Nannerl O. Keohane
Nannerl Keohane
In a 1988 interview, Nan Keohane, then a former associate professor of political science at Stanford and the president at Wellesley College, discusses women’s issues from the perspective of a woman in academia and provides an account of the early days of the Center for Research on Women (CROW) and feminist studies at Stanford. She relates how her research interests turned to focus on feminism and speaks about the discrimination that women faced in an academic setting. Keohane also discusses the importance of her close friendships and bonds with other female faculty members at Stanford, including Shelly Rosaldo, Estelle Freedman, Myra Strober, Diane Middlebrook, and Barbara Babcock. She recalls the early days of the Stanford Center for Research on Women (CROW), which grew into the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) and is now the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research. She reflects on the lasting impact these pioneering women had on Stanford and the field of feminist studies.
In a 2014 interview for the Stanford Pioneering Women and Stanford Faculty projects, Keohane discusses her early life in the south; her undergraduate and graduate education at Wellesley, Oxford, and Yale; her faculty positions at Swarthmore and Stanford; and highlights of her career in university administration. Topics include her approach to teaching, her research on seventeenth-century French political thought, balancing work and family, the Center for Research on Women (CROW), and the founding of the Program in Feminist Studies at Stanford.
Interview Excerpts
Impact of CROW Discussion Groups
Naming the Program in Feminist Studies