Audio Archive of WCW Presentations

Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) scholars offer seminar and panel presentations during which they share their work with other scholars and the general public. The WCW Lunchtime Seminar Series, for example, offers residents and visitors to the Greater Boston area the opportunity to hear, in person, about work by WCW researchers and program staff. Other special events bring these researchers and program staff into communities for special presentations to the Centers' many constituents.

Recordings of some past lunchtime seminars and other special events may be heard by clicking on the links below; a player should pop up in a small window.  You may need to adjust the volume when playing an audio file on your computer.

*Please note that data and background information cited in these presentations were current for the date of the presentation but should not necessarily be considered the most current research on the related issues today.

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Listen:

  • Ruth Harriet Jacobs, Ph.D.; Older Women as Mentors. (November 12, 2009) 34:35 min.

    • Ruth Harriet Jacobs will give examples of older women in mentoring roles and discuss the impact these relationships can have on both older and younger women. She also will offer members of the audience a chance to share stories about mentoring and will talk about opportunities in the area where older women can be “sages to seekers,” sharing their skills and wisdom as mentors.

     

  • Amy Hoffman, M.F.A.; Lies about My Family: A Memoir (a reading from a work in progress). (October 29, 2009) 26:29 min.

    • Lies about My Family is a memoir in progress about Amy Hoffman's grandparents’ immigration in the early 20th century to the U.S. from Jewish villages in what are now Ukraine and Belarus. Based on historical research, oral histories, photographs, and Hoffman's own memories, the book explores their lives, values, and experiences, and the effects of those down the generations. Hoffman is interested in the stories we tell, the stories we don’t tell, the facts and the truths we make of them.

     

  • Jean Hardisty: How the Conservative Right Distorts Social Science to Validate Its Causes: A Case Study (April 30, 2009) 61:04 min.

    • Usually when right-wing researchers disseminate biased research posing as objective social science, mainstream and liberal opponents criticize the conclusions reached and the policies that flow from them. But equally important is the misuse of standard social science methodology in the research. Using marriage promotion as a case study, Jean Hardisty, Ph.D., Senior Scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women, will discuss how the Right generates misleading “research” in think tanks, then uses its political, media, academic, and legislative allies to build consensus in support of the flawed results.

     

  • Pamela C. Alexander, Ph.D.; Dual Trauma Couples - Implications for Family Violence (April 2, 2009) 49:33 min.

    • The intergenerational transmission of violence has long been acknowledged to be important in understanding men’s propensity to engage in intimate partner violence (IPV), women’s vulnerability to abuse by a partner and both dads’ and moms’ risk for abusing their children. However, what is the impact on family violence (IPV and child abuse) of both partners or parents having a history of childhood trauma? Although this is a question that is virtually ignored by researchers, it concerns couples and families with clearly the greatest risk for serious violence. To address this question, Pamela C. Alexander will be presenting data from two large datasets – 1) men court-ordered to treatment for IPV and their female partners, and 2) military families participating in a child abuse prevention program.

     

  • Tracy R. G. Gladstone, Ph.D.; The Prevention of Depression in At-Risk Adolescents (March 26, 2009) 55:49 min.

    • Depression, which often has its first onset in adolescence, is a common and impairing condition associated with difficulties in relationships, impaired school and work performance, and increased risk for substance abuse and suicide. Adolescent offspring of depressed parents are at markedly increased risk for developing depression themselves. To date, few large-scale depression prevention trials have been conducted targeting high risk children of depressed parents. In this seminar, Tracy Gladstone, Ph.D. , will present data from a multi-site randomized controlled trial of a group, cognitive-behavioral prevention program targeting these adolescent (ages 13-17) offspring of parents with current and/or prior depressive disorders.


  • Sally Engle Merry, Ph.D.; Measuring Violence Against Women: Global Reform Indicators and Knowledge Production (March 19, 2009) 59:31 min.

    • In this seminar, Sally Engle Merry, Ph.D. will discuss the use of statistical methods in understanding violence against women.  As the spread of indicators as a new technology of governance expands into the field of human rights and global governance, the way violence against women is understood is also shifting. The use of indicators, statistical measures of performance, submerges political issues about how to define and measure social phenomena into technical mastery. Thus, assessing the political and social processes of indicator production and implementation is fundamental to assessing the effects of this new technology on power relations and forms of global governance.


  • Maureen Walker, Ph.D.; Hope in Action: Healing Practices of Power and Possibility (March 5, 2009) 69:01 min.

    • In this presentation, Maureen Walker, Ph.D., Director of Program Development at JBMTI, discusses why noble intentions alone are insufficient to advance a social action agenda. Indeed, the hopes and aspirations on which social justice organizations are founded often dissipate under the weight of a power paradigm that normalizes relational constriction and hyper-control. The inevitable outcome of such a paradigm is an organizational culture of disconnection: a culture that functions to contaminate conflict and to stifle creativity. This talk examined the power beliefs and relational practices that foster conflict-competent organizations, in which initiatives toward transformation and new possibilities may be exercised from any position in the power structure. In addition, Walker discusses the behavioral correlates of empathy, authenticity, and mutuality—the relational competencies required to sustain an agenda of hope, justice, and healing.

  • Alice Frye, Ph.D., MPH; Adolescence to Adulthood: Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms (February 26, 2009) 60:01 min.

    • Alice Frye, Ph.D., MPH , a WCW research scientist, presented her work on study and remediation of psychopathology among adolescents at risk. Researchers generally acknowledge that the development of depressive symptoms in adolescents is an important area of research focus, as adolescent depression is associated with an increased risk for depression across the life span.  Whereas a robust body of work is accruing with respect to adolescent depression, its risks and trajectory, less is known about the continuing trajectory of depression across the transition to young adulthood.  This presentation will focus on examining the trajectory of depressive symptoms in a diverse sample of young adults, and identifying different pathways of symptomatology and corresponding risks.  Findings will be examined in the context of how the trajectory of depression in young adulthood is similar to and different from trajectories of depression in adolescence.

     

  • Erin Seaton, Ed.D.; In-dependent Identities: Rural Adolescent Girls' Narratives of Isolation and Connection (December 11, 2008) 48:05 min.

    • Erin Seaton, Ed.D., is the 2005 recipient of a Stone Center Grant from the "Empowering Children for Life" Program. This program established in 2003 at the Wellesley Centers for Women supports research and evaluation that advances understanding of the role of relationships in fostering child and adolescent well being and healthy human development. The grant enabled Dr Erin Seaton to interview adolescent girls growing up in central rural New Hampshire. Her talk reveals the girls' challenges to crafting constructive self identities and the complexity of their relationships in their small town.

     

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