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(updated 2024-10-08)

 

Megan Butcher (they/them) is a Senior Reference Librarian at Library and Archives Canada, where they have worked for over 13 years. While doing their library degree at Dalhousie in the early aughts, Megan was the book buyer at Venus Envy Halifax before moving across the country to manage Venus Envy Ottawa.

 

Void Clark-Nason (they/them) is a sociology PHD student, educator, and activist. They received their Education degree from St. Thomas University in 2020 and have worked in both public and private educational settings since. When not toiling away at grad school, they can be found supply teaching, writing poems, or working on a new creative project. They have been involved in queer activism since middle school.

 

Arlo Cogswell (he/they) is the Social Media and Marketing Coordinator for Chroma NB in Saint John, New Brunswick. 

 

Connor Fraser (they/them) is completing their degree at UNB in Arts and been employed part-time as collections curator at the Fredericton Region Museum since 2022.

 

Ariane Gauthier (she/her) is a reference archivist at Library and Archives Canada since July 2022. She obtained an MA in History from the University of Ottawa. She is interested in the history of the First World War with a particular emphasis on neurasthenia developed by the Canadian Nursing Sisters.

 

Sienna Ingham (she/hers) is a queer interdisciplinary creative, self-assessed collector of images and avid researcher of global quilting history currently living in the traditional homeland of the Wolastoqey Nation (Fredericton, New Brunswick). Originally from Toronto, her interest in textiles, sewing, and quilting sprouted from its welcoming nature and accessibility. A graduate of Concordia University with a BA in English and Art History, Sienna is currently working at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick and studying Textile Design at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. 

 

Daze Jefferies (she/her) is a white settler artist, writer, and educator based in Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). Her multidisciplinary and research-based creative practice exploring queer, trans, and sex worker embodiments, counter-histories, and intergenerational relationships has been exhibited at The Rooms, Eastern Edge Artist-Run-Centre, Struts Gallery, Owens Art Gallery, Galerie de l’UQAM, Art Gallery of Guelph, and the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador Gallery, among others. She is the author of Water/Wept (Anstruther Press, 2023) and co-author of Autoethnography and Feminist Theory at the Water’s Edge: Unsettled Islands (Palgrave, 2018). Her work has also been published in the Journal of Folklore Research, Feral Feminisms, PRISM international, filling Station, Arc, and the League of Canadian Poets’ Visual Poetry Chapbook, as well as anthologized in Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers’ Poetry (Arsenal Pulp, 2019).

 

Jamie Kitts (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the University of New Brunswick, where she is also the Co-Managing Editor and Homerow Chapbooks Series Editor at Qwerty Magazine. Her MA thesis, "Play/Fighting: A Transfeminine Activist Memoir from the Digital Walden," was funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council's Canada Graduate Scholarship for Master's students. She is currently a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship holder for her proposed dissertation "No-Burn Order: Building an Archive for Transgender Atlantic Canadian Poets." Her poetry has appeared in Egg Poets' collaborative chapbook "All Things to Keep You Here," and her debut solo chapbook "Girl Dinner" is forthcoming with Emergency Flash Mob Press.

 

Jonathon Niemczak (he/him) is the Chair and President of the Canadian Pride Historical Society (CPHS), a national non-profit organization dedicated to documenting and telling the story of the history of the Pride Movement in Canada. Before founding CPHS, Jonathan was the President of the Pride Winnipeg Festival, where he served on the Board of Directors for ten years and led the organization for six. At Pride Winnipeg, he identified a significant gap in the collective knowledge about the origins of Pride in Winnipeg and Pride in other Canadian communities. This insight drove him to establish the Canadian Pride Historical Society, ensuring the preservation of Pride Movement history for future generations. Jonathan is passionate about 2SLGBT+ history and committed to fostering greater awareness and appreciation of the community's rich heritage. His work ensures that these important stories are not lost to time, highlighting the significance of the Pride Movement in Canada's social and cultural landscape.

 

KD Merritt (she/her) is a sociology PHD candidate, textile artist, and cat mom. She received her Masters from Dalhousie University, and is working toward her Doctorate at the University of New Brunswick. When KD has free time she can be found cuddling her cats, working on a new knitting project, or spending time with her friends and family. She is an out and proud butch lesbian whose research focuses on lesbian representation in media.

