The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is proud to host a Director's Luncheon on "The Middle East Imbroglio," with Shirley Williams, Liberal Democrat member of the British House of Lords since 1993.
She was a Visiting Professor at the University of Essex in 1994-95, and a member of the Advisory Council to the UN Secretary-General on the Fourth World Women’s Conference. She served in the British Cabinet (1974-79) as secretary of state for education and science, secretary of state for prices and consumer protection, and paymaster general, the House of Commons as a Labour MP from 1964-79 and as a Social Democrat MP from 1981-83. She co-founded the Social Democratic Party in 1981 and served as its president from 1982-88.
Her published work includes Politics is for People (1981), A Job to Live (1985), and Ambition & Beyond Career Paths of American Politicians (1993) co-edited with Edward L. Lasher, Jr. In 1980, she hosted the BBC-TV series Shirley Williams in Conversation. In 1980 she was a fellow at the Institute of Politics (IOP), and was interim director in 1989-90. Williams focuses on issues related to the European Union, Central and Eastern Europe, North American politics, and careers in elective politics.
