Loretta J. Ross, visiting associate professor of the study of women and gender at Smith College, will present the annual Cuninggim Lecture on Women in Culture and Society on Wednesday, Nov. 3. Ross will discuss “Calling in the Calling-out Culture” beginning at 5 p.m. CT via Zoom.
Ross has been active in the women’s movement since 1978, when she began working at the country’s first rape crisis center. A co-founder of the reproductive justice organization SisterSong, Ross speaks, trains, consults and lectures on a range of issues, including reproductive justice, white supremacy, human rights and violence against women. She has appeared in media outlets such as CNN, BET, The Washington Post and The New York Times, and on programs such as Good Morning America, CBS Sunday Morning and others.
Ross teaches a class about call-out culture and is working on a book on this topic. This summer, she gave a TED talk, “Don’t Call People Out, Call Them In” as part of the 2021 TEDMonterey, “The Case for Optimism.” Ross has written, co-written and contributed to many books, including Reproductive Justice: An Introduction, which she co-wrote with Rickie Sollinger (University of California Press, 2017).
The Cuninggim Lecture on Women in Culture and Society offers an occasion to raise awareness about the ways in which gender shapes and is shaped by our lived experiences. Each Cuninggim lecturer empowers Vanderbilt community members to expand their activist reach and become more involved in positive social change outside of the university.
