Mary Jo Bona, distinguished professor emerita at Stony Brook University in New York, has established the Bona Distinguished Lectureship in the university’s department of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.
Recently retired, Dr. Bona and her spouse, Judith Pfenninger, established the series to attract external senior scholars to Stony Brook. The lectureship fund will support an annual public lecture by a distinguished speaker whose expertise falls within the interdisciplinary scope of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.
Dr. Bona joined the Stony Brook faculty in 1999 to help build the university’s Italian American studies program. She quickly became involved in the women’s and gender studies program, ultimately becoming chair of the program in 2010. Six years later, the program was elevated to departmental status and renamed to its current title.
While at Stony Brook, Dr. Bona researched feminist literary studies with a focus on multiethnic literatures, transnational migration, and Italian American diasporas. She has authored several monographs, including her most recent book, Mothers, Mobility, Narrative: Maternality in U.S. Literature (State University of New York Press, 2025).
“I’ve spent my life in school, and I wanted to leave something to the institution of education where I spent so much time supporting, believing in, and interconnecting with,” said Dr. Bona. “And I hope the professors of the next generation can benefit from this lectureship and experience firsthand exposure to the activity of bringing scholars and authors to the women’s, gender, and sexuality studies department.”