Advancing Equity in Academia: Oral History Interview 05 — Barb Freeman
Scholarship, Visibility, and Leadership: Barb Freeman’s Journey
Lambda Scholarship Foundation Canada’s 40th-anniversary oral history series continues with a conversation that foregrounds academic advocacy, community leadership, and the long arc of LGBTQ+ representation in higher education.
Each interview in this series captures a different dimension of Lambda’s history; this installment turns to the work of building visibility and legitimacy for queer scholarship within universities and the wider public sphere.
The fifth interview features Barb Freeman, former president of the Foundation and a longtime advocate for equity in journalism and academia. Freeman reflects on her personal journey as an LGBTQ+ scholar navigating a field that, for much of her career, offered limited support and recognition for queer research. Her experiences illustrate both the barriers faced by earlier generations and the persistence required to shift institutional norms.
As president, Freeman helped strengthen Lambda’s national reach, broaden the scope of its scholarships, and deepen connections between students, faculty, and community partners. She discusses the transformative impact that financial support can have on LGBTQ+ students and researchers—particularly for those whose work centers queer communities or challenges established narratives. The conversation also explores the significance of named scholarships in honouring leaders whose contributions shaped Lambda’s mission.
Freeman’s reflections underscore how academic advocacy, community networks, and sustained leadership have kept Lambda focused on expanding opportunities and representation in LGBTQ+ research for the next generation.
This interview is part of a seven-episode series. Two more conversations will be released soon, each highlighting different forms of leadership and community-building across Lambda’s 40-year history.
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About the Interviewer: Christopher DiRaddo
Christopher DiRaddo is the author of the novels The Family Way (2021), shortlisted for the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize, and The Geography of Pluto (2014). His essays and short stories have appeared in First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far), Here & Now: An Anthology of Queer Italian-Canadian Writing, and The Globe and Mail. He has also written for several publications, including Elle Canada, XTRA magazine, and enRoute magazine, for which he won a National Magazine Award. In 2014, he created the Violet Hour Reading Series & Book Club, which has to date provided a platform for more than 300 LGBTQ writers in Canada to connect with new audiences. He lives in Montreal. Check out his website and subscribe to The Violet Letter: Your guide to LGBTQ+ lit in Montreal (and beyond).
