Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, as well as the 100th anniversary of its namesake’s birth, is internationally renowned for its gender studies program.

 

When a group of feminist scholars from Concordia University approached the French author and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) some 30 years ago to name their nascent women’s studies institute after her, “I’m not sure she had a clue what we were up to,” recalls Maïr Verthuy, the Simone de Beauvoir Institute’s first principal.

“But she agreed. After all, nothing had ever been named after her to that point. The French were not hot on Simone de Beauvoir back then. Now, at least she has a bridge [in Paris] named after her.”

Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary, as well as the 100th anniversary of its namesake’s birth, is a college of many firsts. It was the home of Canada’s first university women’s studies program, offered some of the first courses in lesbian studies and the first course on the history of black women 25 years ago.

The impetus behind the creation of an actual institute came after the merger of Sir George Williams and Loyola College to form Concordia University in 1974.

When Concordia’s then-rector, John O’Brien, wrote to de Beauvoir to ask for her consent to name the Institute after her, her reply fell somewhat short of the protocol and legal niceties the University sought.

“This torn piece of paper came back, no date, virtually illegible, with basically just the words ‘J’accepte. Simone de Beauvoir,’” Verthuy recalls.

“What was she accepting? When was she accepting? You couldn’t tell. So I wrote a second letter explaining the administrative necessities, and she sent back another torn piece of paper but this time, with a date saying that she accepted that the Institute bear her name. And that’s in the University archives.”

The Simone de Beauvoir Institute commemorates the struggles of earlier generations of feminists, but it is not mired in the past.

“The Institute is a great, dynamic place,” says Viviane Namaste, the Institute’s interim principal.

“It’s exciting to be part of the college system with one of the mandates being to reach out to the community. It speaks really highly of Concordia, and researchers, teachers and students come here because of that.”