Presidential Distinguished Speaker Series: Drew Gilpin Faust

Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust, president emerita of Harvard University, Arthur Kingsley Porter University Research Professor, and award-winning author, will visit Caltech as the next featured guest in the Presidential Distinguished Speaker Series. The series brings eminent speakers to campus to discuss timely topics in science and engineering, culture, public policy, and American higher education.

Caltech students, faculty, and staff members are invited to engage with Dr. Faust in a fireside chat, led by President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, at The Athenaeum on Wednesday, February 12 at 11 a.m. PT. Guests are invited to stay for a lunch reception after the talk.

This in-person event is free, but registration is required. The first 100 members of the Caltech community who register with a valid Caltech email address will receive a voucher for a complimentary copy of Dr. Faust's bestselling book, Necessary Trouble, Growing Up at Midcentury. Books will be available for pickup on campus the week of January 27. Distribution details will be sent by email.

Questions or requests for ADA accommodations? Please contact us at [email protected].

About the Speaker

Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust is the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Research Professor at Harvard, where she served as president from 2007–2018. She previously served as founding dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, one of the world's leading centers for interdisciplinary exploration.

Dr. Faust is the author of seven books, including Necessary Trouble, Growing Up at Midcentury, her memoir about her childhood in conservative, segregated Virginia and her journey to become a historian of the conflicts that shaped that world. Her earlier book, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, was awarded the Bancroft Prize and the New York Historical Society's American History Book Prize, and was recognized by The New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2008

Dr. Faust graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1968, earning a BA, magna cum laude with honors in history. She went on to earn an MA and PhD in American civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Harvard, she joined University of Pennsylvania's faculty as a specialist in the history of the antebellum South and Civil War.

She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of American Historians, and the American Philosophical Society. In September 2018, she was awarded the John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity by the Library of Congress. In addition to being the first woman to serve as Harvard's president, she was the first president to have been raised in the South, and the first president since 1692 who did not hold a Harvard degree.

About the Series
For more information on the Presidential Distinguished Speaker Series, visit the speaker series website.