Myra Marx Ferree, the Alice H. Cook Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been awarded the 2024 Centennial Medal from Harvard University. The annual award is presented to Harvard graduate student alumni who have made significant contributions to society based on the roots of their graduate education at Harvard.
Dr. Ferree’s career in higher education spans nearly five decades. Her first teaching appointment was as a professor of sociology and women’s studies at the University of Connecticut. In 2000, she joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to her present emerita appointment, she currently serves as a seminar co-chair with the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University.
Throughout her lifetime, Dr. Ferree has conducted extensive research on a number of sociological topics such as feminism, gender, family, intersectionality, and social movements in both American and European contexts. Her influential work has led to numerous award-winning publications including Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions (W.W. Norton & Company, 2022) and Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
In addition to her various teaching and research endeavors, Dr. Ferree held several leadership positions with professional organizations and academic journals. She has served as president of Sociologists for Women and Society and vice president of the American Sociological Association.
Dr. Ferree began her undergraduate education at the University of Hamburg in West Germany and completed her bachelor’s degree in political science at Bryn Mawr College, a women’s college in Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. in psychology and social relations from Harvard University.