Carmen Lambert

Professor Emerita

(January 17, 1944-June 10, 2023)

We are sad to report that McGill Emerita Professor Carmen Lambert passed away on June 10, 2023, at the Centre for Palliative Care at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Montreal.

Carmen Lambert was born in Shawinigan, Québec. She attended Collège Marguerite-Bourgeoys in Montréal and graduated in 1966 from Université de Montréal with a degree in Anthropology. She carried out her graduate studies in Anthropology at McGill, studying with Prof. Richard Salisbury, receiving M.A. (1969) and Ph.D degrees (1974), interspersed with two years of study in Anthropology and Sociology at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris (1971-1973). For her graduate studies and throughout her career, she worked with indigenous peoples of Canada. She served as a professor of Anthropology at McGill for 40 years, retiring in 2013 as an Emerita Professor. During her career at McGill, she actively participated in the work of the McGill Centre for Northern Studies and Research, which was founded in 1973, publishing a report on the Centre in the journal, Études Inuit Studies, in 1977. Professor Lambert was also active in the Program in the Anthropology of Development, which had been founded by Professor Salisbury.

Professor Lambert’s academic interests included the study of social change, modernization, urbanization, social class, and ethnic identity; she was a specialist in research on North American native peoples, subjects on which she taught thousands of students over her career. In particular, she distinguished herself in the study of social inequality, and was dedicated to its alleviation. At McGill, she was known for the moral support she provided to graduate students and served as a diligent and supportive colleague while engaging in departmental, faculty and university pursuits.

In the wider community, Carmen Lambert was among the founding forty members of the Women’s Network in the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA), participating in its first meeting in 1984. During her career, she served as Vice-President of the Social Science Federation of Canada and as Chair of its Women’s Issues Committee. In 1990 she published Toward a New Equality: The Status of Women in Canadian Universities, and was instrumental in convincing SSHRC to foster a strategic research program entitled ‘Women and Work.’ She was one of the founding members and co-editors of Feminist Stratégies Féministes, a bilingual scholarly electronic journal. Carmen was a committed advocate for change in First Nations’ communities.

In 2015, her work received public recognition when she was the recipient of the 2014-2015 CASCA Women's Network Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was presented to Dr. Lambert by Dr. Heather Howard at the Women's Network Luncheon during the CASCA Conference held at the Université Laval, May 2015.

Carmen Lambert will be missed by her family members, her friends and her colleagues.

 

 

 

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