Oct 25, 2026
2 min read
The University of Toronto has honoured Guyanese legal pioneer Iris de Freitas Brazao through two lectures examining her groundbreaking achievements and contributions to legal and academic history.
Held earlier this October 2026 as part of Women’s History Month, the lectures were delivered by Guyanese-Canadian historian Dr. Joanne Collins-Gonsalves, highlighting Brazao’s journey across the Caribbean, Canada and the United Kingdom during the early 20th century.
Brazao was the first female lawyer in Guyana and the wider Commonwealth Caribbean. She attended the University of Toronto in 1918 before pursuing further studies in Wales and England. In 1925, she became the first woman of African descent to graduate from the University of Oxford and later graduated from the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple in 1929.
Following her call to the Bar that year, she returned to Guyana, where she served in several distinguished positions.
The first lecture, held on October 15 at the university’s Scarborough campus, explored Brazao’s legacy of legal leadership. The second, at the St. George campus, examined the challenges she navigated amid war, a pandemic and prejudice between 1917 and 1929.
Dr. Collins-Gonsalves’ research was recognised for its contributions to women’s history, legal history and the histories of Canada, the United Kingdom and the Caribbean.
The lectures were supported by the PIE Fund and Historical and Cultural Studies at the Scarborough campus, through the efforts of distinguished Professor Dr. Afua Cooper.
Dr. Collins-Gonsalves is a historian, managing director of Historical Research International Inc. in Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in the United Kingdom.
She is also the author of the books: Portuguese in Business in Guyana 1835-1935: A History of Entrepreneurship, Expansion and Diversification (2025, Iris de Freitas Brazao, Legal Luminary and Trailblazer: Caribbean, Canada, Wales, England 1896-1989 (2023) and From Ashes to Ferro-Concrete: A History of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Guyana) 1914-2014 (2014).
