October 2, 1996
Contact: Jamie Lawson, (615) 322-2706
Vanderbilt University's Women's Center
presents 1996 Mary Jane Werthan Award
and Margaret Cuninggim Lecture
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Patricia A. Pierce, director of Vanderbilt University's
Opportunity Development Center, will be recognized for her extraordinary
contributions to the advancement of women at the University Oct. 10 when
she is presented the 1996 Mary Jane Werthan Award. Presentation of the award
precedes the annual Margaret Cuninggim Lecture at 7:30 p.m. in 126 Wilson
Hall on the Vanderbilt campus.
Established in 1988 by the Advisory Board of the Women's Center, the award
is named for its first recipient, who was the first female member of the
Vanderbilt Board of Trust.
Following the presentation of the award, Sylvia Molloy, the Schweitzer Professor
of Humanities at New York University, will present Vanderbilt's annual Margaret
Cuninggim Lecture. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Molloy, who is also chair of the Department of Spanish at New York University,
will present a talk titled "The Vicissitudes of Feeling: Impersonating
Femininity at the Fin de Siecle." A reception will follow.
This year's Mary Jane Werthan Award recipient, Pierce is known as a mentor
to women students and staff members, including two of her former assistant
directors who are now heading equal employment opportunity programs at other
universities.
She attended the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing last year
and has since made more than 15 presentations about her trip, sharing her
experiences with many groups in Middle Tennessee.
Pierce came to Vanderbilt in 1978 as assistant director of the ODC, which
monitors the University's compliance with affirmative action requirements.
Prior to that, she served as compliance director of the Tennessee Human
Rights Commission.
Molloy was born in Buenos Aires and educated in Paris, where she earned
a doctorate in comparative literature at the University of Paris. She was
professor of Spanish at Yale from 1986 to 1990. Prior to that appointment,
she was on the faculty at Princeton University, where she rose through the
ranks to become the Emory L. Ford Professor of Spanish in 1983. She has
been a visiting professor at Dartmouth, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, the University
of Pennsylvania, McGill University, Washington University and the University
of Puerto Rico.
Molloy's books and articles explore Hispanic-American literary traditions;
they have been published in Spanish, Portuguese, English and French. Her
wide-ranging scholarly interests include autobiography and the study of
women and gender. While at Yale she served on the executive committee of
the Women's Studies Program. Her most recent book, "Women's Writing
in Latin America" (Westview Press, 1991), was co- authored with Sara
Casto-Klar n and Beatriz Sarlo. Two forthcoming articles, which will be
published by Duke University Press and New York University Press, examine
sexual identity and sexual preference in comparative literature.
Her honors and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship (1986-87) and the
National Translation Award presented by the Fondo Nacional de las Artes
of Buenos Aires. She currently serves on the executive council of the Modern
Language Association. She has held the positions of vice-president and president
of the Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana.
The Margaret Cuninggim Lecture was established by family, friends and the
Alumni Association of Vanderbilt University. This year's cosponsors are
the Women's Studies Program, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and
the University Lectures Committee.
-VU-
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This document last updated Jan. 10, 1997