Becki L. Ross

Becki L. Ross is a long-time academic-activist in social movements, including feminist activism, Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ liberation, trans rights, sex workers’ sovereignty, and reproductive justice. Born in Sudbury, Ontario, Becki dedicated almost thirty years to feminist, queer, anti-colonial teaching and research in Sociology and the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice (GRSJ) at the University of British Columbia. A prize-winning teacher and writer, Becki wrote The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (1995) and Burlesque West: showgirls, sex, and sin in Postwar Vancouver (2009). Becki’s published research appears in BC Studies, The Journal of Women’s History, Canadian Theatre Review, Sexualities, The Journal of the History of Sexuality, Labour/le travail, and The Conversation. In 2008, with the late Métis Cree trans sex worker and advocate, Jamie Lee Hamilton, Becki co-founded the West End Sex Workers Memorial Committee. After eight years of meetings, project development, and coordination with the City of Vancouver, we installed our Memorial lamppost and bronze plaques to honour sex workers who were violently expelled from the West End in 1984. Officially retired in July 2023, Becki is grateful for time and energy to nurture friendship, embrace competitive golf, write, read, garden, cook, curl, and play pickleball.