Sheldon Parathundyil
Research Assistant, RFNG Project
Sheldon is a fourth-year Public Affairs and Policy Management (Development Policy Studies – Rights and Human Development) at Carleton University specializing in Indigenous legal orders and political economy. He hails from Brampton, ON (Upper Canada Treaty No. 18 – Mississauga Anishinaabe Territory), with ancestral roots in Kerala, southern India and Mauritius, southern Africa. His intergenerational experiences with colonialism and coolitude markedly inform his work. He recently completed his undergraduate thesis exploring the Zapatista horizontal autonomy model as a bush mode of production and governance framework in Canada, in collaboration with Dr. Erin Araujo and the El Cambalache alternative economic network in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico and under the supervision of Institute of Political Economy Director Cristina Rojas. Outside of academics, he is a seasoned stage performer, writer, director, and theatre creator, and has been heavily involved in student politics and Indigenous sovereignty activism, with aspirations to pursue Indigenous Law. He is deeply humbled to be given the opportunity to work on this project and looks forward to the road to decolonization and self-government that lies ahead.