Monday, March 10, 4:00-5:30 pm, Room 9204, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue: “Grace Harriet Macurdy (1866-1946): Pioneering Feminist Scholar.” Barbara F. McManus, Professor of Classics Emerita, The College of New Rochelle, will deliver the spring 2014 Women Writing Women’s Lives Dorothy O. Helly Works-in-Progress lecture. Grace Macurdy, Professor of Greek at Vassar College from 1893 to 1937, rose from a poverty-stricken childhood to become the first woman to win international recognition as a professional classicist and the first to focus her scholarship on ancient women. This illustrated presentation will explore the challenges of writing a biography of a woman who is relatively little known today but whose engrossing life story illuminates significant issues such as the opening of higher education to women, the erosion of gender and class barriers in the professions, the overcoming of disability, the delicate balancing act between personal and professional life required of women, the fissures and strains in female solidarity, and the sometimes vicious back-room battles among academics.

The program is free and open to the public; co-sponsors are the Leon Levy Center for Biography and CUNY Graduate Center’s PhD Programs in History and English, MA Program in Liberal Studies, Center for the Study of Women and Society, and Center for the Humanities. A printable flyer is available here.