Gerda Lerner Photo credit: Harvard Gazette

Durham, NC - Gerda Lerner, a scholar-in-residence in the history department, was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Harvard University on June 5, 2008, during the school's commencement ceremony.

In announcing the award, a Harvard statement said, "Credited with the development of the curriculum of women's history at numerous academic institutions, Lerner is widely recognized as having introduced women's history as a formal academic field.

"A past president of the Organization of American Historians, she is also well known as an advocate of civil and women's rights and was a founding member of the National Organization for Women," the statement said.

Lerner is the Robinson-Edwards Professor of History Emerita at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.