In Memoriam: Luba Esther Eleen, 1928-2018
We are saddened to learn that Professor Emerita Luba Eleen died on Sept. 24, 2018. Born in Winnipeg and educated at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and the U of T, Luba was the founding member of the department at UTM, then Erindale College. Hired in 1972, she helped launch the new and precedent-setting Art and Art History program, the first collaborative program offered by U of T and Sheridan College. An influential and highly respected scholar of medieval manuscripts and Italian painting, her path into academics was circuitous. After years of work as an activist and mother, she returned to the U of T to complete her undergraduate degree. It was during these years that she was struck by the relationship of art to social and political life and decided to pursue a PhD. Her intellectual interests were vast, encompassing text-image relationships, medieval theology, avant-garde cinema and classical music. She remained an activist throughout her career; she was instrumental in changing the U of T’s salary structure so that women professors could earn the same as men. She greatly enjoyed being a part of our community, attending student exhibitions, dinners, and other events before and after her retirement in 1994. She will be missed at this year’s upcoming Art and Art History Awards Ceremony, which she regularly attended, and where an award she endowed with her colleagues Bogomila Welsh and Tom Martone will be given to recognize outstanding achievement in DVS’s Art History program.
A service will be held on Sunday, Nov. 11, 1 p.m. at Hart House, University of Toronto.
