FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Leading Black Feminist to Speak at Pitzer College Commencement

Claremont, Calif. (April 4, 2002) -- Beverly Guy-Sheftall, a Spelman College 
professor who is regarded as one of America's premier black feminists, will 
be the featured speaker at Pitzer College's 38th commencement 
ceremony, to be held Sunday, May 19.

About 215 Bachelor of Arts degrees will be conferred at the ceremony, 
which begins at 1 p.m. on the lawn near the Brant Clock Tower.

Two members of Pitzer's Board of Trustees, Susan S. Pritzker and Russell 
M. Pitzer, will receive honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees during 
the ceremony.  Pitzer is awarding these honorary degrees to recognize 
their extraordinary contributions of time and financial resources to the 
College and The Campaign for Pitzer College.

Pritzker, who chairs Pitzer's Board of Trustees, recently provided a 
generous gift of $2.5 million to establish the Pritzker Scholarship 
Enhancement Fund. Earnings from the endowment could provide as many 
as 60 scholarships a year. 

Mr. Pitzer, a chemistry professor at Ohio State University, is the son of the 
late Jean Elizabeth Mosher Pitzer and Kenneth S. Pitzer, whose father was 
Russell K. Pitzer, a founding trustee of Pitzer College. Mr. Pitzer is being 
recognized for his careful and thoughtful contributions to the direction of 
the College's academic programs.

Pitzer's commencement speaker, Guy-Sheftall, is the Anna Julia Cooper 
Professor of English and Women's Studies at Spelman College, a 
historically black college in Atlanta.  She has been described as "the 
premier black feminist in historically black institutions" by Jack Salzman, 
editor of the "Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History." 

In 1981, Guy-Sheftall became founding director of Spelman's Women's 
Research and Resource Center, the first of its kind on a historically black 
college campus. She also is an adjunct professor at Atlanta's Emory 
University's Institute for Women's Studies, and, since 1983, founding co-
editor of "SAGE: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women," the only journal 
devoted exclusively to the experiences of women of African decent.
Guy-Sheftall has been involved with the national women's studies movement 
since its inception and provided leadership for the establishment of the 
first women's studies major at a historically black college (Spelman 
College).

Guy-Sheftall is a popular speaker on women's studies and feminist issues, 
and is a prolific reviewer for magazines such as Ms., Essence and Ebony. 
She is involved in a number of advocacy organizations, including the 
National Black Women's Health Project and the National Council for 
Research on Women. She also serves as a consultant to several universities 
in women's studies and multicultural programs.

"One of our greatest challenges as feminist educators in the new 
millennium is figuring out how to provide anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-
classist, anti-homophobic education to all students," Guy-Sheftall told 
attendees of a 1998 feminism and education symposium at Bryn Mawr, 
where she was a co-moderator.

Guy-Sheftall grew up in Memphis, Tenn. Her mother, Ernestine Varnado 
Guy, was a single parent in the 1950s and supported three daughters, 
teaching them to work hard and prepare for a productive adulthood. "My 
mother was the first feminist I ever knew," Guy-Sheftall told the 
Massachusetts Daily Collegian in 1997.

In 1962, at the age of 16, Guy-Sheftall graduated with honors from 
Manassas High School. In 1966, she received her bachelor's degree in 
English from Spelman College, again with honors, and a master's degree in 
English from Atlanta University in 1970. In 1971, she returned to Spelman 
to teach English and women's studies.

Guy-Sheftall earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from Emory University 
in 1984. Her doctoral dissertation, "Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward 
Black Women, 1880-1920," appears in the 16-volume series, "Black 
Women in United States History" (Carlson, 1990).

A recipient of the Kellogg and Woodrow Wilson fellowships, Guy-Sheftall is 
co-editor of "Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature" 
(Doubleday, 1979), the first anthology of black women's literature 
published in the U.S. She also is co-editor of "Double Stitch: Black Women 
Write About Mothers and Daughters" (Beacon, 1991) and author of 
"Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought" (New 
Press, 1995). 

Most recently, she completed an anthology with Rudolph Byrd titled 
"Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality" (Indiana University 
Press, 2001). She is currently under contract with Ballantine Books for a 
book titled "Gender Talk" with Johnnetta B. Cole.

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Founded in 1963, Pitzer College is a nationally ranked undergraduate 
college of the liberal arts and sciences.  A member of The Claremont 
Colleges, Pitzer offers a distinctive approach to a liberal education by 
linking intellectual inquiry with interdisciplinary studies, cultural immersion, 
social responsibility and community involvement.

Media Contact:
Bridget Lewison
Associate Director of Public Relations
Pitzer College
1050 N. Mills Ave.
Claremont, Calif. 91711
v: (909) 621-8219
e: bridget_lewison@pitzer.edu