Barbara Thompson Godard (1941-2010) was Professor of English, French, Social and Political Thought, and Women’s Studies at York University, where she also held the Avi Bennett Historica Chair in Canadian Literature.
With a B.A. from the University of Toronto and an M.A. from l’Université de Montréal, Dr. Godard completed her doctorate at l’Université de Bordeaux and began teaching at York in 1971 as a visiting assistant professor. She was hired into a tenure-track position in 1976. A prolific and collaborative scholar, she published eight books, 80 book chapters and 115 articles and catalogue entries. She translated the major writers of Québec feminism, including Nicole Brossard, Yolande Villemaire and Louky Bersianik. She also served as editor or on the editorial board of 22 journals. She was a founding co-editor of the feminist literary periodical Tessera, a contributing editor of Open Letter and The Semiotic Review of Books and the book review editor for Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies . She also made longstanding contributions to Resources for Feminist Research , Voix et Images , and ECW, among others.