Fondly Remembered
Distinguished Professor Emerita E Jennifer Ashworth died on July 23rd, 2024 in Swansea, Wales. Born in 1939 in Britain, Prof. Ashworth studied at Cambridge University and received her PhD in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College in 964. She joined the newly formed Philosophy Department at the University of Waterloo in 1969, and she remained an active and highly respected member of the Department until her retirement in 2005.
Prof. Ashworth was an expert in medieval and Renaissance philosophy, with a particular interest in late medieval logic and philosophy of language. She authored nearly a hundred journal articles and book chapters, plus many translations, encyclopedia and academic reference entries, and three books. Among these is Professor Ashworth's flagship monograph, Language and Logic in the Post-Medieval Period. There Professor Ashworth examined the study of logic in the Renaissance intellectual world, her investigations overturning the widespread conviction that Medieval logic had been an early casualty of the Renaissance. Her outstanding research contributions were formally honoured with a Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada in 1991.
Former students and colleagues alike remember her for her brilliance, her very high scholarly standards, and above all her intellectual generosity. Dr. Shannon Dea, now Dean of Arts at the University of Regina and formerly Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, studied under Prof. Ashworth as an undergraduate. Prof. Dea describes her as “the Platonic ideal of what I was looking for in a professor.” Current University of Waterloo Professor of Philosophy and Systems Design Engineering Chris Eliasmith, who took Prof. Ashworth’s courses as an undergraduate, credits her with his decision to study Philosophy, and praised her openness to new ideas and her “rigorous fairness.” And former colleagues all remarked on how she was curious and interested in their own research, no matter how distinct it seemed from her own area of expertise. Her generosity to junior colleagues and the example she set for her students continue to shape the Department of Philosophy at Waterloo, and indeed Philosophy departments across the country.