We respectfully acknowledge the territory in which CLEAR works as the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk, and the island of Newfoundland as the ancestral homelands of the Mi’kmaq and Beothuk. I would also like to recognize the Inuit of Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut and the Innu of Nitassinan, and their ancestors, as the original peoples of Labrador. We strive for respectful relationships with all the peoples of this province as we search for collective healing and true reconciliation and honour this beautiful land together.*
CLEAR is a collective of researchers from a wide range of disciplines (from ocean science to filmmaking), career levels (high school students to full professors), and skillsets. As a feminist and anticolonial science laboratory, we understand introductions as a way to articulate our accountabilities and make our relations apparent.
These are the people that make CLEAR possible:
 | Max Liboiron (Michif-settler, they/them) Taanishi! Max Liboiron dishinihkaashoon. Lac la biche, Treaty siz, d’ooshchiin. Métis naasyoon niiya ni (Woodman, Turner). Hello! I grew up in Lac la biche, Alberta, Treaty 6 territory. I am the founder and director of CLEAR and am an Associate professor of Geography at Memorial University. Welcome to our lab! (maxliboiron.com) |
 | Jess Melvin (settler, she/her) Hello, my name is Jess and I am a settler who grew up and currently resides in Bauline East on the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk, on what is now known as the island of Newfoundland. Following an undergraduate degree in Marine Biology, I completed a Master’s thesis in plastic pollution under the guidance of CLEAR in 2017. Since then, I have focused my work primarily on marine plastic pollution and community-led environmental research and advocacy. Now, I am excited to return to CLEAR as the lab manager. |
 | Hillary Bradshaw (on leave) (settler, she/her) Hillary is from Cavan, Ontario. She is a candidate for a Masters of Science-Environmental Sciences. Her thesis work creates a baseline study of marine plastic pollution in Iqaluit, Nunavut, looking at macro and microplastics in benthic and intertidal zones. |
 | Christina Crespo (settler, she/her) Hi! My name is Christina Crespo. I am a Cuban American originally from Florida, USA and a doctoral student in anthropology at the University of Georgia. I am interested in how scientists strategically transform scientific practices towards more equitable processes. In particular, my research explores the ways feminist science shapes how knowledge is produced and how scientists are made. I am indebted to Latinx, Chicanx, and Latin American feminist scholarswhose work has shaped my understanding of and engagement with the world. I’m excited to be joining the CLEAR community and extend my gratitude for the opportunity! |
 | Edward Allen Atelihai, my name is Edward Allen (he/him) and I am Kablunangajuk; a person of blended Inuit and settler ancestry who identifies locolineally with Nunatsiavummiut. I am currently a visitor on the ancestral homelands of the Beotuk, where I draw on early, located values in negotiating my privileged semblances and personal complicities. I am interested in wellness as a function of the relationships that Nunatsiavummiut have with the Land and, as a student in Department of Geography at Memorial University and member of CLEAR. |
 | Alexander Flynn Hello, my name is Alexander Flynn (him/his) and I am from Forteau, a small fishing community on the south coast of Labrador. I am a member of NunatuKavut and have settler ancestry as well. I am currently doing a master’s program in biology at MUN, researching population dynamics and stability of Labrador lake trout and contributing to other wildlife genetics projects. I am a research assistant at CLEAR working on plastic pollution samples from Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut. |
 | Riley Cotter (settler, he/him) Hi! My name is Riley Cotter and I am a settler who was born, raised, and works from the island of Newfoundland, which is the ancestral homeland of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq. Originally, I am from a small community called Melrose but I relocated to St. John’s to attend Memorial University. After undergrad, I worked as a research assistant at CLEAR on numerous multidisciplinary projects. Currently, I am a Master’s student studying plastics in Nunatsiavut’s marine surface waters and accessible methods for effective microplastic identification. |
 | Sam Morton (settler, she/her) Hello everyone! My name is Sam Morton. I grew up in Georgetown, ON, and now call St. John’s, NL home. I am a settler living on the traditional territories of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq on the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador. I am a PhD student here in the Department of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. My research looks at how different animals (like cows, chickens, goats, among others) are enrolled into foreign aid circuits and international development projects. I joined the lab in summer 2022 and am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this collective. |
