LONG
Constance Backhouse is a legal historian whose books on gender and race have been path-breaking in their originality and significance. Her research was the first in Canada to examine the full sweep of the nineteenth-century legislation and judicial decisions as they affected women and racial minority groups across the country. Reviewers of her work have found it to exemplify an importance of language and voice in story-telling; to be groundbreaking, impressive in depth and breadth, respectful of a multiplicity of perspectives, and to have contributed to a fundamental shift in the research and writing of Canadian legal history.

SHORT
Legal historian Constance Backhouse’s books on gender and race are ground-breaking in their significance. She is the first scholar in Canada to examine nineteenth-century legislation and judicial decisions as they affected women and racial minority groups. Her work demonstrates the importance of language and voice in story-telling and has contributed to a fundamental shift in the research and writing of Canadian legal history.