For Immediate Release:  May 1, 2007
Contact:  Marsha Nishi Mullan     
610-328-8535      
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/

Special Event 'Celebrating Jennie Keith: Scholarship, Teaching, and Civic Engagement' to Be Held May 11

A special event, "Celebrating Jennie Keith: Scholarship, Teaching, and Civic Engagement," will be held on Friday, May 11, from 4:30-5:15 p.m. in the Science Center, Cunniff Lecture Hall (Room 199). A reception will follow from 5:15 to 6 p.m. in the Science Center, Eldridge Commons.

Speakers at the event include Marc Freedman, Swarthmore Class of '80, founder and president of Civic Ventures, and founder of The Experience Corps, the United States' largest national service program for Americans 50 and above; Cynthia Jetter, Class of '74, director of community partnerships and planning at Swarthmore's Eugene M. Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility; and Professor Miguel Díaz-Barriga, chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department, who will speak about how Jennie Keith has influenced their lives and careers as writers, activists, and civic leaders.

Jennie Keith has been a pivotal figure in the history of Swarthmore College. Over the last 39 years she has served as a professor of anthropology, Swarthmore's first female provost, and one of the founders and the first director of the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.

Jennie Keith is a leading authority on aging. She is co-author of The Aging Experience: Diversity and Commonality Across Cultures (Sage Publications, 1994), which presents findings of a decade-long, cross-cultural study of growing old in the United States and several other countries. Among several dozen other books and articles, she has written Old People, New Lives: Community Creation in a Retirement Residence (University of Chicago, 1977).

A 1964 Pomona College graduate, Keith received her Ph. D. from Northwestern University in 1968. In 1990, she was named Swarthmore's Centennial Professor of Anthropology. She served as provost of the College from 1992 to 2001 and has been director of the Lang Center since 2002.

The community is invited to celebrate Jennie Keith's rich career as an esteemed professor, internationally recognized scholar, and path-breaking administrator. All are welcome. This event is sponsored by the Sociology and Anthropology Department with special thanks to the President's Office.

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