Canadian historian
Maria W. Tippett D.C.L. LL. D. DLitt (born 9 December 1944) is a Canadian historian specialising in Canadian art history. Her 1979 biography of Emily Carr won the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction.
Educated at Simon Fraser University and the University of London, Tippett has gone on to win several awards and has written extensive biographies of Emily Carr, Frederick Varley, Bill Reid, and Yousuf Karsh. Tippett has also written, among others, books on the photography of Charles Gimpel, the parents of the AIDS scientist David Ho, Canadian war art, landscape painting in addition to two collections of short stories. In addition to her writing, Tippett has held positions and fellowships at several universities, including Simon Fraser University, York University, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and Cambridge University.
Biography
Raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Tippett travelled through Europe and the Middle East for three years following high school before attending Vancouver City College and Simon Fraser University.[1] She received a doctorate in history from the University of London.[2] From 1971 to 1983 she was married to Canadian Historian Douglas Cole. In 1991 she married Professor Peter Clarke, British historian and former Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge University.
Until 1990, Tippett taught at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, Emily Carr College of Art and Design and was the Robarts Professor of Canadian Studies at York University, Toronto.
At Cambridge she was a visiting fellow at Clare Hall (1991–1992), then a research associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute (1993–95).[3] In 1995 she was appointed a senior research fellow and tutor at Churchill College, Cambridge (1995–2004).[2] Tippett was a member of the Cambridge Faculty of History from 1992 to 2004 and was chair of the Churchill College Art Gallery from 1997 to 2001. In 1997 she and Peter Clarke wrote the libretto for the opera, Churchill's Finest Hour, A Musical Burlesque in four acts, composed by Jeremy Thurlow of Churchill College, Cambridge.
In 2004, Tippett returned to Canada and was an associate research professor at Simon Fraser University from 2006 to 2010.[2][3]
Tippett was a member of the editorial board of The Canadian Historical Review, Canadian Art, Art Focus and an Arts Journalist Fellow at The Banff Centre in 1988. In 1992 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[3] She has received honorary doctorates from the University of Windsor in 1994,[4] and from the University of Victoria (2006)[5] as well as from Simon Fraser University (2006).[6][3] In May 2014, Maria Tippett's name was added to Victoria High School's "Wall of Fame".
In the course of her career, Tippett has curated art exhibitions at Simon Fraser University Art Gallery (BC Canada), the London Region Art Gallery (Ontario, Canada), the National Library (Luxembourg), as well as at the Clare Hall Gallery at Cambridge University and the Art Gallery at Churchill College (Cambridge University). She has judged the Governor General's non-fiction Book Award and the BC Book Prize. She has lectured in South America, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Australia in addition to Canada and the United States.
Tippett has also been a consultant and television presenter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 1998, Tippett was appointed to The Canadian Memorial Foundation, Canada House in London, where she was a member of the board until 2005. In 2010 she was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. From 2012 to 2019, she was a member of the Craigdarroch Research Awards Committee at the University of Victoria and also a member of the President's Advisory Committee and the Dean of Fine and Performing Arts' Advisory Committee at the same institution. In 2021 Tippett became a member of the Advisory Board of The British Columbia Review and in 2023 joined the board of the British Columbia and Yukon Book Prizes.
