Thinkers Timeline

Naomi Klein is a Canadian writer, journalist, and activist. She was born in 1970 in Montreal, Canada. Her family was Jewish and politically active. Her parents had moved to Canada from the United States, partly to protest against the Vietnam War. Klein is not an economist or an academic in the usual sense. She is a journalist and a writer of powerful, argumentative books about politics and the economy. Her work is a kind of campaigning journalism. She investigates, gathers evidence, and then makes a strong, clear argument meant to change how readers think. Klein became famous in 1999 with her first book, 'No Logo'. It studied the power of global brands and big corporations. Her later books include 'The Shock Doctrine' (2007), about crisis and free-market policy, and 'This Changes Everything' (2014), about climate change and capitalism. Klein is also an activist. She has taken part in protest movements and campaigns, especially around climate justice. She now teaches at university and helps lead a centre focused on climate justice. Klein is an influential and divisive figure. Many admire her as a fearless critic of corporate power. Others argue her books simplify complicated issues. Both views are part of an honest picture.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Mississauga Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, musician, and activist. She is one of the most important contemporary indigenous thinkers in North America. She works on what is sometimes called indigenous resurgence: the recovery and renewal of indigenous languages, knowledge, and political life. She was born in 1971 in Canada. She belongs to Alderville First Nation, a Mississauga Nishnaabeg community in southern Ontario. The Mississauga Nishnaabeg are part of the larger Anishinaabe (also spelled Nishnaabeg) family of nations. The Anishinaabe are one of the largest indigenous peoples in North America. Their territory traditionally covered much of what is now the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They have lived there for thousands of years. Simpson grew up between worlds. She is part of an Anishinaabe community. She also lived in non-indigenous Canadian society. She studied biology and resource management at university, earning her PhD in 1999. She was trained in Western academic methods. She was also learning her own people's language, ceremonies, and intellectual traditions. The combination shaped her work. She brings academic rigour to indigenous knowledge while also pushing back against academic frameworks that distort what they study. She has written or edited around a dozen books. She has produced several music albums. She co-founded the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning in the Northwest Territories, an indigenous educational institution. She was a major voice during the Idle No More movement that began in 2012, a wave of indigenous political action across Canada. She is now in her fifties and remains one of the most active indigenous thinkers and artists in North America.