NOW President Terry O’Neill to Speak about Challenges Facing Feminists in Lecture at UMass Amherst

AMHERST, Mass. – Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), will discuss the past, present and future challenges facing feminists at the 2013 Rossi Lecture on Tuesday, March 5, at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

 

The event is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow.

 

O’Neill, a feminist attorney, professor and activist for social justice, was elected president of NOW in June 2009. She is also president of the NOW Foundation and chair of the NOW Political Action Committees, and serves as the principal spokesperson for all three entities. O’Neill oversees NOW’s multi-issue agenda, which includes advancing reproductive freedom, promoting diversity and ending racism, stopping violence against women, winning lesbian rights, ensuring economic justice, ending sex discrimination and achieving constitutional equality for women.

 

This event is part of the Alice S. and Peter H. Rossi Lecture series, established to honor a distinguished academic couple who taught at UMass Amherst for many years. Both were members of the UMass Amherst department of sociology, and Alice was one of the original founders of the National Organization for Women.

 

This endowed lecture series alternates between the honorees, focusing on Peter one year and Alice the next. The lecturers are prominent academic and public figures drawn from across the country and around the world who are renowned for pursuing one or more of the honoree’s interests.

 

During a typical two-day visit, the Rossi lecturer will give a public all-campus lecture, as well as a department seminar on work in progress for faculty and graduate students, visit an undergraduate class, and be available for informal meetings and social gatherings.