Project on Women & Social Change

The Smith Project on Women and Social Change is an interdisciplinary faculty research group. Founded in 1978, the project draws together faculty from a range of disciplines including anthropology, political science, sociology, education, history, exercise and sport studies, literature, psychology, religion and economics.
CONFERENCE: “GABRIELA MISTRAL IN THE 21st CENTURY”
Saturday April 21, 2018 – McConnell Hall 103 – 9 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957), born Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, was a Chilean poet, essayist, schoolteacher, diplomat and activist for the rights of women, children and indigenous peoples. The first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in literature (1945), she remains the only female Nobel Laureate in literature in the Spanish language. Eleven years ago, upon the death of her partner and executor, Doris Dana, a large collection of Gabriela Mistral’s previously unknown papers and audio recordings were made public. This new archive was then donated to the National Library of Chile by Dana’s niece, Doris Atkinson. These materials have contributed to a reinterpretation of the poet’s life and work. This conference brings together the top Mistral scholars from Chile and the United States. The invited participants will discuss the significance of this new trove of papers and recordings, recent publications that have relied on these new materials, and future scholarship on the life and work of Gabriela Mistral.
The conference is free but is limited to 60 registered participants.
The conference is now full; new registrations are no longer being accepted.

Confirmed Participants
- Doris Atkinson, Gabriela Mistral’s last literary executor (Mount Holyoke College ‘80)
- Marjorie Agosin, Wellesley College
- Elizabeth Horan, Arizona State University
- Soledad Falabella, Universidad de Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile
- Maria Elena Wood, Chilean documentary filmmaker