The Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College will kick off its biannual Lunchtime Seminar Series on Thursday, September 27, with, “WCW in Retrospect: A Conversation with Barbara Newell, Wellesley College President (1972-1980).” The program will run from 12:30 to 1:30pm in room 413 of the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center at Wellesley College.

Barbara Newell, Ph.D., served as president of Wellesley College from 1972-1980. An economist and ardent advocate for women’s education and economic equity, she founded the Center for Research on Women in Higher Education and the Professions, which soon became known as the Center for Research on Women. In 1995, the Center for Research on Women and the Stone Center for Development Services and Studies at Wellesley College merged to form the Wellesley Centers for Women.

The Lunchtime Seminar Series is free and open to the public. Guests are invited to bring their lunches, and the Centers will provide tea and coffee. For accessibility questions, contact Disability Services at Wellesley College at [email protected]edu or call 781.283.2434. The Lunchtime Seminar Series schedule is subject to change. To confirm program lineup and location, call 781.283.2500 or visit wcwonline.org/calendar.

Throughout its history, the Centers served as the home for hundreds of research and action projects that have informed public policy, influenced practices, and shaped public opinion. In this special seminar, Linda Wertheimer ’65, senior national correspondent for National Public Radio and a member of the Centers’ Council of Advisors, and Layli Maparyan, Ph.D., the Katherine Stone Kaufmann ’67 Executive Director of the Centers, will interview and discuss with President Newell, her motivation for founding the Centers, her reflections on its early work and impact, and her hopes for its future. This presentation will be the first program of A Half Century of Social Change, a project celebrating the fifty-year history of the Wellesley Centers for Women.

For those who are unable to attend in person, the program will be streamed live on the Wellesley Centers for Women Facebook page (@wcwonline). Recordings from past seminars are posted online at wcwonline.org/video.

The Wellesley Centers for Women is the largest academic, women-and gender-focused, social-change-driven, research-and-action institute in the United States, located at Wellesley College. Scholars at the Centers advance gender equality, social justice, and human wellbeing through high-quality research, theory, and action programs. Areas of work include: Education, Economic Security, Mental Health, Youth and Adolescent Development, and Gender-Based Violence.