Ten Women Named Members of the American Philosophical Society

In 1743 Benjamin Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society. Early members included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Paine. The society’s mission is to “promote useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach.”

The society has about 870 “resident members” and dozens of foreign members. Men make up the vast majority of members. Some notable women who have been elected include Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University, poet Rita Dove from the University of Virginia, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison.

Recently the American Philosophical Society elected 37 new resident members. Among the 37 new members are 10 women.

(Clockwise from top left) Svetlana L. Alpers, Natalie Zemon Davis, Paula S. Fass, Carol J. Greenhouse, Susan D. Gubar, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Elena Kagan, Alexandra Navrotsky, Olufunmilayo Olopade, and Anne-Marie Slaughter

Svetlana L. Alpers is professor emerita of art history at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the daughter of Wassily Leontief, a Nobel laureate in economics. Dr. Alpers is graduate of Radcliffe College and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Natalie Zemon Davis is professor of medieval studies at the University of Toronto and Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emerita at Princeton University. A native of Detroit she holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her latest book is Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds (Hill and Wang, 2006).

Paula S. Fass is the Margaret Byrne Professor of History at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Fass is a graduate of Barnard College and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in American history from Columbia University. Her latest book is Inheriting the Holocaust: A Second Generation Memoir (Rutgers University Press, 2009).

Carol J. Greenhouse is chair of the department of anthropology at Princeton University. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. She is the author of several books including A Moment’s Notice: Time Politics Across Cultures (Cornell University Press).

Susan D. Gubar is the Ruth Halls Distinguished Professor Emerita at Indiana University. Dr. Gubar, who taught literature and criticism, is a graduate of City College of New York and holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Her latest book is Judas: A Biography (W.W. Norton, 2009).

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is professor emerita of anthropology at the University of California at Davis. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College and earned a Ph.D. in anthropology at Harvard University. Her latest book is Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding (Belknap Press).

Elena Kagan is an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. Former dean of Harvard Law School, Kagan is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University. She holds a master’s degree from Oxford and is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Alexandra Navrotsky is the Edward Roessler Chair in Mathematical and Physical Sciences and the Interdisciplinary Professor of Ceramic, Earth, and Environmental Materials Chemistry at the University of California at Davis. She holds bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.

Olufunmilayo Olopade is the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics and associate dean for global health at the University of Chicago. She received her medical training at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.

Anne-Marie Slaughter is dean and Bert G. Kerstetter University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Dr. Slaughter is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in international relations from Oxford University.