Elizabeth LORD

ELIZABETH (ÉLI) LORD We are heartbroken at the loss of Elizabeth (Éli) Lord, who died of cancer February 8, 2021, in Providence, Rhode Island, at the age of 38. We are grieving the loss of a gentle, generous and caring woman, who combined beauty and a love of fun and laughter with an impressive intellect and passions for equality, justice and nature. She was and will remain the light of our lives. When someone dies young, people rightfully mourn the loss of so much potential. Yet that overlooks Elizabeth's many accomplishments. She packed a lot in to her life. She was born in Montreal, Quebec, on December 7, 1982, to Mireille Langlois and David Lord. She attended Le Plateau primary school and Joseph-François-Perrault high school, entering their special music programs. She became an accomplished cellist. At the age of sixteen, she travelled to London to live with her father and stepmother and attend Channing School, her first encounter with English-language education. Returning to Montreal, she attended Cégep Maisonneuve (junior college) and went on to major in development studies at McGill University. It was there she met Brian Lander, who later became her husband. She was an exceptional student and became an exceptional academic. She earned a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in human geography from the University of Toronto. Her principle focus was China's dream of 'building an ecological civilization,' and whether it was reproducing rural-urban inequality. She also studied how environmental research in China is shaped by economic, institutional, political and social forces. Elizabeth spent three years in China and became fluent in Mandarin. She spent a year in Wuhan, another in Xi'an, and spent time in Shandong, Shanghai and Zhejiang. She published papers on China's environment and a widely read article on the sexual politics of fieldwork in China. She was the An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies for a year. She then became a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University, where she was deeply engaged and popular as an instructor and advisor in the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. Despite her travels, Elizabeth's favourite place was her family cottage near Duhamel, Quebec, where she went most summers. She has asked that her ashes be distributed around the cottage on hillsides, in forests, and along the rivers and streams she spent hours in or on, watching, learning, drifting and dreaming. Catherine Élizabeth Élodie Langlois Lord was the cherished daughter of Mireille Langlois of Montreal and David Lord of Ottawa; step-daughter to Madelaine Drohan; sister to Mathieu Lord of Victoria, British Columbia; aunt to Noah and Agnes Lord; daughter-in-law of Jean and Howard Lander of Rice Lake, Ontario and sister-in-law of their daughters, Rachel Wilder and Emma Lander; sister-in-law to Cydne Potter; niece to Alyson Lord and Peter Lord, Gilbert Langlois and Lyne Delaunais, Christiane and Georges Doré and Arlette Langlois; and cousin to Annick and Julien Doré. Elizabeth had a great capacity of making and keeping friends. We know friends from every stage of her life are mourning her loss in Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Providence, China, and elsewhere. We are grateful for the compassionate care provided by the doctors and nursing staff of the Lifespan Cancer Institute and the HopeHealth Hulitar Hospice Center in Providence. Instead of flowers, we ask that friends and family consider a charitable gift to the George Wiley Center in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, or the Goodman Cancer Research Centre at McGill University, Montreal. The Lander, Lord, and Langlois families.