Janna Martin

Janna Martin (she/her) is a white settler of Swiss-Mennonite ancestry. She lives in Guelph, Ontario and she grew up in the Waterloo Region, close to where her ancestors first settled on Block 2 of the Haldimand Tract (land promised to the Six Nations and ancestral land of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation). Her ancestor’s settlement (Mennonites from Pennsylvania) in the early 19th century contributed to the erasure and dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their land and way of life. Her PhD aims to braid Indigenous and Mennonite histories in the Waterloo Region to develop a new public history methodological approach for settler decolonization. She is working alongside Mennonite history and heritage organizations to support their unsettling learning journey of truth-telling towards reconciliation. Additionally, she is working with her PhD advisor, Dr. Kim Anderson (a Metis historian) and the Decolonizing Place Narratives team to co-curate an Indigenous story of Guelph (read more).

In addition to being a PhD candidate, she is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Community Based Research. Janna conducts research and evaluation on a variety of topics across different sectors utilizing qualitative and mixed methods. Her passion is working alongside organizations to advance equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization. Beyond research reports and academic articles, Janna has led knowledge mobilization outputs such as community forums, photovoice, podcasts, infographics, website design, and the development of a scene in a community play.

Janna’s lifelong interest is in the connection between collective narrative, identity, and social change. In this regard, Janna has led projects on topics such as polarization on the university campus, urban heritage of equity-deserving communities, and the co-curation of a story of Indigenous presence in Guelph. Janna’s academic background is in Sociology (BA), Peace and Conflict Studies (MPACS), and Social Practice and Transformational Change (PhD). She has published articles in Settler Colonial Studies, the Engaged Scholar Journal, and the Journal of Mennonites Studies.