Valerie Korinek

Valerie Joyce Korinek (born December 11, 1965) is a Canadian historian. She is a professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Her research focuses on Queer studies and communities.

Early life and education
Korinek was born on December 11, 1965, and grew up in Toronto. Korinek first attended McMaster University for Physical Education, but transferred to the University of Toronto during the first year. Korinek went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History from the University of Toronto Mississauga. Korinek spent two years working at a Niagara museum and enrolled in a Master of Arts program at Queen's University; however, Korinek ultimately dropped out to return to the University of Toronto, and went on to complete a PhD in Canadian cultural and gender history there in 1996.

Career
Upon completing her PhD, Korinek joined the faculty at the University of Saskatchewan in 1996. Korinek has stated that she expected to work there for two years and then to move back to Ontario, but she ultimately decided to stay at what she considered "a marvelous History Department." When Korinek first arrived at Saskatchewan, she received a post-it-note from her colleague Gary Hanson, which read, "You should contact these people. You'd find them interesting." As she was becoming acclimated with her new position, she did not contact the people on the note until the following year. Once she contacted one of the people from the note, former librarian Neil Richards, she began reading his collection of LGBTQ archives and became interested in sharing the work. As she began working with Richards on this new project, Korinek published her first book, based on her doctoral dissertation and titled Roughing it in the Suburbs: Reading Chatelaine Magazine in the Fifties and Sixties through the University of Toronto Press.

In 2018, Korinek released her second book titled Prairie Fairies: A History of Queer Communities and People in Western Canada, 1930-1985, which received the Canadian Historical Association's Clio Prize for the Prairie region. The book focused on the lived experiences of LGBTQ people in Western Canada, especially in the urban centres of Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary, during the 20th century. At a fundamental level, the book aims to highlight the presence and participation of queer people in Prairie society during that time period. While working alongside Richards to conduct research for the book, she came across a photo of Annie Maude "Nan" McKay kissing Hope Weir, which became the cover photo for her book. As there were few images, letters, or diaries about prairie lesbians prior to the 1950s, Korinek stated that the photo "claims important space for historians to do more than merely suggest that lesbians existed in the prairies prior to the Second World War." In addition to archival sources, the book also drew extensively on oral history interviews. The book went on to win the Canadian Studies Network Best Book in Canadian Studies Prize and the English-Language Book Prize from the Canadian Committee on Women's and Gender History. It was also nominated for two Saskatchewan Book Awards: the University of Saskatchewan Non-Fiction and Jennifer Welsh Scholarly Writing categories; Prairie Fairies was awarded the latter.

Following the publication of Prairie Fairies, Korinek was appointed vice-dean faculty relations in the College of Arts & Science for a five-year term. In this role, she earned an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to study the history of same-sex marriage in Canada. Korinek stated that inclusion and diversity in the College were significant drivers of her work there. In 2020, Korinek was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Selected publications

 * Prairie Fairies: A History of Queer Communities and People in Western Canada, 1930-1985 (2018)
 * Roughing it in the Suburbs: Reading Chatelaine Magazine in the Fifties and Sixties (2000)