Back in the Day: Talking to Ann Pellegrini '86

Thirteen years ago, Acting Director of Women's Studies Ann Pellegrini `86 shopped 'til she dropped.

"My appetite always exceeded what my stomach could hold," Pellegrini says. Today, speaking as a Faculty member, she is no longer so quick to endorse it. "Now that I am on the other side of the desk, I find shopping period frustrating. It means a whole week of lectures...that you're having to do a stutter start. You really can't get into the meat of the semester until the study cards are in," Pellegrini explains.

Before coming to Harvard, Pellegrini taught at Barnard College and Columbia University; both schools shifted from shopping to pre-registration systems while she was there. Today, she welcomes shopping period reform. "With pre-registration, you don't have to end up taking the course you signed up for in advance," she adds. "There isn't a lot of change number-wise. The names may change, but the number of bodies stays about constant." Pellegrini suggests that pre-registration "would appeal to a great many Faculty." She acknowledges were she a student, she might not be as enthusiastic about dropping shopping.

"I look at the course guide now, and I am envious of the sorts of courses my students get to take," she says. She points to the increase in women's studies and gay and lesbian studies courses as examples of courses she might have liked to take.

If she were shopping today, what would be at the top of her list? "Every women's studies course, for sure," she quips.