Fonds MS-15-6 - Brenda Hattie fonds

Brenda Hattie was born in Halifax and raised in the Annapolis Valley and Pictou County. She studied at the University of King's College and Universite Sainte-Anne, where she earned her BA in 1981. Taking classes in psychology and sociology in her early twenties exposed her to feminist theology and led her to question many of her religious beliefs, especially those related to sexual orientation. In 1998 she entered into a same-sex relationship and subsequently left her religious community. In 2000 Brenda moved to Halifax to pursue an MA in Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. Over the next four years she also volunteered in the queer community as a director for NSRAP, and later as a director for Safe Harbour Metropolitan Community Church, in 2005 winning an award for her service to the LGBTQ community. She was witness to some of the first same-sex marriages in Nova Scotia in October 2005.

She was a research assistant at the Nova Scotia Centre on Aging from 2005-2013, where she worked on a range of projects, including several related to age-friendly communities. Brenda has co-authored a number of reports and given presentations on her work at national and international academic conferences. She has also co-published a number of refereed journal articles. Brenda completed a PhD in Philosophy of Educational Studies in 2018. She continues to teach at Mount Saint Vincent University and is currently researching the work and social lives of the women who worked at the Dartmouth Marine Slips during World War II. Her most recent activism involved advocacy for banning conversion therapy in Nova Scotia. The ban came into effect in 2018.