Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1967-2017 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
2.61 m of textual records (21 boxes)
615 digital files (86 MB)
6 photographs
2 audio cassette tapes
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Professor Maureen FitzGerald is an educator, writer, and oral historian who taught from 1977-2009 in the Transitional Year Programme at the University of Toronto, and who helped found the Sexual Diversity Studies Program, serving as its second Director, from 2000-2006.
Born in Toronto, she received her BA from the University of Toronto in 1964 and from Northwestern University a PhD (Anthropology) in 1977 with a thesis titled “The Structure and Content of Friendship: An Analysis of Friendships of Urban Cameroonians”.
She began teaching anthropology at the U of T in 1972 and joined the Transitional Year Program (TYP) as a Senior Lecturer in 1977. In addition to her role in the TYP, as an alumna of the University of Toronto she helped form, activate and maintain the Rainbow Triangle Alumni Association from 1995–2000.
From 1985-1990, she worked part-time as the Managing Editor of the Women’s Press. In addition, she was a member of the Lesbians Making History Collective, a small organization of women, based in Toronto, who collected in the mid-1980s the oral histories of older lesbian women about their experiences as ‘out’ lesbians in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
More recent activities include co-curating with Don McLeod and Scott Rayter the exhibit Queer CanLit at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library (2008), co-editing with Scott Rayter Queerly Canadian: An Introductory Reader in Sexuality Studies (Canadian Scholars Press, 2012) and co-editing the book Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer (Coach House Books, 2017) with Stephanie Chambers, Jane Farrow, Ed Jackson, John Lorinc, Tim McCaskell, Rebecka Sheffield, Tatum Taylor, and Rahim Thawer.
FitzGerald lives in Toronto with her partner Amy Gottlieb.
The ways in which the creators of archival records identify themselves and are identified by others is a key contextual aspect of understanding their perspectives and approach. Maureen FitzGerald is socially understood as a white lesbian woman. This information is based on an assessment of the archival records made by the processing archivist.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Fonds consists of records documenting the professional life of Professor Maureen FitzGerald as an anthropologist, educator, writer, and oral historian.
Series 1 documents her doctoral research and her thesis "The Content and Structure of Friendship: An Analysis of the Friendship of Urban Cameroonians" (Northwestern University, 1977). Series 2 documents her teaching and administrative activities at the University of Toronto as an instructor in the Department of Anthropology and Innis College’s Community Living Programme; as Senior Lecturer in the Transitional Year Programme (1977-2009); and as Director of the Sexual Diversity Studies Program (2000-2006). Her role within the Management Committee for Aboriginal Programs and Services (MCAPS), 1990-1994; the University of Toronto Committee on Homophobia, 1989-1992; and the Rainbow Triangle Alumni Association, 1995-2000 are also documented in this series. Series 3 documents her academic research and writing. Series 4 and 5 document a number of FitzGerald’s non-academic activities in publishing and as an oral historian and writer documenting the queer community in Toronto. Series 6 includes emails from her role as Director of the Sexual Diversity Studies Programme and her co-curation of the exhibit Queer CanLit at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in 2008.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
All records are open, with the exception of the following:
Series 1:
- B2021-0006/001(08)-(10)
Series 2:
- B2021-0006/004(02), (27)
- B2021-0006/006(02), (12)
- B2021-0006/007(04)
- B2021-0006/008(09)
- B2021-0006/010(09), (20), (21)
- B2021-0006/011(09)-(10)
- B2021-0006/012
- B2023-0022_df005
Series 3:
- B2021-0006/015
Series 4:
- B2021-0006/017(06)-(10)
- B2021-0006/002S
- B2023-0022_df008
Series 5:
- B2021-0006/012(10)-(11)
These files have been restricted to protect the privacy of third parties. See series description for further details. Please contact the University Archivist for additional information.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
- Lesbians Making History Collective fonds – The ArQuives
- The Women’s Press fonds – Archives and Special Collections, University of Ottawa
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Accession
Accession
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Description control area
Description identifier
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Rules and/or conventions used
Dates of creation revision deletion
- Finding aid by E. Sommers, June 2024