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.