Samantha Brennan (“Sam” to friends, family, and readers of her fitness and feminism blog) is a fifty-something feminist, philosopher, adult-onset athlete, and co-author of Fit at Mid-Life: A Feminist Fitness Journey (coming April 2018). She describes herself as a reasonably well-disguised introvert, an adrenaline junkie, a bike geek, energetic, organized, and argumentative. She is a proud parent of a busy, active family.
Samantha joined the University of Guelph as Dean of the College of Arts, January 2018. Prior to that she was a professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Women's Studies and Feminist Research at Western University. Her academic interests include a wide range of subjects in contemporary theoretical and applied ethics, including children's rights, parental obligations, and family justice, feminist ethics, the moral and political value of equality, gender identity and sexuality, fashion, and sports ethics.
Samantha is President of the Canadian Philosophical Association, a co-founder and co-editor of Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, a peer reviewed, online, open access journal, and was a founding member of the Women in Philosophy task force. As a bisexual athlete, Samantha is interested in issues around LGBT inclusion in fitness and in sport.
She also has a long-standing commitment to public engagement and maintains an active presence on social media across a wide range of platforms. She co-founded the Fit is a Feminist Issue blog, which connects thousands of readers with feminist ideas about fitness. She is frequently interviewed in various media and has participated in several episodes of the CBC radio series, Ideas.
Samantha grew up on the east coast of Canada. She was a bookworm taught by nuns; the most physically challenging part of her youth was jump rope. As a teenager, she didn’t exercise at all but instead lost weight through smoking, drinking black coffee, and not eating very much. Samantha no longer endorses her teenage method of weight control which left her winded after a flight of stairs. Now, as larger-than-average-sized woman, she focusses on physical strength and on moving fast on two wheels.
As with her academic interests, Samantha participates in a wide range of sports. When she’s not riding bikes, she can be found lifting heavy things around in the gym. She’s also been known to run, compete in duathlons and adventure races, play soccer, row, ride track bikes in a velodrome, cross country ski, ice skate, take boxing classes, and practice Aikido. Her favourite places to be are in her canoe in Algonquin Park, or on a hike in the woods with her dog Cheddar.
