Catharine R. Stimpson, director of the fellows division of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, will give the address during the College's Founders Day convocation on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 11:30 a.m. in Memorial Chapel. Stimpson is to
receive an honorary doctor of letters degree.
A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Stimpson earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University. She joined the English Department of Barnard College in 1963, leaving in 1980 to become professor of English at Rutgers; currently, she is on extended leave from her position as
University Professor at Rutgers. She was the first director of the Women's Center of
Barnard and of the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers and was the founding editor
of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Her publications include a
novel, Class Notes (1979), and more than 150 monographs, essays, stories and
reviews. She also has edited seven books. In 1990, she was president of the Modern
Language Association. She is now chair of the National Advisory Committee of the Woodrow
Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and a member of the board of PBS.
The convocation also is to include the conferral of the Gideon Hawley Teaching Awards,
in which high school teachers are honored for their influence on Union College students.
The Women's Commission is hosting a reception for Stimpson from 2 to 4 p.m. in Milano
Lounge. The event is open to the entire Union community.