Women's and Gender Studies Program

Mary Catherine Bateson is a cultural anthropologist whose books include Composing a Life and With a Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. (WGS Second Annual Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer)

Evelyn Torton Beck is Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland, a clinical psychologist, and author of Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology.

Carol Moseley Braun served as a U.S. Senator and as the U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand.  She was a presidential primary candidate in 2004.

Ellen Chesler directs the Program on Reproductive Health and Rights at the Open Society Institute and is author of Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement.

Judy Collins is a world-renowned singer of traditional and interpretive folk music who has been performing in the service of social causes for over forty years. 

Patricia Hill Collins ‘69 Ph.D. ‘84 is Taft Professor of Afro-American Studies and Sociology at the University of Cincinnati and author of Black Feminist Thought. 

Eve Ensler is a playwright, the author of The Vagina Monologues, and the creator of V-Day and its world-wide programs to end violence against women. 

Geraldine Ferraro is a women’s right activist and former member of Congress; in 1984, she was the country’s first woman candidate for Vice-President.

Carol Gilligan taught at Harvard for 30 years and is University Professor at the NYU School of Law.  A pioneering feminist psychologist, she is the author of In A Different Voice. 

Galia Golan ‘60 is Professor Emerita at Hebrew University, a long-time peace activist, founder of the Israel Women’s Network, and a MacArthur Fellow.                                               

Ellen Goodman is a Pulitzer prizewinning, nationally syndicated Boston Globe columnist.  The most recent book collection of her columns is Paper Trail.

Blu Greenberg is co-founder of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance.  She has published pioneering books including On Women and Judaism. 

Evelynn Hammonds is Professor of History of Science and African-American Studies at Harvard.  She is the author of Childhood’s Deadly Scourge. 

Maria Hinojosa, an award-winning journalist, is a CNN correspondent and anchor of NPR’s Latino USA.  Her books include the acclaimed memoir, Raising Raul. 

Gish Jen is a writer of fiction whose first novel, Typical American, was a finalist for the National Book Award.  The Love Wife is her most recent book.

Jamaica Kincaid, a native of Antigua, is an award-winning author of over ten books including Annie John, and Lucy. She teaches creative writing at Bennington College and Harvard University. (WGS Third Annual Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer)

Gerda Lerner D. Lett. ’89 is a pioneering women’s historian. Her many books include The Majority Finds Its Past and The Creation of Patriarchy. 

Shirley Geok-Lin Lim Ph.D. ’73 is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a poet, memoirist, novelist, and critic.  Joss and Gold is her most recent book.

Alicia Suskin Ostriker ’59 is a poet, scholar, and Rutgers professor who has twice been nominated for the National Book Award.  Her latest book is The Volcano Sequence.  

Patricia Schroeder served 12 terms in Congress and chaired its Caucus on women’s issues.  She has written 24 Years of House Work…and the Place is Still a Mess. 

Gloria Steinem is a founder of Ms. Magazine and the National Women’s Political Caucus and author of Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions and Revolution from Within. 

Patricia J. Williams is the James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia University and a MacArthur Fellow whose books include The Alchemy of Race and Rights and Open House.