“A longtime lesbian activist and distinguished academic, Margaret Cruikshank (b. 1940) began her work in the 1970s at a time when lesbian studies barely existed and was one of the few lesbian academics in the U.S. to identify herself professionally as a lesbian. Her work has centered on raising awareness of lesbians within the academic profession and addressing the exclusion of lesbian literature and criticism from traditional canons and women's studies.

Born in northern Minnesota, Cruikshank came out as a lesbian in the Minneapolis lesbianfeminist community in the mid-1970s. She lived in the Midwest until 1977, when she moved to San Francisco. During the 1970s, Cruikshank played an active role in the explosion of lesbian feminist politics and culture and she began publishing on lesbian topics in 1975. Writing under her own name as well as various pseudonyms, Cruikshank has written numerous essays, articles and reviews that have appeared in a wide variety of periodicals including Gay Community News, Motheroot Journal, The Radical Teacher, Focus, Journal of Homosexuality and The Advocate.

With a Ph.D. in Victorian literature from Loyola University in Chicago, IL, Cruikshank began teaching English in 1969 at various colleges and universities in the Midwest. In 1975, she began teaching at Mankato State University (now called Minnesota State University, Mankato), which at that time, did not have a women's studies program. Cruikshank helped establish the first women's studies department at Mankato State University, for which she served as director between 1975 and 1977. Her experience arriving at Mankato State University in 1975 as a closeted academic and leaving the university in 1977 as an open lesbian in a university setting began a life-long commitment to increasing the visibility and solidarity of lesbians within the academic profession.

In 1977, Cruikshank moved to San Francisco where she worked as a resources director for a short-lived grassroots project, the Gay National Educational Switchboard, which provided a tollfree information line. In August 1980, Cruikshank became head of a small program in Continuing Education at the University of San Francisco (USF). Five months after she was hired at USF she was fired. Subsequently, Cruikshank taught in the English department at City College of San Francisco (CCSF) where she taught English as a Second Language (ESL) and worked with other CCSF faculty and administrators to incorporate lesbian and gay studies into the curriculum. These efforts resulted in the organization of CCSF's Castro/Valencia Campus and, in 1982, the appointment of Cruikshank as the first woman to teach CCSF's gay and lesbian literature course. Cruikshank taught an introductory women's studies course and lesbian and gay literature at CCSF for many years (1982-1996). She was also an affiliate scholar at the Center for Research on Women at Stanford University (1981-1988).

Cruikshank later taught courses on aging and women (1992 – 1997), in addition to gay and lesbian studies at CCSF, before moving to Maine in 1997. Cruikshank's introduction to working with older people came when she was a graduate student intern in gerontology at San Francisco State University, where she received an M.A. in gerontology in 1992.

Cruikshank has edited three major anthologies on lesbians: The Lesbian Path (1980, Angel Press; 1982, self-published; 1985, Grey Fox Press); Lesbian Studies, a women's history/lesbian studies text (1982, The Feminist Press) and New Lesbian Writing, a lesbian literature anthology (Grey Fox Press, 1984). In her papers, Cruikshank explains the three anthologies, their genesis and their inclusions. She traces their origins in the women's studies movement and through the lesbian academics' network created by the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) and details the editorial process.

Cruikshank's correspondence and publications in the collection often discuss her experiences in teaching lesbian studies/women's studies and her life-long efforts to integrate lesbian and gay material into the college curriculum. Her correspondence in the collection also traces the networks of lesbian critics, academics and writers that were established through panels, annual conference, conventions, pioneering lesbian feminist periodicals of the 1970s, lesbian groups, women's studies programs, writing workshops, and women's publishing presses.

Her most recent anthology, Fierce with Reality: an Anthology of Literature about Aging (1995, 2007) grew out of her master's thesis in gerontology at San Francisco State University. Her other books include Thomas Babington Macaulay (1978), The Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movement (1992), and Learning to be Old: Gender, Culture, and Aging (2003). She has been awarded the Fulbright senior fellowship twice, in 2007 and again in 2013.”

Cruikshank moved to Maine in 1997, she taught women's studies at the University of Maine, Orono before retiring in 2011. In March of 2020 she had a stroke.

Source: Finding Aid Biographical Sketch, Margaret Cruikshank Papers (Collection 1847). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8199s2fb/

1940 Born in Duluth, Minnesota

1962 Received a B.A. in English from St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN.

1969 Received a Ph.D. in Victorian literature from Loyola University in Chicago, IL; wrote a dissertation on Thomas B. Macaulay.

1969-1970 Taught English at Loyola University in Chicago, IL.

1970-1972 Taught English at Central College in Pella, IA.

1974 Taught English at St. John's University in Collegeville, MN

1975-1977 Started teaching English at Minnesota State University (MSU), Mankato; helped establish the first women's studies department at MSU, for which she served as director.

1977 In the Fall, moved to San Francisco, CA; worked as a resources director for a short-lived grassroots project, the Gay National Educational Switchboard.

1978 Published dissertation titled "Thomas Babington Macaulay" as part of the Twayne English authors series.

1980 The Lesbian Path was first published by Angel Press in Monterey.

1980, Aug Became head of a small program in Continuing Education at the University of San Francisco (USF).

1980, Dec Got fired from a teaching job at USF.

1981 Started teaching in the English department at City College of San Francisco (CCSF); taught English as a Second Language (ESL).

1981 - 1988 Served as an affiliate scholar at the Center for Research on Women at Stanford University.

1982 Self-published first work on a lesbian topic, Lesbian Path, a collection of autobiographical writings.

1982 Published Lesbian Studies, a women's history and lesbian studies text (The Feminist Press).

1982 - 1997 Appointed as first female faculty member to teach CCSF's gay and lesbian literature course; taught an introductory women's studies course and lesbian and gay literature at CCSF for many years.

1984 Published New Lesbian Writing, a lesbian literature anthology (Grey Fox Press).

1985 Lesbian Path published in a revised and expanded edition by Grey Fox Press.

1992 Received an M.A. in gerontology from San Francisco State University.

1997 Moved to Maine and began teaching in the women's studies department at the University of Maine, Orono; also affiliated with the University of Maine Center on Aging.

2003 Published Learning to be Old: Gender, Culture and Aging.

2007 Published Fierce with Reality: An Anthology of Literature about Aging.

2007 Awarded Fulbright Fellowship to conduct seminars and lectures on women and aging at the University of Victoria Centre on Aging, in British Columbia during the fall 2007 semester.

2013 Awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in Graz, Austria to teach aging studies and narrative gerontology at the Center for Inter-American Studies.