Educational and Academic Events

Posted in Past Events

At Georgetown, we have no shortage for academic based events. Check out events we have sponsored or hosted featuring prominent academic women or events that focus on gender issues.


Headshot of Deborah Tannen

A lecture and book signing with Deborah Tannen, Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University

Professor Tannen discussed her new book You’re The Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendships
About Deborah Tannen: Deborah Tannen is a university professor and professor of linguistics at Georgetown, where she has been on the faculty since 1979. Outside academia, she is best known as the author of You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for nearly four years, including eight months as No. 1, and has been translated into 31 languages. Her book Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work was a New York Times Business best seller. Her last two books, You Were Always Mom’s Favorite!: Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives and You’re Wearing THAT?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation, were also New York Times best sellers. She is a frequent guest on television and radio news and information shows, including The Colbert Report, 20/20, Good Morning America, The Today Show, PBS NewsHour, Charlie Rose, Oprah, Hardball, Nightline, and many shows on CNN and NPR such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered, The Diane Rehm Show, and Fresh Air. She has been featured in and written for most major newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today, People, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review. You’re The Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendships, her 25th book, will be published May 2.

May 2, 2017, ICC Auditorium


Girls Education: Local to Global Perspectives

A Center for Social Justice Education Week event with Professor Fida Adely, Associate Professor, School of Foreign Service, Kelli Brevard (C’05, G’06), Asst. to the College Guidance Office, National Cathedral School, Caitlin Dempsey (C’10), Founding Board Member, Pine Ridge Girls’ School, and Haydn Welch (G’17), Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

November 7, 2016 Leavey Program Room


Biondi Copeland Lecture Series on Women in Higher Education

Last year, during the celebration of their 25th anniversary, the Georgetown University Women’s Center (GUWC) announced the inauguration of the Biondi Copeland Lecture Series on women in higher education. This lecture series will foster dialogue, discourse, and increased visibility for topics regarding higher education and women’s leadership roles.

You are cordially invited to join us on Tuesday, October 25, as we welcome Patricia McGuire, J.D., President of Trinity University and Linda LeMura, Ph.D., President of Le Moyne College for a panel discussion about women in leadership roles at Catholic and Jesuit universities. President John J. DeGioia will offer welcoming remarks and Jeanne F. Lord, J.D., Ed.D., Associate Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students, Deputy Title IX Coordinator for Undergraduate Students, and Director of The Jesuit Leadership Seminar will moderate our panel.

October 25, 2016 Bioethics Research Library


Women Who Write About War

A panel discussion with: Marjorie Agosín, Domnica Radulescu, Christine Evans and Barbara Mujica. Moderated by LeNaya Hezel, Director, GU Veterans Office.

This panel brings together professional women writers whose work focuses primarily on war.

October 21, 2016 Mortara Center


POLICIES ON CAMPUS VIOLENCE AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM

A symposium hosted by The Georgetown Law Center, Journal of Legal Education and Georgetown Gender Justice Initiative

Universities occupy a hallowed position in American culture. But recently reported incidents of sexual assaults on college campuses have spurred new and more rigorous policies in universities across the country. While the importance of protecting students from violence is unquestioned, these new policies call for consideration of issues such as the appropriate role of administrative decision-making, the role of governmental regulations, the need for academic freedom, and the rule of law generally. How can we best ensure an educational environment free from sexual violence but, at the same time, provide for academic freedom and the “marketplace of ideas”? And how might this be done given that constitutionally protected speech is sometimes offensive and disagreeable? How might we best maintain academic freedom without making it a defensive shield against enforcing equal opportunity requirements within academic life? These and related questions will inform the symposium.

October 14, 2016 Georgetown University Law Center


“Manifesting a Dream” film conversation with Vivian Kleynhans and Adetoro Makinde (C’92)

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October 22, 2015. IDEAA, in collaboration with Backdoor Films, hosted an intimate evening of conversation, inspiration and learning with South African winemaker, Vivian Kleynhans & alumni filmmaker, Adetoro Makinde (C’92). The conversation was moderated by Rosemary Kilkenny, Vice President for Institutional Diversity & Equity.


Two women talking on a bench in a park

Lunch and Discussion on Deans of Women and the Feminist Movement

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June 15th, 2015. The Women’s Center, the Georgetown Women’s Alliance and the Graduate Liberal Studies program co-hosted Dr. Kelly Sartorius, historian and interdisciplinary scholar, on her new book Deans of Women and the Feminist Movement: Emily Taylor’s Activism. This book explores the life of Emily Taylor, Dean of Women at the University of Kansas, who belied the stereotype of an administrator bent on discipline by following in a line of feminist Midwestern deans and fostering feminism before the women’s liberation movement. Talking about her new book, Dr. Sartorius focused on how Emily Taylor worked to move parietal rules in 1958 and incorporated contraceptive counseling, abortion alternatives, rape crisis counseling and sexual assault awareness to women during her time as the Dean of Women at University of Kansas. Dr. Kelly Sartorius’ work on deans of women was selected as the winner of the 2012 Ruth Strang Award by the Center for Women at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), and has been featured on CSPAN3.


Book cover for South Side Girls on a wood background

South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration

April 28, 2015. The GWA and the History Department co-hosted Dr. Marcia Chatelain, an alumna of the University of Missouri-Columbia (B.A.) and Brown University (A.M., PhD.) and Assistant Professor of History at Georgetown University, for a talk about her new book “South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration,” (Duke University Press, 2015). In South Side Girls Marcia Chatelain recasts Chicago’s Great Migration through the lens of black girls. Focusing on the years between 1910 and 1940, when Chicago’s black population quintupled, Chatelain describes how Chicago’s black social scientists, urban reformers, journalists and activists formulated a vulnerable image of urban black girlhood that needed protecting. Referencing girls’ letters and interviews, this book explores their powerful stories of hope, anticipation and disappointment to highlight their feelings and thoughts. In this book Marcia Chatelain helps restore the experiences of an understudied population to the Great Migration’s complex narrative. The event was attended by more than 75 guests and was followed by Q&A and a reception.