Twelve Women Scholars Elected to the American Philosophical Society

The American Philosophical Society was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin. The society honors distinguished scientists, social scientists, humanities scholars, artists, and societal leaders with membership in the society. More than 240 members of the APS have won Nobel prizes. Members have included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Frost, Thomas Edison, Sandra Day O’Connor, Charles Darwin, Toni Morrison, and Albert Einstein.

This year 33 new members were elected to the society. Of these, 28 are Americans and five new members are from foreign countries. Of the 28 new American members, 14 are women. Twelve of the 14 women selected have current ties to the academic world.

(L to R) Top row: Leslie C. Aiello, Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Susan T. Fiske, Inez Fung, and Louise Gluck.
Bottom row: Julia B. Hirschberg, Jill Lepore, Barbara J. Meyer, Keren Dichter Rice, and Beverly Daniel Tatum.

Leslie C. Aiello is a professor of biological anthropology emerita at University College in London. She is currently the president of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research in New York City. Dr. Aiello holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of London.

Ruth Schwartz Cowan is a professor emerita of the history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Barnard College in New York City. Dr. Cowan earned a master’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Among her books is More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology From the Open Hearth to the Microwave (Basic Books, 1983) and Heredity and Hope: The Case for Genetic Screening (Harvard University Press, 2008).

Susan T. Fiske is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey. Professor Fiske holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology psychology from Harvard University. She is the author of Envy Up, Scorn Down: How Status Divides Us (Russell Sage Foundation, 2011).

Inez Fung is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of California at Berkeley. She is also the co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment. Dr. Fung holds a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Louise Gluck is the Rosenkranz Writer-in-Residence and an adjunct professor of English at Yale University. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1993 for her collection Wild Iris (Ecco Press, 1992). Her most recent book is Poems 1962-2012 (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2012).

Julia B. Hirschberg is the Percy C. and Vida L. W. Hudson Professor of computer science at Columbia University in New York City. She chairs the university’s department of computer science. Dr. Hirschberg holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan.

Susan E. Werner Kieffer is a professor emerita at the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign. She is a graduate of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in planetary science from the California Institute of Technology.

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University. She is also a staff writer for The New York Times. Dr. Lepore is a graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. She earned a master’s degree at the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in American studies at Yale University. Her latest published work is Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013).

Barbara J. Meyer is a professor of genetics, genomics, and development at the University of California, Berkeley. She also is an adjunct professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Meyer is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Sarah B. Pomeroy is Distinguished Professor of Classics and History Emerita at the City University of New York. Among her many books is Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classic Antiquity (Dorset Press, 1994). Professor Pomeroy is a graduate of Barnard College and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Keren Dichter Rice is University Professor of Linguistics and Aboriginal Studies at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. She is co-editor of Talking on the Page: Editing Aboriginal Oral Texts (University of Toronto Press, 1999). Professor Rice holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.

Beverly Daniel Tatum is president of Spelman College in Atlanta. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Dr. Tatum earned a master’s degree at the Hartford Seminary. President Tatum earned a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Michigan. She is the author of the best-selling book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race.