 | Paul McCarney (settler, he/him) Hello, I am an interdisciplinary conservation scientist. I visit, live, and work in the traditional and self-governing territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council in Whitehorse, Yukon. I ground my research in anti-colonial, feminist, Indigenous, and Western conservation science research methodologies to focus on knowledge co-production involving social scientists, natural scientists, and community experts. My work with CLEAR is with the community-based monitoring of plastic pollution in Nunatsiavut. |
 | Lana Vuleta (settler) Hello. I’m Lana. I’m a settler from the traditional unceded and unsurrended territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg people. I’ve moved to the island of Newfoundland and the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq. I’ll be working on the Nunatsiavut plastic pollution monitoring project playing around with data visualization, and looking into the politics of data viz. |
 | Bridget Nakyanzi Kakooza (immigrant, she/her) Hello there! I am an immigrant from Kampala, Uganda and currently reside in St. John’s on the homelands of the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq – the island of Newfoundland. Originally, I am from Busunju in Mityana District, central Uganda. Currently, I am a master’s student in the Department of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, studying wild food movements and contaminants of concern in Nunatsiavut. I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to be part of the CLEAR community. |
 | Melissa Morgan (immigrant, she/her) Hello there! I am an immigrant from Tema, Ghana and currently reside in St. John’s on the homelands of the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq – the island of Newfoundland. I graduated from my BSc Chemistry degree in April 2023 and began my position with CLEAR as a lab tech in September 2023. I am involved in sample processing and continuing to establish and practice good land relations in our research. I am elated to be part of a collective that places social equity and relations at the centre of its research. |
 | Mia Kocela (settler, she/her) Hello! My name is Mia Kocela and I am from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in Treaty 6 Territory and currently reside in St. John’s on the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk. I am an undergraduate student at MUNL majoring in Marine Biology. I am working as a lab technician with CLEAR working on plastic pollution samples from Nunatsiavut as a part of the MUNL’s MUCEP program. |
 | Jeannine Boudreau (settler, she/her) Hello! I am a settler from New Brunswick, the unceded territory of the Wolastoquiyik and Mi’kmaq peoples. I currently reside in St. John’s on the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk as a biology undergraduate. I will be working as a lab technician participating in CLEAR’s plastic pollution monitoring project. |
Alumni of our lab include: Tiaasha Naskar, Tammy Sheppard, Forough Emam, Zhe Shi, Celestine Muli, Carley Mills, Emily Wells, Tristen Morris, Melissa Novachefski, Natalya Dawe, Coco Coyle, Mikayla Downey, Erin Burt, Juddyannet Murichi, Natalie Richárd, France Liboiron, Marissa Van Harmelen, Taylor Stocks, Alexandra Hayward, Justine Ammendolia, Kate Winsor, Sam Welscott, Ignace Schoot, Nic Kuzmochka, Kelechi Emmanuel Anyaeto, Shramana Sarkar, Charlotte Muise, Lucas Harris, Jillian Chidley, Michael Broz, Luke Lucy-Broomfield, Megan Dicker, Jacquelyn Saturno, Lauren Watwood, Dr. Iwalaye (Ayo) Oladimeji, Emily Simmonds, Natasha Healey, Noah Hutton, Taylor Hess, Hridisha Arif, Melissa Paglia, John Atkinson, Anna Malone, Paddy Dawe, Abdul Rahat, Elise Earles, Kaitlyn Hawkins, Molly Rivers, Willa Neilsen, Morgan Davidson, Elizabeth Adeyemo, Alyson Park, Sarah Crocker, Jasmine Burt, Kiersten Gulliver, Alana Derry (twice!), Emma Ford, Vidyashini (Vidhu) Thamodharan, Jefta Merkuratsuk, Alex Zahara, Morgan Manuel, Susannah Polack-Finley, Dr. Charles Mather, Dr. Nicole Power, Nadia Duman, Silvana Rodrigues Pereira, Sid Ford, Janine O’Rielly, Mukhtara Yusuf, Joe Wark, Charlotte Florian, Dani Nowosad, Paige LeDrew, Domenica Lombeida, Arif Abu, Sophia Jaworski, Dr. Girish Daswani, Dr. Deondre Smiles, Dr. Katherine Crocker, Julia Keeping, Madison Malloy, Haley Winsor, Draco Dunphy, Megan Costain, Tai Henderson, Rivers Cafferty, Mel Flynn, Rui Liu (twice!), Joseph Onalik, Ashley Hayward and Brittany Schaefer.
Artists in residence have included: Bojan Fürst, Mukhtara Yusuf, Emily Roehl, Prakash Krishnan, and Pam Hall.
* This Land acknowledgment for Memorial University, which has campuses in various parts of the province, was created by the five Indigenous groups in the province together in 2015.
CLEAR 