Farewell tribute to Susan Basow

Professor Susan A. Basow, your teaching, mentorship, scholarship, and leadership at Lafayette all speak to both your tremendous intellectual capacity and your vision that has made Lafayette a stronger institution. You received your Ph.D. from Brandeis University. You joined Lafayette’s Department of Psychology as an assistant professor in 1977. You were tenured and promoted to associate professor in 1982, and promoted to professor in 1991. In 1996, you were named the Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology.

Over the years, you have taught a broad range of popular psychology courses that often draw upon your scholarly expertise in clinical and counseling psychology and the psychology of gender. In fact, you taught one of the College’s first gender studies-focused courses, Psychology of Gender. In addition, you have led several semester-abroad programs to Costa Rica and Madrid. Students have praised you for challenging and inspiring them to do their best work.

Professor Basow, you attained national recognition for your writing on gender issues, which include topics on classroom interactions, relational and physical aggression, and body perception. In addition to being widely published in several journals, you have authored numerous book chapters.

Susan Basow with Suzanne Montgomery ’03

Professor Basow, you have been a dedicated member of the department, the College, and the profession. In addition to serving as assistant head and department head, you served on many search committees. You have served on a variety of College-wide committees, including the Governance Committee, which you chaired, the Faculty Academic Policy Committee, the Faculty Compensation Committee, and the Appeals and Grievance Committee. In addition, you have been on the Women’s and Gender Studies Advisory Committee since 2009. Professor Basow, at the professional level, you have held several leadership positions with the American Psychology Association’s Society for the Psychology of Women, and in 2009, you were its recipient of the Heritage Award for Distinguished Teaching. Over the years, you served as a consulting editor for two journals (Psychology of Women Quarterly and Sex Roles) and on the editorial board of a scholarly book series (Women’s Psychology series for Greenwood Publishing Group).

You were the recipient of the Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Faculty Lecture Award in 1987, the Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005, and the Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Award in 2016.

Susan Basow with Bob Weiner, Ilan Peleg, Alison Byerly, and Abu Rizvi

Professor Basow, you are a true trailblazer. You have been an activist for gender and LGBTQ equity for 3+ decades, exhibiting an unwavering commitment to promoting inclusivity at the College and in your profession. In the 1980s you were the co-founder of Professional Women of Lafayette (PWL), the first group for women faculty at the College. The professional support activities of PWL eventually morphed into a study group in women’s studies and then became a curricular force, driving forward the idea of a women’s studies program at Lafayette for which you, Professor Basow, served as its chair from 1986 until 1993. You were the central shaping force of the women’s and gender studies program and molder of its vision of bringing intersectional gender studies into the Lafayette curriculum.

Susan Basow with Julie Phelan ’05

Professor Basow, you have been a mentor, colleague, and friend to everyone in the Psychology Department at Lafayette and have had an immense impact on all your students and colleagues throughout your 43 years. As department head and as a senior colleague, you have mentored with skill, insight, and empathy. But most of all, you have been a friend. Your laughter and encouragement have helped many of your department colleagues through difficult times, and you have been an inspiration to all. You will truly be missed.