UBC endowment honours Jane Rule

The legacy of celebrated B.C. author Jane Rule continues to grow. Her achievements and influence as a pioneering lesbian writer are being recognized with a new $1.7-million fund for the study of human sexuality, announced by UBC on June 3. An anonymous donor supplied the funding in the name of Rule, who died in 2007 at age 76 after a career as an author and educator that spanned four decades.

The Jane Rule Endowment for the Study of Human Relationships will be used to foster programs on sexual orientation, race, and gender. It will also provide funding for UBC’s Critical Studies in Sexuality program, LGBT student groups, and conferences on sexual identity.

The inaugural conference supported by the endowment is Queerly Canadian: Changing Narratives, set to take place at the UBC Vancouver campus tomorrow and Saturday (June 5 and 6). The event will feature talks by poet Nicole Brossard, biographer Evelyn White, writer Richard Cavell, and scholar Marilyn R. Schuster. Visit the conference’s Web site for complete details.