Beloved wife of Stephen Slemon; stepmother to Allie Slemon (Andrea Eadie); grandmother to Arbor Eadie; sister to Nancy Wallace, Catherine Wallace, Laura Howcroft (Ian Howcroft); sister-in-law to Sally Thorne (Mary Adlersberg), Mark Slemon (Jennifer Day), Jane Slemon (Bob Ennenberg); aunt to Tanya, Bradley, Carly, Leah, Michael, Kathleen, Geoffrey, Douglas and Megan.
She was a gardener, bird-watcher, lover of landscapes, and champion of all living things, including her beloved dogs Hamilton, Jessie, Picos, and Bodhi, and the cats she named after movie characters played by the actor Robert DeNiro.
A popular, and enormously celebrated professor of English & Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Jo-Ann chaired her home Department during a time of intellectual reorientation, curriculum overhaul, and graduate program expansion. When the University’s Woman Studies program fell under threat of cancellation, she took on the role of Chair, and then worked to transform the program into a full, independent Department. She edited the scholarly journal English Studies in Canada, in the process reshaping its look, its content, its professional impact, and its social relevance.
Her scholarship, always feminist in approach, focused on early British modernism, and especially on women whose lives and works did not fit easily into accepted literary critical moulds. With Bridget Elliot she published a monograph on women writers and visual artists at the intersection of their art forms. Her work on the overlooked novelist and polemicist Edith Ellis, one of the founders of the Fellowship of the New Life in the 1880s, made an argument for a different way of writing the history of modernist socialism, feminism, and sexology. Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway accompanied her through most of her professional life, which resulted, among other achievements, in the publication of a new, scholarly edition of the novel, with Broadview Press, in 2012.
From typing out the entire text of Mrs Dalloway, word by word, for the new edition, Jo-Ann learned something about the interplay between literary imagination and memory, and wrote about it in the London Review of Books. Like Woolf, she could pelt with laughter – a skill she deployed during the Covid years by trolling the so-called Freedom Convoy protesters on Facebook and on TikTok. She was a master of dry humour, of pointed understatement, of the perfect, capturing phrase.
Jo-Ann threw herself into life, and she crafted hers beautifully. She relished social engagement. She noticed people. She listened deeply, and sought to understand. When asked, she gave wise counsel. She overflowed with ideas, and shared them generously.
One of those ideas resulted in the creation of a memoir-writing group, which included, among others, the late Margaret Ann Armour, Pat Clements, Isobel Grundy, Margaret Mackay, and Jeanne Perreault. From her writing for that group, Jo-Ann produced a book-length memoir, entitled A Life in Pieces. It will be published by Thistledown Press in August, 2024.
We thank her care providers at BC Cancer, and at the Medicine Shoppe on Fort Street in Victoria, for their years of attention to Jo-Ann. We thank the many students who have carried her spirit forward in their own spectacular academic careers. We thank her many fast and enduring friends, to whom she brought her undivided attention, her loyalty, and her genius for nuance.
Her green burial will take place at Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria, followed by a small, informal gathering of local friends and neighbours at her home.
Condolences may be offered to the family below.
McCall Gardens
www.mccallgardens.com
37 Responses
Jo-Ann was Chair during my PhD at UAlberta and modeled all the best features of a life committed to leadership and intellectual curiosity: strong, gentle, smart, kind, and welcoming of students into the academic life. My friends who took her classes and were supervised by her clearly loved and admired her deeply. Stephen, I am so sorry for your loss and wish any words could be a balm for that. Your eulogy for her here is a beautiful gift.
Jo-Ann was my tutor for a children’s literature course at York U in the early eighties and we became friends. As a foreign student from Trinidad and Tobago I grew into Toronto, the best parts of it, through her guidance. We walked and walked. She introduced me to independent films, good literature and broadened my scope in so many ways. I look forward to hearing her wise and cheeky voice when I read the memoir. I will be remembering and sending good vibrations
I did not get a chance to know Jo-Ann well during my time at U of A but I really remember the twinkle in her eye and her readiness to find humour in all situations. That is a gift. It will remain.
I came to know Jo-Ann during the last year of her life, through her wry, intelligent, and beautifully written memoir, which I was privileged to edit. Reading it, I felt I’d known her forever. Meeting her, I wished I could have known her longer. Her wit, her warmth, her strength of character, and her courage radiate from her prose as they radiated from her person. If you loved her, please read A Life in Pieces. It will keep her close.
My sincere condolences to you, Stephen, and to all in her inner circle.
Jo-Ann was chair when I started at the U of A–it was her clear voice on the phone to me in Oregon when I got the life-changing offer to come to Edmonton. My heart goes out to you, Stephen, losing a beloved partner– knowing what’s coming doesn’t make the loss any less final.
I am shocked and dismayed to learn of Jo-Ann’s death. I had no idea that she was ill.
I respected and admired her as a colleague and as a Chair of the English Department who did much to improve the lot of her colleagues.
I wish to express my sincere condolences to her family. She will be missed.
As so many others do, I consider Jo-Ann to be one of the great mentors and dearest friends of my life. As our chair, expert scholar, savvy academic, leader of our ESC editorial team, and much more, she proferred sage counsel and brilliant wit that lifted the ambitions and spirits of everyone around her. I’ve missed her in these years of her retirement, and wish there had been more opportunities for face to face connections. I will think of her often and always. Stephen, we love you and we are with you in these difficult times. Please know that we are here to support you and do let us know if there is anything we can do to offer comfort in this moment of tremendous loss.
I knew and loved Jo-Ann when we were in grad school together. What glorious memories I have of that turbulent, intense time of writing and teaching and going to fortune tellers and sharing hair-stylists. Jo-Ann was always ready for real fun and so generous with her intellect. I have loved her recent writing in The Literary Review of Canada and will treasure her memoir.
From
Kim Echlin
Dear Stephen,
The last time I saw Jo-Ann was on Bloor Street when I was walking obliviously past you two and Jo-ann recognized me and stopped to chat. In such small moments her grace and kindness shone.
Who knew she would turn out to be a life writer! I keenly await the delivery of A Life in Pieces.
I loved following her on Facebook and noting her artist’s eye for color and texture, her horoscope messages, her recent tributes to others. I was never her student but through those posts I got a wider glimpse of her and your life together.
My heart goes out to you and all who loved Jo-Ann.
I knew and loved Jo-Ann when we were in grad school together. What glorious memories I have of that turbulent, intense time of writing and teaching and going to fortune tellers and sharing hair-stylists and reinventing feminism one more time. Jo-Ann was always ready for real fun and very generous with her intellect. I have loved her recent writing in The Literary Review of Canada and will treasure her memoir.