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After being diagnosed with breast cancer Sue Hendler took her battle to the public.

The former associate professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning and founding Director of the Institute of Women's Studies (now Gender Studies) wrote a regular column in the Kingston Whig-Standard to document her journey and raise awareness of the deadly disease until she died in 2009. The columns would later be published in the book Dying in Public, edited by her friend and Queen’s colleague Christine Overall (Philosophy, Gender Studies).

However, with her energy focused on her cancer fight, other projects were left unfinished.

Eight years later, one of those projects has been completed thanks to the efforts of a former graduate student.

On March 15, Dr. Hendler’s book “I Was the Only Woman” Women and Planning in Canada was launched with a special event at Robert Sutherland Hall that brought together family, friends, colleagues and students.

The book shines a light on the female pioneers in Canadian community planning and their contributions. The final chapters and editing was completed by Julia Markovich, a former student of Dr. Hendler’s.

Now a senior research associate with the Conference Board of Canada, Dr. Markovich says she is excited by the prospects for the book with current and future students.

“I think this book really has the potential to change the way people study and think about planning in Canada, its history, its present and its future,” she says. “As someone who helped see this through to completion I’m just so delighted. This project was a long time in coming and it just feels fantastic to see it as a tangible thing. It’s a good moment.”

For David Gordon, Professor and Director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning, the book launch was a clear signal that Dr. Hendler’s legacy lives on.

“As a colleague it helps me to know that the work is complete,” he says. “As a professor you hate to think of an incomplete work but as a scholar I am extremely pleased that this contribution to our nation’s history in this profession is now available and I think it is going to be very significant.”

Dr. Markovich is donating her royalties from the book to the , which supports students at the School of Urban and Regional Planning working on planning ethics or women/gender and planning. 

For more about “I was the Only Woman” Women and Planning in Canada visit the