Henitiuk was born in Manning, Alberta in 1963, and grew up in various locations in western and northern Canada. An interest in acting led her to participate in a number of drama workshops while in her teens. Following extensive travels in USA and Central America she completed a BA and MA, was then employed by the Alberta Government Translation Bureau, and operated a freelance translation business. Ms. Henitiuk subsequently returned to the University of Alberta, obtaining an MA in Japanese Literature in 2000 and a PhD in Comparative Literature in 2005.
Educational background
Henitiuk has a PhD from the University of Alberta. She also holds a Diplôme d'études linguistiques françaises,. Her PhD was supported by Killam Prize and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council fellowships, the Dorothy J. Killam Memorial Graduate Prize, as well as an award allowing her to spend a year at Kokugakuin University in Japan conducting research. Upon the completion of the PhD in 2005 Henitiuk was awarded the prestigious Governor General's Gold Medal as the foremost graduate at the University. In September 2005, Henitiuk began a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at The Center for Comparative Literature and Society directed by Gayatri Spivak. Her sponsor was David Damrosch. This research project investigated the process by which national literature becomes world literature. Her fellowship was funded by SSHRC and she was awarded the inaugural SSHRC Postdoctoral Prize.
Professional background
In June 2017 Henitiuk was appointed as Vice-President Academic & Provost at Concordia University of Edmonton, Alberta. From April 2013 to June 2017 Henitiuk was a Professor of English and Executive Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence at Grant MacEwan University. From March 2007 to March 2013 she was Senior Lecturer in Literature and Translation at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK and Director of the BCLT at UEA. Henitiuk previously held posts as acting Director and Associate Director of the BCLT. From August 2010 to August 2011 she was a visiting scholar at Harvard University funded by a fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust. She specializes in the study of: World Literature, Comparative Literature, Translation Studies, East-West Cultural Exchange, and Women's Writing. From 2012 to 2017 Valerie Henitiuk was editor of the Routledge journal Translation Studies. From 2007-11, she was editor of In Other Words: the journal for literary translators and served on the editorial board from 2009-2011 for the transdisciplinary journal titled translation. She was also, from 2008–12, on the faculty for the Nida School of Translation Studies, a research symposium held annually in Italy. Henitiuk currently holds an Insight Development Grant from SSHRC for a research project looking at English and French translations of Inuit Literature.
Published works
Henitiuk has published scholarly articles on a variety of subjects including the translation of Inuit literature, women's writing, the introduction of classical Japanese literature into the west, and comparisons between eastern and western texts. Her first major, and most frequently cited, article is "Translating Woman", an analysis of gender translation issues which she has continued to explore during her research. She has also discussed feminist aspects of literature in the context of magic realism. Recent scholarship has concentrated on examinations of the way translations of 10th-century Japanese women's writing has entered the western consciousness and the political/cultural dimensions of translation of such work. Henitiuk has authored a monograph on liminal imagery in a cross-cultural selection of women's writing and another book, designed to assist in the teaching of translation, looks at some fifty different translations from Japanese of a single passage from The Pillow Book. She has also co-edited two collections of stories by women from India, and a collection of critical essays on W. G. Sebald. Book chapters have analyzed boundary metaphors in Elizabeth Inchbald and rape as a motif in literature. Other chapters discuss gender aspects in The Tale of Genji, The Kagerô Nikki and The Pillow Book of Sei Shônagon.
Public service
Besides her academic work, Henitiuk has been deeply involved in the promotion of literary translation as a professional discipline through a variety of organizations, serving on national and international committees. As well she has been quoted regarding funding cuts to the arts in the UK and Canada, and has made pedagogical contributions.
