastian Braun, ed. Pp. 98-113. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
• 2011 Ridington, Robin, Jillian Ridington, Patrick Moore Kate Hennessy and Amber Ridington. Ethnopoetic Translation in Relation to Audio, Video, and New Media Representations. In Born in the Blood: On Native American Translation, Brian Swann ed. Pp 211-241. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
• 2007 Poking Fun: Humour and Power in Kaska Contact Narratives.” In Myth and Memory: Stories of Indigenous-European Contact, John Lutz ed., Pp 69-89. Vancouver: UBC Press.
• 2007 Negotiated Identities: The Evolution of Dene Tha and Kaska Personal Naming Systems. Anthropological Linguistics, 49 (3-4): 283-307 (printed February 2009).
• 2007 Archdeacon Robert McDonald and Gwich’in Literacy.” Anthropological Linguistics 49 (1): 27-53 (printed December 2008).
• Moore, 2007 Moore, Patrick and Daniel Tlen. Indigenous Linguistics and Land Claims: The Semiotic Projection of Athabaskan Directionals in Elijah Smith’s Radio Work.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 17(2): 266-286.
• 2005 Moore, Patrick and Kate Hennessy. “New Technologies and Contested Ideologies: The Tagish FirstVoices Project. American Indian Quarterly. 30 (1-2)

Exhibits

• 2007 Moore, Patrick, Kate Hennessy, and Amber Ridington, Dane Wajich Dane-z̠aa Stories and Songs: Dreamers and the Land exhibit and exhibit catalog. http:/www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Danewajich/. Virtual Museum of Canada on-line exhibit.

Books

• 1999 Dene Gudeji: Kaska Narratives. Whitehorse: Kaska Tribal Council.
• 1996 Guzā́gi Kʼū́géʼ: Our Language Book, Nouns–Kaska, Mountain Slavey, and Sekani. Whitehorse: Kaska Tribal Council.
• 1996 Moore, Patrick and Angela Wheelock. Traditional Lifestyles of Kaska Women. Whitehorse, Yukon: Ross River Dena Council.
• 1990 Moore, Patrick and Angela Wheelock. Wolverine: Myths and Visions. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press

Research Projects

2010 to present Dene Tha Language and Culture Project (Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada).

2008-2010 Real Places and Virtual Representation: Beaver Language Documentation (Volkwagen Siftung Foundation).

2004-2008 Beaver Knowledge Systems: Description of a Canadian First Nations Language from a Placenames perspective (Volkswagen Siftung Foundation).

2003-2007 Literacy and Orality in Northern Athabaskan Communities (Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada)
http://kaska.arts.ubc.ca/index.html

Associate Professor, Linguistic/Sociocultural Anthropology 

First Nations languages, literacy and orality, oral traditions, Dene (Athbaskan languages and cultures), codeswitching, gender, indigenous activism, and the anthropology of media

Phone: 604-822-6359

Email: patrick.moore@ubc.ca