Carleton University’s Department of History will host the Shannon Lecture Feminism and the Supreme Court: How the First Two Women Appointed to Our Top Court Widened Judicial Debates, presented by Prof. Constance Backhouse.
When: Friday, Nov. 8, 2019 at 1 p.m.
Where: Room 252, MacOdrum Library, Carleton
Info: This event is free and open to the public. A campus map is available online.
Media are invited to attend the event.
In this lecture, Backhouse will discuss Bertha Wilson and Claire L’Heureux-Dubé – the first two women appointed to Canada’s top court and the subjects of her recently published work Two Firsts.
Though the two women differed in backgrounds and personalities, they faced nearly identical roadblocks throughout law school and legal practice. As women judges, they were frequently mocked and repudiated. They met this career sexism with courage and fierce tenacity, and are considered icons in Canadian women’s history.
Backhouse will address challenging questions about their perspectives on feminism and race in an effort to reconsider what full “diversity and inclusion” might encompass.
About Constance Backhouse
Backhouse is a professor of Law at the University of Ottawa. Her teaching and research are centered on legal history, criminal law, human rights, feminism and critical race theory. Backhouse’s writing focuses on historical efforts to dismantle discrimination on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, disability and sexual identity.
About the Shannon Lecture Series
The theme for the 2019 Shannon Lecture series is “rebooting biography.” Historical biographies have always been a popular avenue into the past, but with the facts about the famous and not so famous available at the tap of a keyboard, today’s historians and biographers are reshaping the genre. The conventional chronology of a life is giving way to group biographies, micro-histories and previously unheard voices. Increasingly, authors are embracing the freedom offered by digital publishing.
Lecturers will discuss the subjects of their recent biographies and the choices they made in presenting their material.
Media Contact
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Tuesday, November 5, 2019 in Media Advisories
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