Frances M. Slaney received her BA in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and her MA and PhD from Laval University in Québec City. She was Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Regina and then Associate Professor of Anthropology at Carleton University. Following her doctoral thesis based on fieldwork among the Tarahumara, or Rarámuri, of the Sierra Tarahumara in northwestern Mexico, she turned to archival research into the history of anthropology.