100 Years After the Birth of Margaret Mead, Conference
at Barnard College Examines Her Influence on Society
Margaret Mead's Legacy: Continuing Controversies,
features Mary Catherine Bateson, Mead's Daughter
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 12, 2001
New
York, N.Y.--One hundred years after the birth
of Margaret Mead - the woman who introduced the
public face of anthropology to Americans, along
with a new way of understanding gender roles and
sexuality - a conference at Barnard College will
examine her legacy.
An
advocate for change, Mead famously noted, "Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world". Mead wrote and
co-authored a number of books, including Coming
of Age in Samoa, which was translated into many
languages. She worked to improve ethnographic
techniques through participant observation and
the use of new media, especially film and photography.
In her role as a public intellectual, Mead addressed
a wide range of topics including race, women's
rights, the environment, health, and nutrition.
As
an academic, Mead helped shape the very questions
anthropologists ask; as one of America's leading
public intellectuals, she has left behind a legacy
that invites the kind of critical awareness and
assessment of our society that inspires community
activism.
The
daylong conference, Margaret Mead's Legacy:
Continuing Controversies, is hosted by the
Department of Anthropology and the Barnard Center
for Research on Women at the College from which
Mead graduated in 1923. The keynote speaker is
Professor Mary Catherine Bateson, an anthropologist
and Mead's daughter, and panelists include some
of today's most accomplished scholars in anthropology.
Judith Shapiro, a cultural anthropologist and
Barnard's President, will introduce the conference.
The
first panel, Continuing Controversies, Contemporary
Frames, covers topics that defined Mead's
work and which she helped to define--gender, sexuality,
the role of visual media in anthropology, and
the relationship between scholarship and public
life. It includes Elaine Charnov, Director of
the Margaret Mead Film Festival at The American
Museum of Anthropology; Faye Ginsburg, author
of Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in
an American Community; Nancy Lutkehaus, University
of Southern California, and assistant to Margaret
Mead at the American Museum of Anthropology (1972-74);
Marcyliena Morgan, University of California; and
Esther Newton, State University of New York, Purchase.
The
second panel, Beyond Nature vs. Nurture
will focus on broader cultural issues, and will
feature anthropologists Micaela di Leonardo, Northwestern
University, Emily Martin, Princeton University
and New York University, and Rayna Rapp, New School
for Social Research and New York University. Professor
Bateson will provide reflections on her mother's
legacy in the concluding remarks, titled Looking
Ahead. Bateson, who is currently the Virginia
C. Gildersleeve Professor at Barnard College and
the Clarence J. Robinson Professor in Anthropology
and English at George Mason University, is the
author of eight books and the president of the
Institute for Intercultural Studies in New York
City. Her most recent book, Full Circles, Overlapping
Lives, examines changes in concepts of personal
identity and shared fulfillment.
What: Gildersleeve Conference celebrating
the centenary of Margaret Mead's birth, Margaret
Mead's Legacy: Continuing Controversies
When: Friday, April 6 at 10 a.m. Registration
begins at 9 a.m. in Barnard Hall Lobby (117th
St. & Broadway) on Friday, April 6. Panels begin
at 10 a.m.
Where: Barnard College, Barnard Hall, 117th
St. & Broadway
Contact:
Janet Jakobsen, Center for Research on Women,
212-854-2067
Bridget Hayden, Department of Anthropology, 212-854-4316
Lesley Sharp, Department of Anthropology, 212-854-5428
Petra Tuomi, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907
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