UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN
USask's Dr. Valerie J. Korinek earns national Ursula Franklin Award in Gender Studies

Entering her 30th year as a researcher and professor at the University of Saskatchewan (USask), Korinek plans to do just that. 

Dr. Valerie Korinek (PhD), a professor in the Department of History in USask's College of Arts and Science, is this year's recipient of the Ursula Franklin Award in Gender Studies. (Photo: Submitted)

"I feel re-energized," she said. "It's made me realize that I've got more to accomplish and I want to accomplish. History is very active and engaged and it helps people understand contemporary situations." 

The RSC Ursula Franklin Award in Gender Studies is awarded biennially in recognition of the significant contributions by a Canadian scholar in gender-focused areas of the humanities and social sciences.  

Korinek, a professor in the Department of History in USask's College of Arts and Science, has spent decades exploring research on feminism in the media and gay and lesbian communities, activism. Currently, she is working on histories of same-sex marriage in Canada and their transnational implications.   

Her work has become integral to understanding the history and evolution of feminism and same-sex activism in Canada. Korinek's book Roughing It in the Suburbs: Reading Chatelaine Magazine in the Fifties and Sixties gave unique insights into the growing feminist movement and how a mass-market women's magazine popularized feminist ideas long before the popular Ms. magazine was created in the United States.  Recently, her book titled Prairie Fairies: A History of Queer Communities and Peoples in Western Canada, 1930-1985 explored the establishment and growth of queer communities and activism throughout the Prairie provinces.  

"The lack of attention to the queer community in the Prairies gave the idea that anyone who was lesbian or gay or trans in this region migrated to a big coastal or central Canadian city, and that just simply was not true," said Korinek. "It was because historians hadn't been engaged in that topic, hadn't looked for it, which meant these vibrant worlds were largely forgotten." 

In addition to her research, Korinek said she takes great pride in her role as a teacher and mentor for undergraduate and graduate students coming through her classroom. Korinek lauded the support of the nominators who pushed her forward for this award, as well as her own family, friends, and mentors here and across the country whose unwavering encouragement has helped her reach this stage in her career - and she's proud to now have that role mentoring new students.  

Her courses have expanded over the years, and the number of students who seek out her specific classes in women's and gender history has been heartening.  

"The students who are taking these classes, the questions they bring, their own identities and perspectives - what transpires in a classroom in 2026 is very different from 1996, but what has remained the same is the high caliber of our students at USask," said Korinek.  

Franklin herself was a scholar at the University of Toronto (U of T) - and for Korinek, who graduated from U of T, receiving this achievement named for an accomplished scholar who had to fight to be recognized as a faculty member and who supported other women's rights in academia was particularly special.  

"It's a tremendous honour to know my peers believe my work has been groundbreaking and influential," she said.