The New President of the Organization of American Historians

Nancy F. Cott, the Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University, is the new president of the Organization of American Historians. Founded in 1907, the Organization of American Historians is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. It represents more than 7,800 historians working in the U.S. and abroad.

Professor Cott joined the faculty at Harvard in 2014 after serving as director of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Earlier in her career she held an endowed chair at Yale University and was one of the founders of the university’s women’s studies program.

Dr. Cott is the author of several books including Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation (Harvard University Press, 2001) and The Grounding of Modern Feminism (Yale University Press, 1987).

Professor Cott is a native of Philadelphia and a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in American civilization from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.