The Grécourt Gate welcomes your submissions. To discuss a story idea of interest to the Smith community, contact Barbara Solow at 413-585-2171 or send email to bsolow@smith.edu.
Smith eDigest
The Smith eDigest is sent to all campus email accounts on Tuesday and Thursday each week during the academic year and on Tuesdays during the summer. Items for eDigest are limited to official Smith business and must be submitted by 5 p.m. on the day prior to the next edition’s distribution.
Presidential Colloquium: Author Masha Gessen
Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen—an award-winning author known for their insightful critiques of Russian history and culture—will deliver a Presidential Colloquium on “Hope and Hopelessness” at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15.
This virtual event is part of Smith’s Year on Democracies. Members of the campus community are invited to participate via Zoom (please pre-register here to receive the link). Members of the general public may join via a livestream on the Smith College Facebook page.
About Masha Gessen
A trenchant observer of Russia and its history, Masha Gessen is the author of 12 books, including the National Book Award-winning “The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia” and “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin.” Gessen’s latest book, “Surviving Autocracy,” has been described as a bracing overview of the calamitous trajectory of American democracy under the Trump administration.
As a staff writer at The New Yorker, Gessen has covered political subjects including Russia, autocracy and LGBT rights, among others. They have taught at Amherst and Oberlin colleges and currently serve on the faculty at Bard College. A recipient of many awards, including Guggenheim and Carnegie fellowships, Gessen has lived in New York since 2013.
About Smith’s Year on Democracies
In 2021-22, Smith College is hosting an ambitious set of programs and events under the organizing theme “Year on Democracies.” This collegewide initiative is an opportunity to examine democracies around the world, through every aspect of the college’s educational offerings: the curriculum, exhibitions, performances, lectures, special events and the work of its centers and institutes. Everyone in the Smith community is invited to participate and collaborate. Students, staff, faculty and alumnae are encouraged to share their ideas, so that the Year on Democracies is at once an intellectual pursuit and an opportunity for inspiration, progress and impact.
About Smith’s Presidential Colloquium Series
The Presidential Colloquium regularly features influential thought leaders in a wide range of fields—from poets and writers to economists and policy experts—to share their expertise, offer insights and inspire discourse on key social, political and global topics that call for our attention. Upcoming speakers include Harvard law and history professor Annette Gordon-Reed and Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin.
