Brenda Hattie

Dr. Brenda Hattie has been a part-time faculty at Mount Saint Vincent University since 2005. She has a PhD in Educational Studies in Lifelong Learning, which explored coming out experiences of queer women and gay men who were raised in the Christian tradition. She has developed and taught courses in the fields of Women’s Studies, Queer Studies, Philosophy/ Religious Studies, and Family Studies and Gerontology. From 2015 to 2018, she worked on research projects at Dalhousie related to the health care experiences of queer women, and for eight years worked as a contracted researcher at the Nova Scotia Centre on Aging. She has co-authored various reports and academic journal articles and given presentations at academic conferences in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Prof. Hattie has over two decades of activist experience within the queer community in HRM. In 2005, she served as a board member of the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project, the same year that same-sex marriage became legal in in the province. In 2005, she was given a Pride Award for Outstanding Service to Community from Safe Harbour Metropolitan Community Church. In 2018, she actively participated in the collaborative efforts that resulted in the successful ban of conversion therapy in Nova Scotia. From 2022 to 2024, she served as the chair of Eastern Shore Pride Nova Scotia Eastern Shore Pride building solidarity, community | CBC News, an organization she helped to establish HOME | Eastern Shore Pride.

Between 2018 and 2022, in collaboration with a committee of faculty at the Mount, Prof. Hattie spearheaded the development of a Minor in Queer Studies, the first online Queer Studies course in Canada https://www.msvu.ca/msvu-first-canadian-university-to-offer-online-queer-studies-course/. She continues to collaborate with other queer faculty to expand the Minor.

On the Eastern Shore where she resides, in addition to her queer activism, Dr. Hattie gives talks on issues related to Women’s Studies and Queer Studies for Musquodoboit Harbour and Sheet Harbour Libraries, and for various community groups. As a dedicated environmentalist and owner of woodlands, she is also involved in several organizations devoted to the health of management of forests, including Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association, Federation of Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners, and Women in Wood.

Dr. Hattie is owner/operator of Sapphic Shore Studio, a renovated barn, where she and other academic colleagues host creative, social, and educational events with queer, feminist, and/or Pagan themes. In her spare time, Dr. Hattie is working on a play about the history of the lesbian bar.

Dr Hattie’s academic interests include:

Queerness, feminism, and spirituality
Intersectional ecofeminism
Feminism and the witch
The lesbian bar

Scholarly Publications:

Jan 2024: “Lessons learned supporting access to streaming videos in Women Studies courses.” College & Undergraduate Libraries, 1-15. Marcoux, N., Rodrigues, D., & Hattie, B.

March 2016: “Exploring the social lives of young adults with disabilities.” Alter – European Journal of Disability research, Revue européenne de recherche sur le handicap, 10(3), 236-247. Schneider, C. & Hattie-Longmire, B.

May 2015: “Religion, spirituality and LGBTQ identity integration.” Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 9(2), 92-117. Beagan, BL & Hattie-Longmire, B.

Sept 2015: “LGBTQ Experiences with religion and spirituality: Occupational transition and adaptation” Journal of Occupational Science¸4(2), 459-476. Beagan, B. & Hattie, B.

Apr 2014: “Examining life course transitions of young people with disabilities: The ACEE alumni study.” La nouvelle revue de l’adaptation et de la scolarisation, 68(4), 126-138. Schneider, C., Chahine, S., & Hattie-Longmire, B.

March 2014: “Religion, spirituality and LGBTQ identity integration: ‘There’s a deep knowing within me, that I trust.” Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 9(2), 92-117. Beagan, B., & Hattie-Longmire, B.

July 2013: “Reconfiguring spirituality and sexual/gender identity: ‘It’s a feeling of connection to something bigger, it’s part of a wholeness.” Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 32(3), 244-268. Beagan, B., & Hattie-Longmire, H.

Papers Accepted with Minor Revisions

“In the shadows: Reframing a lesbian pulp fiction collection to foster education and learning” Rodrigues, D., Hattie, B., & Raven, M. Studies in the Education of Adults, 57(2), Accepted with minor revisions.

Papers in Progress

“’It’s a conditional belonging’”: Processes of social inclusion and marginalization within the academy.” Beagan BL, Brooks K, Hattie-Longmire B, Mohamed T, Waterfield B, & Weinberg M