Abstract
In Part 1 of this interview, Elissa L. Beron describes her enthusiasm for college life, having entered Pembroke College after her junior year of high school. She describes the social expectations of the time and how they began to change, her experience applying to medical schools as one of few female pre-med students, her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement, the creation of the Pembroke Pandas – the first college women’s ice hockey team, and posture pictures – a eugenics practice that included taking photos of nude students under the guise of checking for scoliosis.
In Part 2, Beron discusses attitudes of Pembrokers concerning sex, birth control, and abortion, the positive aspects of dorm life, Brown men’s perceptions of Pembrokers, and how Pembroke prepared her for later academic challenges. She concludes by explaining her experiences at Yale and Harvard medical schools, her family life, and career as a psychologist.
Part 1
Part 2
Recorded on May 18, 1992 in West Newton, MA
Interviewed by Miriam Dale Pichey
Suggested Chicago style citation: Beron, Elissa L. Interview. By Miriam Dale Pichey. Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. May 18, 1992.
Biography
Elissa L. Beron was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Atlantic City High School before attending Pembroke College in 1962. After graduating from Brown in 1966 with an A.B. in English Literature, she attended medical school at Yale and Harvard Universities. She has worked as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyist in Newton, Massachusetts, since 1971.