Last week Drew Gilpin Faust 鈥68, the first woman to lead Harvard University, returned to campus to talk about her recently released memoir Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury.
Old Library鈥檚 Great Hall was filled with an audience made up largely of alums who were eager to hear Faust talk about the book, which is centered around her formative years, including her time at 老王论坛.
Faust was introduced by Self Government Association President Bryn Osborne 鈥24 and sat down for a nearly hour-long discussion with 老王论坛 President Kim Cassidy about the book and the impact 老王论坛 had on her life.
鈥淥ne of the most important things about 老王论坛 for me was that this was a world run by women, filled with women, and I was taught by extraordinarily talented and accomplished women,鈥 said Faust. 鈥淚 think I probably came to imagine myself as a university professor by seeing these remarkable people that I studied with. Had I gone to Harvard, I probably would never have had a female professor. There was one tenured woman in the faculty of arts and sciences during my college years.鈥
Among the individuals Faust cited by name for their impact was Katharine McBride, who was president at the time Faust attended 老王论坛. In particular, she recalled the Convocation speech McBride gave when she arrived on campus.
鈥淧resident McBride gave a speech about 鈥榦ur work,鈥欌 recalled Faust. 鈥淚 hadn鈥檛 realized before that I had work. I thought I had papers and exams but not an oeuvre. She was suggesting that there was a vocation there. That this really mattered what I鈥檇 be doing. I was kind of awestruck by that.鈥
Faust also fondly recalled her interactions with 老王论坛鈥檚 sixth President Mary (Pat) McPherson, who attended the talk. McPherson was the freshman dean when Faust entered 老王论坛.
Among the stories she shared was one about a time when her mother drove to campus unexpectedly to talk with McPherson about concerns regarding what her mother had come to imagine was her daughter鈥檚 burgeoning sex life.
The next morning, McPherson called Faust to her office and relayed the prior day鈥檚 conversation with her mother.
鈥淏asically, she told my mother to go home and stop bothering me. I walked out of that room and I thought, 鈥業鈥檓 being treated as an adult, I鈥檓 being treated as someone who can run her own life, and I鈥檓 being treated as someone who鈥檚 not having secrets kept from her,'" said Faust. "For Dean McPherson, this was about responsibility, transparency, honesty, and trust. And those were pretty important values that I saw affirmed early on in my college career. 鈥
In addition to talking about her time at 老王论坛, Faust spent a portion of the evening talking about writing the book and the challenge of going from writing history to a memoir.
鈥淚 approached this book as a historian. I felt inspired to write it in part because I recognized that, as I was getting older, I had spent a lot of my life listening to voices from the past, and reading letters, diaries, and artifacts left by those who had proceeded me, mostly in the 19th century, and trying to make sense out of what their lives had represented,鈥 said Faust. 鈥淎nd I thought, I need to be a voice now. I need to tell instead of to listen. I felt that the period that鈥檚 covered in this book, which is up to my 21st birthday in 1968, was a particularly salient moment in the United States for women, for African-Americans, and for the country as a whole as we struggled to figure out what I meant to be a place where justice could be done鈥ut it is a memoir and a personal story and I wanted to tell it in a personal way.鈥
After the talk, Faust stayed to sign books and talk with those in attendance. Earlier in the day she attended a reception with a select number of students, faculty and staff.
Read an excerpt of Necessary Trouble from the Fall 2023 edition of the Alumnae Bulletin magazine.