The Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center will hold a celebration in honor of Women’s History Month on March 11. The Vanderbilt University community is invited to attend the event, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sarratt Promenade, which will feature food, music, trivia, prizes and a photo booth.
A nationally recognized celebration throughout March, Women’s History Month originates back to 1981, when Congress authorized and requested President Reagan to proclaim the week starting March 7, 1982, to be Women’s History Week. The week in March was selected to commemorate an 1857 strike for better pay and working conditions held by women working in a garment factory. In 1987, the National Women’s History Project successfully petitioned for Congress to designate the month of March to be Women’s History Month.
Vanderbilt is hosting a full calendar of events, film screenings, interactive workshops, lectures and panel discussions throughout March in honor of Women’s History Month.
On March 12 at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Susan R. Wente will moderate a panel discussion titled “ZIGZAGS: Honest STEM Career Paths.” During the panel discussion, sponsored by the Provost’s Office for Inclusive Excellence, faculty members will share about their own career journeys as women in STEM and how they didn’t always follow a singular path. Lunch will be available starting at 11:30 a.m., and the panel discussion will begin at noon.
On March 13, Emerita Professor of French and Comparative Literature Patricia Ward will give a lecture titled “Looking for Kate Lupton, Vanderbilt’s First Female Grad: Women and Lost History.” During the program, which will take place at noon in Buttrick Hall, Room 123, Ward will share her research on the story of Lupton, the first woman to graduate from Vanderbilt.
A March 26 lecture by Professor of Medicine Maureen Gannon will focus on recognizing and overcoming imposter syndrome, a prevalent phenomenon of self-doubt and viewing one’s own success as fraudulent. The program will begin at 4 p.m. with the announcement of the Women’s Center’s annual awards, including the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center Leadership Award, the Mentoring Award and the Mary Jane Werthan Award. The program will be held in the Central Library Community Room and be followed by a reception.
On March 27, Agnes Grunwald-Spier, author of Women’s Experiences in the Holocaust: In Their Own Words, will be the featured speaker for the Holocaust Lecture Series. Her presentation, titled “Women Heroes of the Holocaust,” begins at 5 p.m. in the Student Life Center Board of Trust Room.
For more information and a full listing of Women’s History Month events, visit the Women’s Center’s website.
