Former
University President
When Josef Dubsky moved
to Montreal, January 1946, as an official of the newly founded International
Civil Aviation Organization, his 16-year-old daughter Eva began attending
her third school in her third country. From Prague, Czechoslovakia, where
she was born, her parents moved to France, 1939, where she attended a secondary
school for girls. In Montreal she graduated from College Marie de France,
1946, gained a B.A., McGill, 1948, and while teaching Philosophy, Sir George
Williams College (now Concordia University), and French, McGill University,
gained an M.A., Philosophy, 1950, and Ph.D., French Literature, 1956. Eva
Dubsky married Donn Jean Kushner, 1949, taught at Carleton University,
Ottawa, between 1961 and 1976, becoming Professor of French and Comparative
Literature there, 1969. Dr. Eva Kushner returned to McGill as Chair, French
Department, 1976-80, and Professor of French and Comparative Literature
until 1987 when she became President, Victoria University, Toronto, 1987-94.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Kushner has headed several learned societies
and other organizations: President, Académie des lettres et sciences
humaines; Vice-President, Royal Society of Canada, 1980-82; President,
Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1970-72; and President, International
Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures, 1996-99. She was a Member
of the Canada Council, 1975-1981, and Member and Vice-President, Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1983-1986, and is a
life-time Member, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women.
She has written, edited and co-edited books and articles in Renaissance
studies, Comparative Literature, as well as in French and French-Canadian
Literature of the 20th century. Dr. Kushner, acclaimed academic, administrator,
and intellect, has also co-edited the proceedings of several international
congresses. In this recent view, Dr. Eva Kushner, while attending a conference
in South America, visits Iguazy Falls, the Niagara Falls of Brazil. [Photo,
courtesy Dr. Eva Kushner]