People

Isobel Grundy

Isobel Grundy, English
2000 University Cup
Henry Marshall Tory Teaching Chair

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and Film Studies, Dr Isobel Grundy is the 2000 recipient of the University Cup, the University of Alberta's highest faculty honour recognizing excellence in research, teaching, and community service.

Grundy received her degrees from Oxford University; worked for six years in Finland, London, and New York; and from 1971, taught at Queen Mary College (now Queen Mary and Westfield College), and London University. She then moved to Edmonton from Britain in 1990 after being offered a prestigious Henry Marshall Tory professorship.

Grundy says that over the years, she has drawn inspiration for her work through her love of teaching, the pursuit of knowledge, working closely with colleagues and friends, and the social aspect of the community of 18th-century studies. Her areas of research interest are women writers in English from the Medieval period through the long 18th century. According to one of Grundy's colleagues, Dr Juliet McMaster, "Isobel has an enviable grasp on a rich and complex period [the 18th century] … and her ability to call on vivid details of the period enlivens her teaching." Among her individual heroes, Grundy emphasizes two accomplished writers in particular: Samuel Johnson and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

With Patricia Clements and Susan Brown, Grundy established the groundbreaking Orlando Project, the first full, collaborative scholarly history of women's writing in the British Isles, and produced Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present, published online by Cambridge University Press. In addition, she has authored an extensive biography entitled Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Comet of the Enlightenment (Oxford University Press 1999), and was co-author/editor of The Feminist Companion to Literature in English.

Copyright © University of Alberta | Heritage Community Foundation | Albertasource.ca
All Rights Reserved