Historical Identities: The Professoriate in Canada

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Among the histories of Canadian universities, this is the first to
address the professoriate—that is, university professors considered as
a group. The book’s 14 articles are organized into five separate
sections: “The International Professoriate”; “The Professoriate
and the State”; “Institutional Development, Society, and the
Professoriate”; “Gendered Voices in the Professoriate”; and
“Subjectivity, Identity, and the Making of the Professoriate.”
Universities specifically referenced include Acadia, Bishops, Memorial,
the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Toronto. The book
concludes with a splendid 31-page bibliography of texts and articles
published since 1985 that are related to the history of the
professoriate in Canada.

Both editors contribute interesting articles on the professoriate at
the University of Toronto. Despite their objective, the editors have not
always restricted their articles to the professoriate as a category of
analysis. This is especially apparent in the articles involving the
appointment of a professor of didactics at Acadia College; the career of
Irene Poelzer, a professor of education at the University of
Saskatchewan; and most egregiously, the same-sex relationship of Dr.
Frieda Fraser, a scientist at the U of T. In all three papers, it is a
bit of a stretch generalizing from the particular instances to the
professoriate as a whole.

That caveat aside, these well-researched and well-written articles
throw new and interesting light on some dark corners of university
history.