Nancy F. Cott, the newly named Sterling Professor of History and American Studies, is one of the foremost scholars in the fields of women's history and gender relations in the United States.

In her latest book, "Public Vows," published in February, Cott examines the history of marriage as a public institution, particularly its role in the development of American society. Her other books include "Roots of Bitterness: Documents of the Social History of American Women," "The Bonds of Womanhood: 'Woman's Sphere' in New England, 1780-1835," "A Heritage of Her Own: Towards a New Social History of American Women" (coedited with E.H. Pleck), "The Grounding of Modern Feminism" and "A Woman Making History: Mary Ritter Beard Through Her Letters."

She has also written numerous articles and book chapters, and is the editor for an 11-volume series of books on U.S. women's history for junior high and high school students. She has lectured widely on college and university campuses.

Cott holds three degrees -- a B.A. magna cum laude from Cornell University (1967), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American civilization from Brandeis University (1969 and 1974, respectively). She was a lecturer at Boston Public Library under a National Endowment for the Humanities Learning Library Program in 1975, when she joined the Yale faculty with joint appointments in history and American studies. She was assistant professor 1975-79, associate professor 1979-86 and professor 1986-90, and was named Stanley Woodward Professor of History and American Studies in 1990.

At Yale, Cott played a major role in the effort to establish a women's studies major. She was chair of the Women's Studies Program 1980-87, and continues to be affiliated with the program. She is a five-time winner of Yale's A. Whitney Griswold Grant supporting faculty work in the humanities. In 1998, she held the William Clyde DeVane Professorship.

Cott's other honors include research fellowships from the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was a Liberal Arts Fellow in Law at Harvard Law School as well as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women at Radcliffe College.

Her activities in the historical profession include serving on numerous editorial and advisory boards of grant projects, films in the making, academic journals and reference works.

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STERLING PROFESSORSHIPS

• Cott named to Sterling Chair in History, American Studies
  
  
• Patterson has been appointed Sterling Professor of English
  
  
• Scott is designated Sterling Professor of Political Science
  

  
  

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