Panels, Lectures and Symposiums @Smith

A conversation showcasing women’s global leadership. Participants included Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund; Jane Harman ’66, director, president and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former U.S. Representative from California; Farah Pandith ’90, special representative to Muslim communities, U.S. Department of State; and Julianna Smoot ’89, Democratic political adviser. The panel was moderated by broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien and introduced by Gregory White, Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of Government at Smith and the Elizabeth Mugar Eveillard ’69 Faculty Director of the Lewis Global Studies Center.

A panel discussion featuring Lawrence Bacow, president emeritus, Tufts University, member, Harvard Corporation, and president-in-residence, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Drew Gilpin Faust, president, Harvard University; Juliet García, president, University of Texas at Brownsville; and Peter Salovey, president, Yale University. The panel was moderated by Tori Murden McClure ’85, president of Spalding University, and introduced by Agnes Bundy Scanlan ’79, Smith College trustee and senior advisor with Treliant Risk Advisors.

Sylvia Plath’s Smith College roommate and friends spoke about their memories of the late poet during a symposium in 2008. Through a combination of talks from both scholars and friends, students and admirers of Plath’s poetry, conference participants considered Plath both academically and personally, celebrating the 75th birthday of one of Smith’s great alumnae.

Jennifer Hammond '90 gives keynote on the meaning of identity and intersectionality.

Most people think of Buddhism as a spiritual practice that focuses on meditation in order to achieve a transcendent experience of awakening. In this approach, words and concepts are silenced in favor of pure experience. But what about the guiding words of the Buddha and his awakened followers? Are these also to be jettisoned? In this Alumnae College session, presented during All Reunion Weekend 2012, Jamie Hubbard, Professor of Religion and Yehan Numata Lecturer in Buddhist Studies, talks about the Buddhist approach to scripture, its preservation and transmission, and the role that it plays in the Buddhist tradition, as well as in the academic study of Buddhism.

The Global Issues Panel brought notable alumnae together to discuss contemporary global issues such as poverty, health, economics, the environment, education, war, and human rights. Presented during All Reunion Weekend 2012 on the Smith campus, the panel was moderated by Smith College President Carol T. Christ and included Nan Darling Borton '62 (international disaster response expert); Diana Eck '67 (professor of comparative religion and Indian studies, Harvard Divinity School); Marilyn Clark '72 (European health affairs expert); Jacquelyn Ottman '77 (green marketing consultant); and Sarah Franklin '82 (professor of social studies of biomedicine and associate director of the BIOS Centre, London School of Economics).