Jennifer Reid was born to Irene (née Michaud) and William David Cooper Reid,[1][2] the latter of whom was a leader within the Cape Breton Island construction industry and a friend of jazz musicians Maynard Ferguson and Oscar Peterson.[3] and raised in Arnprior, a suburb within the Ottawa–Gatineau region.[4] Both of them were of differing religious backgrounds: William was an English-speaking Protestant and Irene a French-speaking Catholic.[5] She obtained her BA in Theology (1990) at University College of Cape Breton (UCCB), where she later worked as a religion lecturer (1993-1995).[6]
After spending a year as a graduate student in religion at Syracuse University (1990-1991), Reid obtained her MA (1992) and PhD (1994), both in religion, at the University of Ottawa;[6] her doctoral dissertation No Man's Land: British and Mi'kmaq in 18th and 19th Century Acadia was supervised by Robert Choquette.[1] In 1995, she moved to the University of Maine at Farmington as Assistant Professor of Religion; she was then promoted to Associate Professor in 2001 and Professor in 2006, remaining in that position until 2017.[6]
Reid became interested in First Nations culture after befriend several Mi'kmaq students during her time at UCCB.[5] Since then, she has written on the history of First Nations religion, particularly the Mi'kmaq, as well as Louis Riel.[6] She is the author of Myth, Symbol, and Colonial Encounter (1995), Worse Than Beasts (2005), Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada (2008), Religion, Writing, and Colonial Resistance (2011), Finding Kluskap (2013), and Religion, Postcolonialism, and Globalization (2014), as well as the editor of Religion, and Global Culture (2003).[6] She was also the guest editor of a 2003 special issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Religion and the Imagination of Matter.[6] She has also written op-eds for the Ottawa Citizen: one in 2008 on Louis Riel's complex identity and folk hero legacy;[7] and another in 2009 criticizing Canada's rationale for not signing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples due to racial inequality concerning First Nations people.[8]
In 2015, Reid was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Religion.[9] As part of the Fellowship, it was announced that she would to travel around North America and Australia to do social engagement with activists and Indigenous lawyers concerning land rights.[10][11] She wrote the forward of Ellipsis..., a 2018 edited volume consisting of several writings of religious studies scholar Charles H. Long.[12]
In addition to Canadian citizenship, Reid holds American citizenship.[6]
