Laura L. Lovett

Laura L. Lovett (1963-2025)

Laura Lovett was a Professor of History and Director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh.  She was also a partner to her spouse of thirty-five years and a parent to her children, Lydia and Charlie.

Laura grew up in a Navy family in Pensacola, Florida, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and then San Diego, California. She attended UCLA as an undergraduate and then UC San Diego where she earned a master’s degree in English and American Literature.  She met and married her partner, Michael Dietrich, in San Diego.  Together they moved north while Laura pursued her doctorate in History at UC Berkeley.  Laura then taught at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Dartmouth College, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst before joining the University of Pittsburgh in 2018.  Lydia joined her family in California and Charlie in Tennessee.

Laura was the author and editor of several books and articles. Her first book, Conceiving the Future: Pronatalism, Reproduction and the Family in the United States, critically examined pronatalist policies in the United States. In conjunction with the Society for the History of Children and Youth, she founded and co-edited the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth in 2005.  Later she served as Deputy Editor of Women’s History Review for many years. Her second book, co-edited with Lori Rotskoff, When We Were Free to Be: Looking Back at a Children’s Classic and the Difference It Made was a critical examination of one of the most important texts of the US Women’s Movement.  While working on When We Were Free to Be, she had the privilege of meeting the renowned childcare activist Dorothy Pitman Hughes.  In 2021, Laura published her biography of Dorothy, With Her Fist Raised: Dorothy Pitman Hughes and the Transformative Power of Black Community Activism.   In 2022, Laura extended her interest in Black feminism when she co-edited It’s Our Movement Now: Black Women’s Politics and the 1977 National Women’s Conference with Rachel Jessica Daniel and Kelly N. Giles.

Laura was also a passionate teacher and university leader. She developed courses in women’s history, the history of children and youth, global sexuality, the history of eugenics, and environmental history.  She served as the Director of the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center while at the University of Massachusetts and as Director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh.

She loved growing native plants and foods in her large garden and could often be found cooking or canning her harvest. When she wasn’t gardening, she was knitting.  If you came to her house, you would invariably leave with a jar of something she had made, something she had knit, or at least inspiration to fight for a common cause. She was a force of change in the world, participating and speaking at marches for social justice, science, and climate change. She shared her passion with her students, family, and friends, inspiring everyone around her.

Laura is survived by her parents, Sandra and Bill Lovett of Forest, MS, her sister, Terrin Irwin, of Salt Lake City, her partner, Michael Dietrich of Pittsburgh, and her children, Lydia Lovett-Dietrich and her partner Emily Derosier of Toronto, Canada, and Charlie Lovett-Dietrich of Pittsburgh. A celebration of her life will be held on Saturday, March 8th at 2pm at 5445 Beacon St in Pittsburgh.  If you would like to donate in Laura’s memory, she loved and supported Grow Pittsburgh as well as a wide range of feminist and climate action groups.  You can also donate your time by bringing people together with compassion and care to make positive change. Arrangements entrusted to the Edward P. Kanai Funeral Home, 500 Greenfield Ave. 15207.

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