We at the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies (CENES) are honoured to celebrate the role of Professor Isabel MacInnes in what was then the German Department of the University of British Columbia. Having earned her MA from Queens University, Ontario and her PhD from California, Professor MacInnes became the first female faculty member at UBC. She served as Chairman of the German section of the Modern Languages Department from 1915 to 1946, when a separate Department of German was established. Dr. MacInnes also served as Head of the new department until her retirement in 1948.
The Isabel MacInnes Wing of the Anthropology and Sociology building on the UBC-V campus was named after her. It was a women’s residence before its renovation into offices in the 1970s.
It is Professor MacInnes’ family name that will, perhaps, be most familiar to our current student body. The MacInnes Family Field bears witness to the long and continuing family connection with the university. The naming of the field goes back to an endowment bestowed by Mr. & Mrs. WH MacInnes, whose son William Eugene MacInnes passed away while a student at UBC in 1934. William Eugene was the nephew of Professor MacInnes. The memorial field has been a hugely valuable sporting, musical and communal resource for students. Through relocation and renaming, it has remained a monument to the ongoing relationship between the family and UBC, since Isabel joined the university more than a century ago.
As an enduring witness to their philanthropy, the family offered the Dr. Isabel MacInnes Memorial Scholarship, established by WH MacInnes in memory of his sister. It is awarded for overall scholastic achievement and to outstanding distinction in Professor MacInnes’ own field of Germanic Studies.
Featured images: Isabel MacInnes receiving honorary degree from President Norman MacKenzie – UBC Library Open Collections