 

Robin Metcalfe (he/him) is a Canadian writer, curator, and Queer community historian of Acadian and Newfoundland ancestry. He has been a gay activist locally, nationally and internationally since the mid 1970s. Over half a century, Robin has assembled one of the largest archives of 2SLGBTQIA+ cultural and organisational material in Atlantic Canada. In 1979, on his initiative, the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Rights Coalition proclaimed February 14th a Queer holiday, Pink Triangle Day. He is Chair of Sheet Harbour Pride. Robin's writing has been published internationally and translated into six languages. Notable exhibitions include Queer Looking, Queer Acting: Lesbian and Gay Vernacular (MSVU Art Gallery, 1997; remounted 2014) and Camp Fires: The Queer Baroque of Léopold L. Foulem, Paul Mathieu and Richard Milette (Gardiner Museum, 2014; McCord Museum, Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, Bellevue Arts Museum, 2015). He was Director/Curator of Saint Mary's University Art Gallery, 2004 to 2020.

 

Svend Robinson

 

Denyse Rodrigues (she/they) practices librarianship at Mount Saint Vincent University. They are a member of the Community Advisory Committee on 2S/LGBTQ+ Archives and the 2026 National Queer/Trans Plus Community History Conference Planning Committee.

 

Katelyn Roger (she/they) is a joint honours student in English and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of New Brunswick. Born in Hampton, New Brunswick, she is the Group Coordinator for Resolve, an applied game design research group at UNB creating games for change.

 

Cynthia Wallace-Casey (she/her) is the exhibits chair at the Fredericton Region Museum. She holds a PhD in community-based education and currently teaches History Education at the University of Ottawa.

 

Jess Wilton (she/hers) is a doctoral candidate in history at York University. She is currently researching the queer history of Nova Scotia from the 1960s to 1990s through community archival practice and material history. She is also a member of the advisory committee for the NS LGBT Seniors Archive. 

 

Sarah Worthman (they/she) is the founder and executive directors of the NL Queer Research Initiative, a grassroots organization that was established to develop and collect 2SLGBTQIA+ centered research in Newfoundland and Labrador. Additionally, last year, she published a groundbreaking report on the human rights abuses experienced by queer Canadian soldiers in the First World War. They are currently writing a book on the subject, which will be published in 2026. 

 

Tuma Young (he/him) Tuma Young, K.C., is an L’nu (Mi’kmaq) from Malagawatch reserve and his band is Eskasoni First Nation. Tuma was born into the Attu’wej (Squirrel) clan for the Aplikjumuj (Rabbit) clan. Tuma is the spouse of Nicolaas Honig and resides in Sydney River where he teaches Mi’kmaq Studies at Cape Breton University and has a private legal practice focusing on Indigenous Law, Aboriginal Law, Health Law, Estates, Board Governance, Adjudication, Arbitration and workplace investigations.

Tuma’s research interest is in reclaiming and restoring “L’nuwey Tplutaqan: Mi’kmaq Legal Principles; the traditional roles and responsibilities of 2 Spirited people and the Political activism of the L’nu from 1900’s to the present.

Tuma is the first L’nuwisit (fluent Mi’kmaq speaking) lawyer called to the bar in Nova Scotia (2001) and was also the First Indigenous President of a Law Society in Canada when he became the President of the Nova Scotia Barristers Society in 2021. Tuma was given the designation, Kings Counsel in 2020. While this designation is normally an honorific, Tuma has used it to show that KC’s have an additional responsibility to Society to advise on the Treaty Relationship between L’nuk and Canada thus advancing Reconciliation efforts.

Tuma is currently an adjudicator of the Small Claims Court of Nova Scotia and sits in Membertou & Sydney. Tuma is also an adjudicator for the Nova Scotia Human Rights Tribunal and is an Arbitrator appointed under the Labour Board in NS. Tuma just finished a term as the Nova Scotia Board Representative on the National Canadian Bar Association and is a proud member of the Indigenous Bar Association, the Cape Breton Barristers ‘ Society, the Eastern Door Group of L’nu Lawyers, and the NS Barristers’ Society.

Tuma is a board member for the Atlantic First Nations Water Authority, is a founding Chair of the Wabanaki 2 Spirit Alliance Board and sits on the Progress Monitoring Committee of the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission.