The Madwoman in the Academy: 43 Women Boldly Take on the Ivory Tower

BPAA Scholarly Book of the Year, The Madwoman in the Academy crosses genres to present the experiences of women within universities and colleges across Canada, ranging from the playful to the painful, with energy, anger, wit, and humour.

An original and highly subversive critique of the academy by women affiliated with universities and colleges across Canada, The Madwoman in the Academy explores topics familiar to women working in academia around the world: the clash between family and work, the politics of academe, and the rifts between an academic career and political activism.

Contributors offer writings in a wide range of genres, including personal essays, poetry, short stories, dialogues, and other innovative formats, daring to confront their experiences with energy, anger, wit, and humour.

Ranging from the playful to the painful, The Madwoman in the Academy brings you names well known to literary communities alongside new but feisty voices that will forever change readers’ ideas about the relationship between women and the academy.

With Contributions By: Daisy Beharry, Aparita Bhandari, Denise M. Blais, Susan Braley, Jane Cahill, Tiana Chahal, Meira Cook, Nathalie Cooke, Tammy Deway, Mary Ellen Donnan, Keith Louise Fulton, Fiona Joy Greene, Kristjana Gunnars, Vivian Hansen, Monika B. Hilder, Dee Horne, Nisha Karumanchery-Luik, Deborah Keahey, Deolores Keahey, Jennifer Kelly, Donna Langevin, Monika Lee, Jeanette Lynes, Tanis MacDonald, Ranjini Mendis, Mary Monks, Lorri Nielsen Glenn, Ruth Panofsky, Uma Parameswaran, Susan Phillips, Joan Pillipow, Helen Ramirez, Kate Rogers, Sharon Russell, Deborah Schnitzer, Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon, Carolynn Smallwood, Aruna Srivastava, Kay Stone, C. Celeste Suliman, Aritha van Herk, Randi R. Warne, and Jill Watson Graham

Deborah Schnitzer is the author of The Pictorial in Modernist Fiction and a book of poetry, Black Beyond Blue, as well as the co-editor of Uncommon Wealth: An Anthology of Poetry in English. Contributor to another significant collection of women’s writing, Dropped Threads, she teaches English literature at the University of Winnipeg.

Deborah Keahey is the author of Making It Home: Place in Canadian Literature and waking blood: poems. She currently teaches online English courses for the University of Winnipeg.

Introduction: Professional Girth
Deborah Keahey and Deborah Schnitzer

Movement One

The Reign of Ice
Kate Rogers

Email from Meira Cook

Day Cares
Sharon Russell

(M)othering in the Academy
C. Celeste Sulliman

Mother as Prometheus
Monika Lee

This Three-Horned Bronco of a Life
Monika B. Hilder

Cogito ergo mum
Jill Watson Graham

Nine Steps towards a Twelve-Step Program for Recovering Academics
Deborah Keahey

Movement Two

Circling Women
Tammy Dewar

Dancing on the Lines: Mothering, Daughtering, Masking, and Mentoring in the Academy
Jennifer Kelly and Aruna Srivastava

A Valediction: of the Booke
Tanis MacDonald

Teaching for Legitimacy; or, Tea-ching from the Margins
Nisha Karumanchery-Luik and Helen Ramirez

Jugging on a High Wire
Fiona Joy Green

Women in Difficult Spaces
Daisy Beharry

Winter Afternoon at School
Joan Pillipow

"Untitled"
Aparita Bhandari

plain M.A. in blues
Denise M. Blais

Movement Three

Commencement
Ruth Panofsky

An Academic Defence
Ranjini Mendis

Immoderate Musings
Susan Braley

(avoid) kicking scared cows

Denis M. Blais

Slow Advances: The Academy’s Response to Sexual Assault
Mary Ellen Donnan

Portrait
Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon

Terminus
Randi R. Warne

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Tiana Chahal

Spunk
Carolynn Smallwood

New Year’s Resolutions, 1997
Jeanette Lynes

Movement Four

Old Boys
Dee Horne

The Possibility of Professing Changes
Keith Louise Fulton

A Guide to Academic Sainthood
Aritha van Herk

The Stress Tester
Susan Phillips

Avoiding the Fridge
Mary Monks

Mad Dogs
Nathalie Cooke

My Sartorial Ruin
Jeanette Lynes

Higher Education
Lorri Nielsen Glenn

Movement Five

Vigilance
Uma Parameswaran

Cerulean Blues
Vivian Hansen

Climbing the Walls of Academe
Kay Stone

A memoir only sometimes funny
Jane Cahill

Tenure Tracks
Deborah Schnitzer

When She Is Gone
Kristjana Gunnars

vintage vignettes
Delores Keahey

Three White Cranes
Donna Langevin