Sociology Professor Victoria Swigert to Give 'Last Lecture'

WORCESTER, Mass. – Victoria L. Swigert, professor of sociology, dean of the class of 2008, and assistant dean of the College of the Holy Cross, will give a talk as part of the annual “Last Lecture” series on Thursday, April 17 at 4 p.m. in Rehm Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Funded by the Lilly Endowment Vocation Initiative, the pretext of the lecture is that the speaker is about to retire and has been asked to sum up in a final lecture to students what they believe has made the work they’ve dedicated themselves to meaningful and worthwhile. Given a “last” chance, what’s worth saying? What wisdom would be most important to pass on? What challenges have to go unfulfilled?

Swigert has taught criminology at Holy Cross for over three decades. “While this sub-discipline of sociology teaches us about crime and criminals, it has even more to teach us about who we are, what we stand for, and why we get exactly the crime we ask for,” says Swigert.

“For my ‘Last Lecture,’ I appeal to this College's commitment to its mission driven curriculum in the liberal arts as a form of resistance to the structures and values that divide us and as the path to social and cultural revitalization.”

A Holy Cross faculty member since 1975, Swigert received her Ph.D. from the University at Albany in New York. She was appointed assistant dean of the College in 1990 and has served as dean of the classes of 1994, 1998, 2000, 2004, and is currently the dean of the class of 2008. The author of seven books and numerous articles, her research and teaching interests are in deviance theory and criminology.

The lecture is sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.