Pat Reif Memorial Lecture

2009 Lecturer: Ivone Gebara

Ivone Gebara, the Brazilian Sister of Notre Dame, a leading ecofeminist liberation theologian in Latin America, was selected to be the Pat Reif Lecturer for 2009. In collaboration with the Immaculate Heart community, Claremont Graduate University sponsors an annual public lecture to celebrate and remember the life of scholar, activist, and feminist Pat Reif, who was a member of the Immaculate Heart community until her death in 2001. This year the Pat Reif committee enlarged their goal beyond the public lecture and scheduled visits for Gebara with numerous local Hispanic communities.

During her stay with us Gebara visited with various Los Angeles communities dedicated to ending poverty and violence. On the campus of Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles Gebara’s first lecture, “Feminism and Religious Identities” examined conflicts and possibilities emerging from religious identities through feminist analysis. The following evening on the CGU campus, Gebara presented “Happiness and the Construction of Right Relationships—a Feminist Perspective,” in which she shared the conflicts between the search for happiness and an ethical society.

About the Lecture

The annual Pat Reif Memorial Lectureship was created in 2002 in honor of Dr. Patricia A. Reif, IHM. A scholar, educator, and activist, Pat Reif taught philosophy and chaired the graduate department in religious studies at Immaculate Heart College. In 1984 she founded the M.A. Program in Feminist Spirituality at Immaculate Heart College Center. Active in many social justice issues, including domestic abuse, poverty, immigration, welfare rights, and the anti-nuclear movement, Pat co-founded the Interfaith Hunger Coalition and the Southern California Interfaith Task Force on Central America (SCITCA).

The funding of the Patricia A. Reif Memorial Lecture Fund is a joint effort of the CGU School of Religion, The Immaculate Heart Community, The Immaculate Heart College Alumnae Board, and The Immaculate Heart College Center. We have established this fund out of mutual respect and love for Pat, and we look forward to many years of cooperative effort advancing the ideals for which Pat stood.

Past Speakers

• (2002) Mary E. Hunt, WATER
• (2003) Chun Hyun Kyung, Union Theological Seminary, New York
• (2004) Beverly Harrison, Union Theological Seminary, New York, retired
• (2005) Musa Dube, University of Botswana
• (2007) Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Harvard Divinity School
• (2008) Venerable Dhammananda (aka Ven. Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh)

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