Marecek is WGS Distinguished Lecturer March 3
February 9, 2015
Jeanne Marecek will give the talk, "Beyond Difference: Re-imagining Gender, Sex and Sexualities," Tuesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. in the Forum of the Elaine Langone Center at Bucknell University.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, is presented as part of the ongoing Women's and Gender Studies Distinguished Lecture Series.
Widely recognized as a pioneer of feminist psychology, Marecek is the William R. Kenan Professor Emerita of Psychology at Swarthmore College.
She has co-authored two groundbreaking books: Making a Difference: Psychology and the Construction of Gender (Yale University Press, 1992) and Gender and Culture in Psychology (Cambridge University Press, 2012) along with scores of articles and book chapters.
In her talk, Marecek plans to "describe alternate questions and alternate ways that we might investigate gendered social life" by asking "Is women's psychology different from men's? Are male-female differences a matter of biology or culture?
"Claims about male-female differences lace through self-help books, child-rearing manuals, advice columns and psychology textbooks. Psychologists have been called on to answer questions about 'female nature' and male-female differences since the early 1900s.
"I argue that it is time to stop trying to answer such questions. The questions are the wrong questions and definitive answers are not possible," she said.
While at Bucknell, Marecek also will participate in a faculty colloquium about suicide in Sri Lanka and facilitate a session for Women@Bucknell.
