I am honoured to be here today offering tribute to Jan Noel’s many contributions to academia, the University of Toronto, and specifically to our department. But this is not without some personal cost – this event has finally punctured my bubble of denial that she really is retiring!
Jan’s prize winning historical work centres on early Canada and comparative colonial and gender history. She is author of some thirty-five refereed articles, chapters and books, including the much-reprinted “New France: Les Femmes Favorisees.” Her most recent book is Along a River: The First French Canadian Women and she received the New York History Society’s 2014 Kerr prize for her work on Indigenous women in the fur trade. Her earlier work, Canada Dry: Temperance Crusades before Confederation, received the Canadian Historical Association’s Macdonald Prize and beyond the rich material content, it could have been named the best manuscript title ever. Canada Dry!
She has conveyed her command of historical methods and love of history to her many students and her reputation as a teacher ensures that her courses are always oversubscribed. While her research and teaching has enriched the field of history, Jan has also been the consummate campus citizen. Her abundant service record is complete with search committees, advisory boards, program coordination, and much more.
Past and present colleagues attest to her generosity and support and many of them are here today. She has a unique ability to solve strategic problems and navigate the labyrinth of university bureaucracy. She initiated the department writing program, many of its curricular policies, History’s internship course (for which she received an award from Heritage Mississauga) and so much more. But I must say her facility with math demonstrated on PTR committees, and her dexterity with decimal points and percentages involved with PTR, make me a bit suspicious that she might be a crypto-political scientist!
In particular, I need to thank her for her foundational work in establishing and coordinating the Women and Gender Studies program. She strategically set up its structures, policies, and practices. As an active WGS board member we have continued to benefit from her sage advise. Her mentorship to me was, and continues to be, a touchstone for how to enact feminist values in not always supportive environments. I am enormously grateful to her.
One significant attribute that Jan employs is her facility with language. So many of us have marveled at her expertise in expressing a dissenting opinion in the most eloquent way possible, without acrimony, BUT without diminishing her point of view. Quite a skill!
For all of her attributes, and for the fact it is just plain fun and interesting to be with her, Jan will be sorely missed. We know her legacy will go on; Professor Jan Noel walks the talk. We wish her all the very best as she embarks on her new path.