Remembering Gwen Sorell

Gwen Sorell, a member of the SSHD Steering Committee, passed on March 23, 2009 after a brave struggle with cancer.

Gwen was a human development scholar. Her area of specialization, reflected in her research and teaching, was development during adulthood. During her career, she taught undergraduate courses in early and middle age adult development, and a yearly graduate seminar in adulthood that was highly valued by graduate students. Her ongoing research, the Women's Identity Project, involved many students over the years, and filled a gap in the adult development literature in that much of the previous research on adult development had been limited to men. Underlying this work was her commitment to the importance of developmental theory, the philosophical bases of theory, and the implications of philosophy/theory for science and for social action. She often said that what she most enjoyed was discussing and debating theory--in her graduate human development theories course, in her mentoring of graduate students, and with colleagues. Her expertise in and her passion for the study of human development enriched the lives and careers of many students, and of her professional colleagues.