I am originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1. My father is Red River Métis with lineage to Gladu and Lagimodière, and originally from Starbuck, Manitoba. The Canadian government separated his family across the country as part of the Sixties Scoop, Canada’s policy of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their families in an effort to assimilate them into Euro-Canadian society. My mother is from Belfast and immigrated to Winnipeg in 1963 with her parents, David and Norma Cobain.

I received my B.A. from the University of Winnipeg, M.A. from Carleton University, and PhD from the University of Alberta. I was hired by SFU's School of Criminology in 2025 and serve as an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta’s Department of Sociology. I previously worked at King’s University College at Western and the University of Alberta Augustana Campus.

My research interests concern a range of topics, especially political movements and extremism, Indigenous justice, and prisons and re-entry. I am trained as a sociologist and specialize in qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and participant observation. I typically focus on “hard to reach” populations such as incarcerated people and right-wing nationalists. By studying these groups up close, my work aims to complicate popular assumptions and provide a more precise, evidence-based understanding of these groups. My work on Indigenous justice issues mixes Western-style qualitative methods with Indigenous research methods, prioritizing participants’ knowledge and local Indigenous advocacy over academic theory.

My current research centres on two broad areas:

The first is my work on the University of Alberta Prison Project, where I study Indigenous justice issues. Our research team interviews incarcerated people and staff about their experiences living and working inside prisons. I have published on racism and prison gangs, Indigenous peoples' experiences with cultural programming, and am currently studying healing lodges and Indigenous re-entry experiences.

My second area of research examines populism, extremism, and right-wing nationalist movements. I am currently working with Dr. Sandra Bucerius on a study of German populism, involving interviews with AfD and BSW party supporters. In this area I have published on the "mainstreaming" of far-right politics, the sociology of hate, the problems in counter-terrorism research, and Indigenous people's experiences with anti-homeless hate crime.

I am also working with Elders, Indigenous researchers, and prison staff to develop community-based cultural supports for system involved Indigenous people. If you are interested in connecting about this work, please reach out to me at justin_tetrault@sfu.ca.