Najmabadi said she hopes the series will spark a healthy, ongoing dialogue and "keep gender and issues of feminism alive and informing of whatever change we may envisage for future decades."

Other speakers agreed with her that more dialogue is better.

"I think it's important to discuss everything at a university--and I can't imagine anything much more central than the nature and direction of historical change," Park said.

One-Sided History?

While the "Gender at the Millennium" series has a broader focus on women's issues in the world, "Gender at the Gates" focuses more specifically on the history and the current status of women at Harvard.

The idea for the November 14th conference--which will engage students, faculty and alumnae in addressing gender at Harvard and Radcliffe--came from a research partnership on the history of women at Harvard offered by the Charles Warren Center.

Personal observations gave rise to the conference, Ulrich said, adding that at last fall's dedication of the Barker Center, she noticed that the walls only had "portraits of great men and some not so great men"--but no women.

"The assumption is that there are no portraits of women because there is nothing to say," she said. "The history of women at Harvard goes far back and I'm amazed that there is still the assumption that the arrival of women at Harvard is a recent thing."

Ulrich also said the 25th anniversarycelebration of women at Harvard last fallcompelled her to hold the conference.

"Some said it was the 25th anniversary ofco-education, but that is simply not true," shesaid. "This is a constricted vision of what isHarvard's past."

Harvard does not always acknowledge the pastand current contributions of women, in particularwomen in the humanities, she said.

"There is no acknowledgement of women'scontribution to the humanities in the presentationthat we see," Ulrich said. "I thought of Harvardas an institution very conscious of its history,but you wouldn't know about the exclusion orinclusion of women's history at Harvard."

Discussing Gender on Campus

Women's studies concentrators also said thereis a need for the series andconference--especially here at Harvard.

"It is crucial that we discuss these issuesnow, and especially here at Harvard-Radcliffe,because so many people think feminism is just somebra-burning thing that happened in the 70's," saidShauna L. Shames '01. "They don't realize that itrepresents a completely different way of viewingthe world in general and the relations between thesexes in particular."

Shames said that even at Harvard, students arenot necessarily well-informed about gender issues.

"Even here at one of the most famousinstitutions of higher learning, I see the generalmisconception that we have already achievedperfect equality between women and men," she said."This view becomes dangerous and downright harmfulwhen it prevents women from truly gainingequality."

Other women's studies concentrators said thatsince interaction with the opposite site sex issuch a fact of life, it is necessary to fullyexplore gender issues.

"College presents many new arenas for people.Men and women interact in a way that most peoplehave never been faced with before--such as livingwith the opposite sex. This raises many issues,"said Angela L. Peluse '01.

"Throughout our entire lives we will be facedwith the opposite sex. This means that we hadbetter fully understand ourselves as a gender andhow we relate to the other gender if we can figureout why our stereotypes have been created and howthey affect us, we will have a better chance ofmaking life better for all people," she said