Jennifer Jolie

My name is Jennifer Jolie and I am a third-year student in the SOPR program. When I decided to pursue a PhD in SOPR, my partner and I relocated to Guelph from the traditional territory of Bawaating [Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario]! I am a white settler cisgender straight fat woman with a physical disability who lives with chronic illness and pain. I am often caught in the complex ways in which my fat body is restrained by the ableist arrangements of the world due to impairments resulting from physical illness. This is something newer to me that I am consistently negotiating and renegotiating as I age and move through the world.

I come from a working/middle class family and am also the first of my immediate family to go to university, and the only one in my extended family to pursue graduate level education. Previous to entering the program I worked in a front-line harm reduction role with folks in my community/region. Working in the North meant that there are huge regions to cover with very few resources. I certainly learned to be creative! I also learned a lot about the realities of working within the constraints of funding and policy. During these 12+ years my professional work was to create educational spaces for community members and agency workers to learn about community care such as safer substance use and overdose response, education about how to discuss and support inclusive safer sex practices, information about Hep C and HIV testing and prevention, crisis intervention support and much more.

I have a Master’s degree in Education, and finished it through distance education at Lakehead University while working full-time. My thesis explored issues related to fat studies and social justice by examining the ways in which the body positivity movement on social media causes harm to fat women. Moving from full-time community work to pursue academia full-time represents a completely new path for me! I chose the SOPR program because I feel like it allows me to enter into academia with the work and life/lived experience I carry, and that it all has value. I wanted to do my PhD in an interdisciplinary program because I want my work to think through possibly divergent theoretical frameworks and innovative methodological commitments to find ways to reveal how the unique experiences of fat women might inform social justice. I am interested in fat studies and feminist critical theory.

Outside of academia, I am enjoying reconnecting with my self and my interests while exploring Guelph and the surrounding areas! It is such a beautiful region with lots of fun new things to do. I love to be creative and enjoy sewing, crochet, embroidery and going thrifting for materials to upcycle into new creations. Fun facts: I am a lefty. I like doing puzzles, swimming, drinking coffee and collecting stickers. My furry companion Francis and I have been hitting the streets of Guelph to explore, so if you see us be sure to say hello!