Dr. Angus McLaren Graduate Scholarship in Social History of Medicine, Sexuality, Reproduction and/or Gender
Angus McLaren was born on December 20, 1942 in East Vancouver, BC. He was the youngest son of Lillian (nee Brown) and Thomas Smiles McLaren and brother to Lorne and Stanley, all of whom predeceased him. Angus died on June 7, 2024 after a long struggle with Parkinson's Disease.
Angus attended Gladstone High School in Vancouver and completed a BA honours degree in French history at the University of British Columbia. After graduating in 1965, he married Arlene Tigar, who had attended the same high school and graduated from UBC at the same time.
A lifetime partnership of love, travel, career, parenting, and much more was launched. Together, Angus and Arlene moved to Cambridge, Mass., where thanks to a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Angus attended Harvard University. With the allure of going to Paris, he continued in French history and conducted research in Paris during the tumultuous years of 1967-1968. Dissatisfied with his PhD research on an unknown French journalist, he was amazed to discover in his final year at Harvard that history had more tantalizing subjects to offer. He hit upon the under-researched but significant subject of birth control. Thus began an illustrious career in the social history of medicine, with a focus on sexuality, reproduction, and gender.
At the beginning of his academic career, Angus taught at the University of Calgary and then Grinnell College in Iowa. From 1975 and until he retired in 2007, he taught at the University of Victoria. He was also a Visiting Fellow at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, a Life Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and a Visiting Hannah Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Generously supported by SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council), Angus was the author of more than a dozen books; some were translated into many languages. As a socio-cultural historian of medicine, he drew upon legal, medical, archival, newspaper, and literary sources over a range of issues including contraception, abortion, impotence, masculinity, and eugenics in Western contexts such as France, UK, and North America.
Angus was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a University of Victoria Distinguished Professor. He was awarded the prestigious Molson prize that recognizes outstanding lifetime achievements to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada. The Jury said: 'Angus McLaren is an imaginative and prolific historian who has increased significantly our understanding of sexuality, gender and reproduction, and other related topics'.
Angus was modest and self-deprecating. He enjoyed the simple pleasures of life such as travelling, socializing with friends, reading literature, watching movies, and taking long walks with beloved family dogs, Jet and Frida. He was lovingly devoted to his wife, Arlene, and son, Jesse.
To honour Angus' memory, this scholarship was established to support an outstanding graduate student in History focusing on the social history of medicine, sexuality, reproduction or gender.