Release Date: February 24, 2005

MONMOUTH, Ill. — Historian Diana Turk will present a lecture on women’s fraternities (sororities) on March 1 at 4 p.m. in the Highlander Room of Monmouth College’s Stockdale Center.

The lecture, entitled “Bound by a Mighty Vow: Sisterhood and Women’s Fraternities, 1870-1920,” is free and open to the public. In June of last year, Turk’s book by the same title was published.

Monmouth College is a very appropriate site for her talk, as the college is nationally known for being the birthplace of the women’s fraternity movement. Pi Beta Phi was founded at the college in 1867 and Kappa Kappa Gamma was founded in 1870. Both have active chapters at Monmouth to this day.

Turk will speak about how women’s fraternities served as support networks to help the first female collegians succeed in the often-hostile world of 19th century higher education.

An assistant professor at the Steinhardt School of Education, New York University, Turk has written extensively on women in education. She received her Ph.D. in American studies in 1999 from the University of Maryland.

Following her lecture, Turk will participate in a book signing at the Stewart House, the ancestral home of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

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