Peggy Reeves Sanday, professor emerita of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, passed away on June 13. She was 87 years old.
Born in Long Island City, New York, Dr. Sanday earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Columbia University in New York City and her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Following service as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, she briefly taught in the School of Urban and Public Affairs at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
In 1972, Dr. Sanday began her career with Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences as an associate professor of anthropology. She was also affiliated with the Penn Museum, where she did much of her teaching. She achieved the rank of full professor in 1985 and was named the R. Jean Brownlee Endowed Term Chair in 2001. Throughout her tenure, Dr. Sanday also taught courses in what is now Penn’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies and the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing. Additionally, she was a key faculty member in forming the university’s Center for Public Interest Anthropology. She retired in 2007 after nearly four decades of service.
As a scholar, Dr. Sanday focused on women’s studies, Southeast Asia, the anthropology of gender, multiculturalism, sexual culture, public interest anthropology, and Aboriginal art. She was known for developing the “matrifocality” theory, which challenged western assumptions about male dominance in human societies. In addition to her ethnographic research, she conducted field work on American college campuses, exploring institutional responses to sexual assault. Her research led to multiple books, including Female Power and Male Dominance: On the Origins of Sexual Inequality (Cambridge University Press, 1981) and Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus (New York University Press, 2007).