Founding of the Greenberg Chair
In 2005, Shirley E. Greenberg, retired lawyer and class of 1976 alumnus, made an outstanding donation in support of activities related to women and the legal profession, permanently endowing the Shirley E. Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession in the Common Law Section of the Faculty of Law. Beginning with her annual support in 2002, legal issues that are important to women have received wonderful support from Ms. Greenberg. Thanks to this generous gift, the Greenberg Chair is now permanently established at the law school.
Role of the Chair
The Shirley E. Greenberg Chair is held by professors in the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. It is designed to circulate among qualified feminist faculty members. The holder of the Chair works with a large existing group of feminist scholars, all committed to women’s equality through law, to encourage women to enter the profession, to train legal professionals to deliver services to women, to connect women in law school with women in the legal profession, and to further law reform and research impacting on women as clients and women in the profession.
Professor’s Bakht’s Experience
Professor Bakht joined the Faculty in 2005. Nearly all her scholarship is related to gender justice whether in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law or family law. Her research and writing focuses on the intersecting area of religious freedom and women’s equality. She employs an intersectional feminist approach that addresses the multiple dimensions of women’s equality, particularly in the context of religious minorities and racialized communities. Her recent book, In Your Face: Law, Justice and Niqab-Wearing Women in Canada (Irwin Law, 2020) was listed in the Hill Times Best Books of 2020 and was awarded the Huguenot Society Award. Her teaching is grounded in critical and feminist pedagogy. With like-minded colleagues, she has developed materials to teach core courses such as criminal law and family law that place law within a broader social, political and economic context. She has been faculty advisor for the Women’s Legal Mentorship Program and the Muslim Law Students Association and regularly mentors students in legal/political and personal pursuits. She has participated in pivotal legal and policy activities with significant feminist organizations such as LEAF, NAWL, and the Canadian Council of Muslim Women. She served as the English language editor of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law (CJWL/RFD) (2015-2020), Canada’s leading feminist bilingual law journal. As an active dancer and choreographer, she creates artistic works believing that art provides a space for intuitive responses to injustice, allowing the viewer to see, hear and feel harm viscerally and inviting empathy with the “other.”
Congratulations Professor Bakht!