Linda M. Morra

Linda M. Morra is a scholar of women’s archives, affect theory, and women’s writing in Canada and holds a PhD from the University of Ottawa in Canadian literature and Canadian studies. She serves as a professor of English at Bishop's University, and was a John A. Sproul Research Fellow at Berkeley University where she joined the Canadian studies program for the spring 2016 semester. In 2022 she was awarded the Jack & Nancy Farley Distinguished Visiting Scholar position at Simon Fraser University. In 2008, while researching author Jane Rule after her death, Morra discovered Rule's unpublished autobiography, Taking My Life. She went on to edit and annotate the work, which was published in 2011.

Life

Morra holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa in Canadian literature and Canadian studies.[1] She currently lives in Montreal, Quebec.[2]

She is the host of the literary podcast, Getting Lit with Linda which explores literature from Canada.[3][4]

Career

Morra is currently a professor of English at Bishop's University.[5][6] She specializes in the topics of women’s archives, affect theory, and women’s writing in Canada.[3] She has served as the Craig Dobbin Chair of Canadian Studies at University College, Dublin.[1][3] She was a John A. Sproul Research Fellow at Berkeley University where she joined the Canadian studies program for the spring 2016 semester, where she focused on research about Jane Rule and her work.[5] In 2022, she became the Jack and Nancy Farley Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Simon Fraser University, where she continues to research about Rule and explores Rule's influence on "the development of a West Coast Queer Community."[3]

Notable works

In 2008, while researching author Jane Rule after her death, Morra discovered Rule's unpublished autobiography, Taking My Life. She went on to edit and annotate the work, which was published in 2011. M.A.C. Farrant writes in her review that Morra's introduction is "enlightening," and Katherine V. Forrest calls the book "fastidiously edited and annotated."[7][8][9]

Morra and Jessica Schagerl edited the 2012 book Basements and Attics, Closets and Cyberspace: Explorations in Canadian Women's Archives. The work examines the processes of archivization and the ethical concerns around the archival research in relation to women's writing through "contemporary conversations" with scholars, archivists and artists. Lisa Sloniowski summarizes in Resources for Feminist Research, "Morra and Schagerl have created an impressive and admirable collection, which helps us identify feminist concerns in relation to contemporary women's archives, archives that have historically been dismissed and hard to find."[10]

Her book Unarrested Archives: Case Studies in Twentieth-Century Canadian Women’s Authorship, published in 2014, was shortlisted for the Gabrielle Roy Prize in 2015.[11] It explores the literary and personal archives of five Canadian women authors and through thorough case studies documents how they were "regulated and contained" throughout their lives. Jennifer Toews, writng in The Journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists notes that "Overall, Morra’s presentation of these five unique archives provides a thought‑provoking and broad history of the experience of Canadian women writers, their struggles to survive and overcome adversity and oppression of various kinds, and their participation in the creation and preservation of their lasting legacies through their archives."[12] Shawn Brackett, in History of Intellectual Culture, writes "she does an excellent job of problematizing gender, race, and class, and weaves nuanced understandings throughout."[13]

A 2018 release, Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland: Letters, co-edited by Morra and Laura K. Davis, is an annotated volume of letters between author Margaret Laurence and publisher Jack McClelland. George Fetherling, in Quill and Quire, criticizes both the length of the book and the annotations, which he observes are "plentiful but peppered with errors."[14] Jeffer Aaron Weingarten agrees that the volume could have been pared down, but offers, "the volume, overall, is a vital contribution to Canadian letters and a touching tribute to two titans who guided the development of Canadian literature after 1960."[15]

Honors and awards
  • 2016 John A. Sproul Fellowship[5]
  • The Gabrielle Roy Prize in English in 2020 for Moving Archives[16]
  • The Canadian Studies Network Prize for Best Edited Collection in 2021 for On the Other Side(s) of 150[17]
  • 2021-2022 Jack & Nancy Farley Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Simon Fraser University[1]

References
  1. "The Jack & Nancy Farley Distinguished Visiting Scholar in History - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences - Simon Fraser University". www.sfu.ca. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  2. "About Linda Morra". Linda M. Morra, Ph.D. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  3. Lyons, Christine. "FASS welcomes Dr. Linda Morra 2021-22 Jack and Nancy Farley Scholar". www.sfu.ca. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  4. Ghosal, Arpita (27 September 2021). "Delightful Getting Lit with Linda podcast connects Canadian literature to the here and now". SesayArts Magazine.
  5. "Linda Morra". canada.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  6. "BU directory". Bishop's University. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  7. "'Taking My Life' by Jane Rule". Lambda Literary. 26 September 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  8. "Taking My Life". Quill and Quire. 2 August 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  9. Farrant, M. a c (19 August 2011). "Taking My Life, by Jane Rule". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  10. Sloniowski, Lisa (2016). "Book Reviews - Basements and Attics, Closets and Cyberspace: Explorations in Canadian Women's Archives". Resources for Feminist Research. 34 (3 & 4): 154. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  11. Beverley, Andrea (December 2015). "Linda M. Morra. Unarrested Archives: Case Studies in Twentieth-Century Canadian Women's Authorship". English Studies in Canada. 41 (4): 140–142. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  12. Toews, Jennifer (2 December 2016). "LINDA M. MORRA, Unarrested Archives: Case Studies in Twentieth-Century Canadian Women's Authorship". Archivaria: 179–181. ISSN 1923-6409. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  13. Brackett, Shawn (2016). "Linda M. Morra, Unarrested Archives: Case Studies in Twentieth-Century Canadian Women's Authorship. Reviewed by Shawn Brackett". History of Intellectual Culture. 11 (1). ISSN 1492-7810.
  14. "Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland: Letters". Quill and Quire. 7 May 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  15. Weingarten, Jeffery Aaron. "Remembering Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland". Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  16. "Gabrielle-Roy Prize Recipients | L'Association des littératures canadienne et québécoise". Retrieved 2022-03-21.
  17. "The Canadian Studies Network is pleased to announce the winner of the 2021 prize for the Best Edited Collection in Canadian Studies". csn-rec.ca. Retrieved 29 March 2022.

Further reading

Monographs
  • Morra, Linda M. (2014). Unarrested Archives: Case Studies in Twentieth-Century Canadian Women’s Authorship. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-2642-3.

Edited works
  • Morra, Linda M.; Henzi, Sarah, eds. (2021). On the Other Side(s) of 150. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 9781771125130.
  • Morra, Linda M. (2020). Moving Archives. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 9781771124027.
  • Davis, Laura K.; Morra, Linda M. (2018). Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland, Letters. University of Alberta Press. ISBN 978-1-77212-335-7.
  • Reder, Deanna; Morra, Linda M. (2016). Learn, Teach, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 9781771121859.
  • Dever, Maryanne; Morra, Linda M. (November 2014). "Literary archives, materiality and the digital". Archives and Manuscripts. 42 (3): 223–226. doi:10.1080/01576895.2014.966731 – via Routledge.
  • Morra, Linda M.; Schagerl, Jessica (2012). Basements and Attics, Closets and Cyberspace Explorations in Canadian Women’s Archives. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 9781554586325.
  • Rule, Jane (2011). Morra, Linda M. (ed.). Taking My Life. TalonBooks. ISBN 9780889226739.
  • Reder, Deanna; Morra, Linda M. (2010). Troubling Tricksters. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 9781554581818.
  • Morra, Linda M., ed. (2008). Corresponding Influence: Selected Letters of Emily Carr and Ira Dilworth. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802038777.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.