Professor Emerita Barbara Godard, the Avie Bennett Historica Chair in Canadian Literature at the time of her death just over a year ago, was one of Canada’s pre-eminent literary scholars who taught in the departments of English, French, social & political thought and women’s studies, and whose influence was felt far and wide. In commemoration of her scholarly life and teachings, the current issue of Open Letter: A Canadian Journal of Writing and Theory has been dedicated to her.
This special issue, Remembering Barbara Godard, is edited by four of her former colleagues and students – York women’s studies Professor Eva C. Karpinski, professors Ray Ellenwood and Ian Sowton of the Department of English, and York alumna Jennifer Henderson, now a professor at Carleton University.
A pillar of the York community, Prof. Godard broadly influenced the fields of Canadian and Quebec studies, translation studies, feminist poetics, semiotics and cultural studies. She was also 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 died on May 16, 2010, at Toronto Western Hospital (see YFile, May 19, 2010).
For more information, visit the Open Letter website.
Republished courtesy of YFile– York University’s daily e-bulletin.