Writer Margot Lee Shetterly will deliver the keynote address for Bridgewater College’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Cole Hall.
Shetterly’s address, “The Importance of Representation and Racial Progress,” is free and open to the public.
Shetterly is the author of Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race.
Hidden Figures shares what day-to-day life was like for Black women pursuing their dreams in the Civil Rights era.
Shetterly is also the founder of the Human Computer Project, a digital archive telling the stories of all NASA’s “human computers,” women from all backgrounds whose work tipped the balance in favor of the United States in WWII, the Cold War and the Space Race.
Shetterly’s father was among the early generation of black NASA engineers and scientists, and she had direct access to NASA executives and the women featured in the book.
Shetterly’s research has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
She is currently a scholar-in-residence at the University of Virginia, with joint appointments at the McIntire School of Commerce and the School of Engineering.
Attendees will have an opportunity for a book signing with Shetterly from 8:30 to 9 p.m.
A livestream of the event will be available at bridgewater.edu/shetterly.
This endowed lecture is sponsored by the W. Harold Row Symposium on Reconciliation.