Theresa was a student in several of my 3rd- and 4th-year Women's Studies classes. She was so abundantly gifted, with such a sparkling intelligence, it was almost intimidating. She pursued her points with a controlled, articulate passion that lit up her face as she lit up the classroom. She seemed to produce theory effortlessly. On paper she was notably succinct -zeroing in on her line of thought, with no stray bits of rhetoric obscuring her arguments. She never waffled.
She was a challenging student who never let me get away with anything - a real treasure. She'd sit there, in jeans or skirts and Doc Martens, bright and shining, full of spirit, listening carefully, and she'd suddenly burst forth with points I'd not thought of. I never knew what she would come up with, but I always knew it would be worth hearing.
Sometimes, after graduation, I'd see her around town, and it was fun to hear what she was up to. A few months ago, I came across an article she'd written for the UVic women's newspaper several years earlier, a vintage Newhouse piece on women's right to separatism, and it made me smile. I'll remember Theresa always as someone who made me smile.
Debby Yaffe