Lowell Lecturer Jill Ker Conway

Studying Women's Lives

On Tuesday, April 27, at 8 pm in Science Center C, Jill Ker Conway will deliver the Lowell Lecture, "Studying Women's Lives." Sponsored jointly by the Harvard University Extension School and the Lowell Institute of Boston, the Lowell Lecture is an annual public service event devoted to major issues of the 1990s.

Jill Ker Conway

Jill Ker Conway is an internationally acclaimed authority on women's lives, both as the author of best-selling autobiographies and as an anthologizer of women's memories. Beginning with The Road from Coorain (1989), the story of her early life in New South Wales, and followed by True North (1994), which traces her life from 1960 when she left Australia to 1975 when she accepted the presidency of Smith College, Dr. Conway exhibits her mastery of the genre of autobiography. Similarly, her scholarly work in women's lives dates from the 1960s and includes such major studies as Learning About Women, edited with Susan Bourque and Joan Scott (1989); Written By Herself, Autobiographies of American Women (1992); The Politics of Women's Education, edited with Susan Bourque (1993); Written By Herself, vol. 2, Autobiographies of Women from Britain, Africa, Asia and the U.S. (1996); and, most recently, When Memory Speaks (1998).

Dr. Conway received her PhD in History from Harvard University in 1969. She has taught at the University of Sydney, Harvard, the University of Toronto, Smith College, and since 1985 she has been Visiting Professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her distinguished career in higher education administration includes serving as Vice President for Internal Affairs at the University of Toronto (1973-75) and as the first woman president of Smith College (1975-85).

She has been awarded honorary degrees from more than 30 colleges and universities, and is a trustee on various foundation and university boards, including the Knight Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and Mt. Holyoke College. She also serves as a director of many major American corporations, including Merrill Lynch & Co., Nike, Inc., and Colgate-Palmolive Co.

She was married to the late John J. Conway, a Canadian war hero, former Master of Leverett House, and Lecturer on British History at Harvard.

The Lowell Lecture is free and open to the public.