KINGSTON, R.I. – February 26, 2007 – Janet Mancini Billson will deliver the Fredrika Wild Schweers Lecture on women and health at the University of Rhode Island on March 27 at 7 p.m. The lecture, free and open to the public, will be held in White Hall Auditorium on URI’s Kingston campus. The Women’s Studies Program presents the annual lecture.

Billson’s talk, “Female Well Being – Challenges and Power in a New Century,” is derived from Billson’s research on the fate of women and girls around the world in the 20th century. Billson, whose area of expertise includes gender and development and women in development, will focus on health and education as pivotal factors in achieving female well being in spite of persistent challenges.

Billson authored Keepers of the Culture: The Power of Tradition in Women’s Lives, which is based on women in seven cultural communities in Canada. She co-authored Female Well-Being: Towards a Global Theory of Social Change.

Billson, a Stuart A. Rice Career Achievement Award recipient, taught sociology and women’s studies at Rhode Island College and George Washington University. Since 1996 she has been the director of Group Dimensions International, a research and consulting firm based in Maine, which specializes in women and development.