Laura Donaldson, professor emerita of the Department of Literatures in English in the College of Arts and Sciences, died Oct. 18. She was 79.
Donaldson joined the Cornell faculty in 2000 as an associate professor of English after six years at the University of Iowa, where she taught classes in women’s studies, English and Native American studies.
Her research focused on religion, Native American culture and gender studies, and she was known for creating specialized classes at Cornell such as “The Bible as Literature,” “Critical Analysis of Legal Writings” (for pre-law students) and “The Year of the Dog,” a study of dogs in literature for pre-vet students.
In 2001, Donaldson co-taught a graduate seminar, “Native Encounters, European and American, 1660-1915,” with Laura Brown, the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English (A&S).
“We chose to teach each class meeting jointly – in an ongoing exchange that emphasized differences, connections and debate, which extended beyond our own debates with each other to lively discussions among our students,” Brown said. “And we learned, visibly and explicitly, from each other as the course progressed. This collaboration is a lasting event, in the sense that it realizes the enduring value and the ongoing promise of thinking together. I am grateful to have had this privilege, and to have had Laura Donaldson as a colleague and friend.”
Donaldson wrote the book “Decolonizing Feminisms: Race, Gender, and Empire-Building” and was editor of “Postcolonialism, Feminism and Religious Discourse” and “Postcolonialism and Scriptural Reading,” a special issue of Semeia: A Journal of Experimental Biblical Criticism.
“Many miles from home and the centers of Cherokee literature, Laura helped me find my academic path through it in so many ways, from introducing me to a host of writers and works that continue to shape my teaching and scholarship, to discerning better than I had the theoretical promise of my dissertation,” said Joshua B. Nelson Ph.D. ’10, associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Oklahoma. “With compassion and exacting standards, she made an indelible mark on my thinking and my life.”
Donaldson received her bachelor’s degree in religion, women’s studies and English from Guilford College. She received her doctoral degree from Emory University in 1983.
At Cornell, she was awarded a fellowship from the Society for the Humanities in 2004, taught for two summers at Telluride House and was the faculty coordinator for the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program from 2001-2004. She retired from Cornell in 2014.
In retirement, Donaldson became a certified dog behaviorist, working with dogs and their owners. She was a popular speaker at conferences related to dog behavior and wrote many articles on the subject.
She is survived by her two sisters and her husband, Michael Hogue of Freeville, New York, as well as three nephews and their spouses and children.
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