Exploring the history of women in the professions (education, science and engineering) and the institutions that shaped their worlds.
Highlights
Researcher
Over a 30-year career at the University of Ottawa, Dr. Heap produced a body of scholarship that transformed the field of women’s history in Canada, with a particular focus on women in science and engineering.
During that time, Dr. Heap supported and trained dozens of masters and PhD students who have gone on to hold inportant positions in academia, government and the private sector.
Institutional Leader
At the University of Ottawa, Dr. Heap’s commitment to feminist teaching and research led to her appointment as Director of the Women’s Studies Program in 1993 and to the establishment of the Institute of Women’s Studies in 1999 (now the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies). As its Founding Director, Dr. Heap launched a collaborative master’s program in women’s studies and secured the recruitment of the University of Ottawa’s first two cross-appointments in Women’s Studies. These milestones enabled the subsequent launch of free-standing Women’s Studies programs at the master’s and doctoral level.
Dr. Heap is the co-founder of the Canadian Archives of Women in STEM — a landmark initiative to preserve the stories of women who shaped Canadian science.
Between 2001 and 2008, Dr. Heap was also Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, During that time, she contributed to the creation of new graduate interdisciplinary programs across the campus and to the establishment of the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, which she managed during her mandate.
Between 2009 and her retirement in 2018, she was Associate Vice-President (Research) at the Universty iof Ottawa. During her mandate, she helped build and strengthen the university’s research capacity and excellence through her involvement in the appointment of internal and external research chairs, the creation of research centres and institutes, such as the Institute for Science, Society and Policy, the development of international research collaborations and the increased recognition of excellence in research through prizes and awards. In 2010, she spearheaded the establishment of the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) designed to introduce senior undegraduate students to research.
Award Winning Scholar
In 2007, the Faculty of Arts conferred to Professor Heap the title of “Professor of the Year”, in recognition of her excellence in the three areas of teaching, research and service to the university community. In 2008, Dr. Heap was the recipient of a Fullbright Scholarship enabling to serve as visiting professor at Kennesaw State University and Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Heap is the recipient of the Royal Society of Canada’s Ursula Franklin Award for Gender Studies (2018), the Professional Engineers Ontario President’s Award (2010), and was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques by the French government (2017).
Dr. Ruby Heap
Dr. Ruby Heap is Professor Emerita in the Department of History at the University of Ottawa and a distinguished scholar of women’s history, the history of education, and gender in Canadian society. Over the course of her academic career, she has made significant contributions to understanding the institutional, intellectual, and social transformations that shaped women’s experiences in Canada during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Her research has illuminated the historical processes through which women entered professional and academic spaces, the evolution of educational reform movements, and the broader dynamics of gender and social change. Through rigorous archival scholarship and careful historiographical analysis, Dr. Heap has contributed to expanding the field of Canadian women’s history and to strengthening its methodological foundations.