Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, PhD grew up in Inuvik, NT, graduating from Samuel Hearne Secondary School. She went on to earn a BA in Political Science at the University of Alberta, including an exchange year at the University of Plymouth, England. She completed her MA in Political Science at the University of Alberta, and has since worked for Indigenous peoples’ organizations in the NWT on self government and related political development initiatives. She received a PhD from Cambridge University during 2005.

Her second book, Finding Dahshaa: Self Government, Social Suffering, and Aboriginal Policy in Canada (UBC Press, 2009) is the result of over a decade of a combination of academic research and experience working on self government negotiations in the NWT.

Based In Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Stephanie is a Research Associate with the Institute of Circumpolar Health Research in Yellowknife. She also holds appointments as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Political Science; Research Associate with the Canadian Circumpolar Institute at the University of Alberta; and Research Associate at the Stefansson Arctic Institute, Iceland.

Stephanie lives in Yellowknife with her husband Andrew and their two young sons.