The English Department’s 2025 Hanson Lecture featured guest speaker Alison Bechdel, MacArthur Genius Fellow and best-selling author of Fun Home, Are You My Mother?, The Secret to Superhuman Strength, and the upcoming graphic novel, Spent. Bechdel pioneered the field of queer comics with her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which ran for 25 years. The Broadway musical adaptation of her graphic memoir Fun Home won the Tony award for best musical in 2015. Bechdel is the namesake of the Bechdel test, which is often used to measure the representation of women and gender equality in film and other forms of fiction.
You can read more about the event and specifics on how it went on the Northeastern Global News website.
The Hanson Fund Lecture Series is an annual event that honors the memory of English alumnus Peter Burton Hanson, CSSH ’91, who tragically passed away with his family on United flight 175 during the September 11th attacks.
