Alona Evans
Week of May 15, 2000

With the trial concerning the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, underway in the Netherlands it seemed appropriate to honor Wellesley College's expert on international criminal law, Professor Alona Evans.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Alona Evans received her BA (1940) and Ph.D. (1945) from Duke University. After serving briefly in the State Department during World War II, Evans turned to teaching. She became a member of the Political Science Department at Wellesley College in 1945.

Evans taught International Law, Latin American Politics, and Asian Politics. Later she "took over the course in Law and the Administration of Justice, making it a central course in the curriculum." She served as chairman of the department for 12 years. In 1966 Wellesley named her the Elizabeth Kimball Kendall Professor of Political Science.

In 1973-74 she was Visiting Professor of International Law at the School of Law, University of Puget Sound. Evans served on a variety of Wellesley College committees, including the one which orchestrated a major review and reshaping of Academic Council committees in 1969.

Her nominator noted that "Professor Evans was a visitor at Harvard Law School in the early 1950's, prior to that institution's granting a law degree to women! Professor Evans taught the major introduction to law and politics that most pre-law students took for 30 years or more." She was an advisor to the Wellesley Law Club. Evans' publications focused on extradition, aircraft hijacking, and the legal status of political refugees. She was the first woman to be elected to the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law.

In 1971 Evans received the Achievement Award of the American Association of University Women. The citation noted she was "one of the few American scholars to have worked intensively for the last two decades on the problems of international extradition - a subject of more than technical legal interest in these times of hijackers."

Evans was elected President of the American Society of International Law in 1980, the first woman to hold that post. Oscar Schachter's memorial tribute in The American Journal of International Law said "as a teacher of undergraduates, she inspired many to undertake careers in law and political science. Her students were invariably enthusiastic about the courses they took with her."

Alona Evans died September 23, 1980.

In tribute to her the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court inaugurated the Alona E. Evans Award. It is given to the five Best Team Memorials from the Preliminary Rounds of Jessup International Law Moot Court, the most prestigious international law advocacy annual competition.

At Wellesley the Alona Evans Fund helps support the Wellesley Washington Internship Program.

Written by Wilma Slaight