McGuire Mollie
Mollie McGuire
PhD Students
Department of Sociology
Area(s) of Interest:
Biography
Mollie is a settler Canadian sociologist currently living and working on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabek. Originally from Rothesay, New Brunswick, Mollie has spent most of her years on the unceded occupied territories of the Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik. She studies Indigenous-settler relations, Indigenous social movements, Indigenous education, and is currently working toward her PhD with Jeff Denis as her supervisor.
Conference Presentations
August 2018. "Unsettling Pathways: How some settlers embrace reconciliation with Indigenous peoples." Paper presented by Dr. Jeff Denis at the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA.
May 2017. "Unsettling Pathways: How some settlers embrace reconciliation with Indigenous peoples." Paper presented with Dr. Jeff Denis at the Canadian Sociological Association, Toronto, ON.
February 2017. “Homeless on Their Own Land: Understanding the Indigenous university experience in the settler colonial context.” Canadian Sociological Association Education Research Cluster Conference, Hamilton, ON.
June 2016. “Homeless on Their Own Land: Understanding the Indigenous university experience in the settler colonial context.” Canadian Sociological Association, Calgary, AB.
January 2015. “Understanding the Indigenous University Experience: An exploration of successes and challenges.” Atlantic Institute for International Studies Conference Sackville, NB.
Selected Grants and Awards
Joseph Armand-Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral Award, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (09/2017-08/2020)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (09/2016-08/2017)
Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's Scholarship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (09/2015-08/2016)
Karen R. Grant Community Engagement Award (2015)
Renaissance Sackville's Citizen of the Year (2014)
Ellis Summer Research Award - Mount Allison University (2014)
Education
PhD, Sociology, McMaster University - In Progress
MA, Sociology, McMaster University (2016)
BA Hons., Sociology, Minor in English Literature, Mount Allison University (2015)
Comprehensive exams:
Race and Ethnicity (Distinction)
Political Sociology and Social Movements
Teaching
Teaching Assistantships
Social Inequality, McMaster University Department of Sociology (2018)
Introduction to Indigenous Studies, McMaster University Indigenous Studies Program (2017)
Sociology of Gender, McMaster University Department of Sociology (2016-2017)
Qualitative Research Methods, McMaster University Department of Sociology (2016)
Introduction to Sociology, McMaster University Department of Sociology (2015-2016)
Social Class and Inequality, Mount Allison University Department of Sociology (2013-2015)
Sociology of Gender, Mount Allison University Department of Sociology (2014)
Sociology of Youth, Mount Allison University Department of Sociology (2013)
Other Positions
Academic Mentor – Mount Allison University Athletics (2013–2014)
Teaching Intern – Writing Resource Centre, Mount Allison University (2013–2014)
Teaching Intern – Purdy Crawford Centre for Teaching and Learning, Mount Allison University (2012–2013)
Research
Mollie's masters research investigated the pathways taken by some settler Canadians toward embracing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, particularly in the context of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that came to an end in 2015. Her doctoral research moves beyond past approaches to understanding Indigenous-settler relations by focusing on the amenability of university settings to facilitating meaningful intergroup contact and settler “allyship” through both academic and extracurricular Indigenous programming. Guided by a participatory action research methodology, the project will address Indigenous university students and faculty as experts on settler “allyship”: their definitions of the concept will be used to determine if settler university students with ties to Indigenous student resource networks are meeting the necessary criteria. In the same vein, the project will determine how these settler students’ understandings of “allyship” are shaped by the disparate levels of Indigenous programming to which they have been exposed throughout their time at university.
Mollie currently holds a research assistantship with Dr. Vanessa Watts, whose project is entitled: "An Indigenist Sociology of Knowledge: Indigenous social lives in Indigenous studies, sociology, and political science (1895 and beyond)."