Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Tillie K. Lubin Symposium

Ryanne Olsen, Glynda C. Carr, Charlotte Golar Richie and Jill S. Greenlee, speakers at the 2018 Tillie K. Lubin Symposium

The Tillie K. Lubin Symposium focuses on a contemporary issue or event relevant to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

It was started in honor of Tillie Kulp, a native of Iowa, who married Charles Lubin in the late 1930s soon after he had purchased a chain of neighborhood bakeries in Chicago. After the birth of their daughter Sara Lee, the Lubins renamed their company the Kitchens of Sara Lee.

The company’s great success allowed the Lubins to engage in many philanthropic projects. Among their major gifts, they established the Charles Lubin Family Chair for Women in Science at Skidmore College and the Charles W. and Tillie K. Lubin Center for Plant Biotechnology and the Lubin Chair of Hormone Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Tillie Lubin also had a lifelong passion for the arts and a particular affinity for Spanish culture. Her daughter, Sara Lee Schupf, served on the Women's Studies Program Board in the 1990's and endowed the Lubin Symposium in her mother's honor.