"Not Drowning but Waving...gestures both at the difficulties faced by feminists in the humanities in Canada and at the possibilities of hope, of new 'waves' of feminism."

Twenty-two essays explore topics such as feminism in the liberal arts disciplines; the relationship of the liberal arts to the larger university; the costs and rewards for women in administration; the corporatization of university campuses; intergenerational and transcultural tensions within feminist communities; balancing personal life with professional aspirations; the relationship of feminism to cultural studies; women, social justice, and the liberal arts. Not Drowning But Waving is a welcome progress report on the variety of feminisms at work in academe and beyond. It provides crucial insights for university administrators, faculty, and literate non-specialists interested in the Arts and Humanities.

Susan Brown is a visiting Professor in English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, and Professor in English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. She leads the Orlando Project and the Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory.

Susan Brown's profile page

Jeanne Perreault is professor of English at the University of Calgary. She is coeditor (with Sylvia Vance) of Writing the Circle: Native Women of Western Canada (1990), and coeditor (with Joseph Bruchac) of Critical Visions: Contemporary North American Native Writing, a special issue of Ariel (1994). She is the author of Writing Selves: Contemporary Feminist Autography (1995). Other publications include “Memory Alive: An Inquiry into the Uses of Memory in Marilyn Dumont, Jeannette Armstrong, Louise Halfe, and Joy Harjo” (Native North America: Critical and Cultural Perspectives, ed. Renée Hulan, ECW Press, 1999), and “Writing Whiteness: Linda Griffith’s Raced Subjectivity in The Book of Jessica” (Essays on Canadian Writing, 1996). Currently, she is examining the racializing of whiteness in white women’s texts.

Jeanne Perreault's profile page

Jo-Ann Wallace was an Emeritus Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. In her younger years, her poetry appeared in several now defunct periodicals, including The Canadian Forum. Her scholarly work focused on little known progressive movements and women writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. More recently, her literary nonfiction appeared in venues like the London Review of Books, the Literary Review of Canada, and Prairie Schooner. At the time of her death in June 2024, she was living in Victoria with her husband Stephen Slemon and their rambunctious dog Bodhi.

Jo-Ann Wallace's profile page

Heather Zwicker is associate professor of English at the University of Alberta. She locates her work at the crossroads of postcolonialism and cultural studies, with a particular focus on queer theory and feminisms. Her teaching interests include postcolonial theory and fiction, queer theory, feminist studies, and contemporary African, Canadian, and Northern Irish literature. Some of her recent publications include “Between Mater and Matter: Radical Novels by Republican Women” (Reclaiming Gender: Transgressive Identities in Modern Ireland. ed. Marilyn Cohen and Nancy Curtin, St. Martin’s Press, 1999), “Homosexuality in Zimbabwe” (Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. ed. George Haggerty, Garland Publishing, forthcoming), and “Gendered Troubles: Refiguring ‘Woman’ in Northern Ireland” (Genders, 1994).

Heather Zwicker's profile page

"However difficult the swim sometimes seems, feminists in the liberal arts aren't drowning, as long as Canadian institutions continue to employ a range of thoughtful voices such as these, who remind us of the temperature of the water and the hazards therein."

Canadian Literature