Dorothy E. Smith, C.M.
Vancouver, British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario
Dorothy Smith’s visionary research lent a novel feminist perspective to the field of sociology. She is internationally acclaimed for having developed institutional ethnography—a sociology committed to remaining with actual people as the subjects rather than the objects of research, and to grounding research in their actions in relation to others and how they are caught up in governing relations extending beyond their knowledge and control. In addition, she helped establish the Women’s Research Centre in Vancouver and the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.