The Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, in collaboration with Lakehead University’s Gender Equity Centre and the SSH Dean’s Office, present the annual “Feminisms at the Lakehead 2026: Reproductive Justice Deserts – Indigenous & Queer Futures” event.
The in-person event is being held on Thursday, April 9th from 9am – 4pm in the Faculty Lounge Lakehead University on Thunder Bay campus (UC 1029G, directly under the Residence Cafeteria). Virtual attendance is also available!
Registration is required to attend. Please email [email protected] to register or to ask any questions.
Doors open at 8:30am for coffee, tea, and muffins; presentations will take place between 9am and 4pm. Vegetarian and non-vegetarian food options will be available.
The focus of this year’s event is Reproductive Justice Deserts – Indigenous & Queer Futures and features four keynote speakers:
- Visiting Keynote Speaker: Dr. Bailery Gerrits (she/her) | a feminist political scientist whose work explores how feminist activism, media, and state power intersect to shape Canada’s responses to gender-based violence. She holds the inaugural Mila Mulroney Research Chair at St. Francis Xavier University, has led national and international projects on anti-violence policy and governance, has published widely on gender-based violence, policing, and media, and draws on years of community based anti-violence work.
- Regional Keynote Speaker: Christy Tashjian (they, them) | provides all sexual health care and strives to provide queer affirming, trauma-informed, preventive and educational sexual health care at Thunder Bay Naturopathic Clinic. Christy leans into her background as a home-birth midwife and works using a collaborative, informed choice model of care, often calling herself a midwife with an Nurse Practitioner license, midwifing people through varied health issues.
- Regional Keynote Speaker: Jenni Huntly (they/them) | MSc., is a registered midwife with NorWest Community Health Centres. Jenni has worked as a midwife in Quebec and Texas as well as in Ontario and Haiti. Their particular research interests are in perinatal substance abuse and program evaluation in midwifery models of care.
- Local Keynote Speaker: Bobby Hudon (we/our) | is a proud Queer person born and raised in Manitoba. Through educational presentations, drag performances, and a safe online space, they help build community and support queer individuals. With 18+ years of lived experience in 2SGBTQIAP+ communities, Bobby has dedicated their adult life to creating safer spaces in Treaty 1 and now in Fort Frances, Ontario, in Treaty 3 as a Helper.
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