Women in Academia: 21st Century Challenges

Dr. Evelynn Hammonds, Dean of Harvard College, to deliver annual Muriel V. Roscoe Lecture

The McGill Women’s Alumnae Association is pleased to announce that Dr. Evelynn Hammonds, Dean of Harvard College and renowned crusader for equity and diversity in faculty hiring and composition, will be presenting the annual Muriel V. Roscoe Lecture on Thursday, Oct. 23.

What: The Annual Muriel V. Roscoe Lecture “Women in Academia: 21st Century Challenges”

Who: Dr. Evelynn Hammonds, Dean, Harvard College and Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science

When: Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008, 6 p.m.

Where: Otto Maass Chemistry Building, 801 Sherbrooke St. W., Room 112.

Dr. Hammonds, a distinguished scholar, teacher and administrator, has published extensively on the history of disease, race and science, African-American feminism, African-American women and HIV/AIDS, and analyses of gender and race in science and medicine. Her current work focuses on the intersection of scientific, medical, and socio-political concepts of race in the United States. She has been a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and a Fellow in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In July 2005, Dr. Hammonds was named Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard University. Prior to joining Harvard, she taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the founding director of the MIT Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and Medicine.

The Muriel V. Roscoe Lecture is named for a former chairperson of the Botany Department at McGill University who was also Warden of Royal Victoria College (RVC) for 22 years. Dr. Roscoe, who was the second woman in McGill's history to be named a full professor (1945), taught at McGill for 27 years and her personal and professional achievements had a significant impact on an entire generation of McGill women.

The endowment for this lectureship was established in 1988 by the McGill Alumnae Society in celebration of their 100th anniversary. The lecture seeks to stimulate debate on issues where women have developed a special voice. The purposes of the lectureship also include recognition of the contributions of women and encouraging their full participation in all areas of society.

On the web: https://www.mcgill.ca/alumni-groups/alumnae/roscoe/