Jean Fox O'Barr


Jean Fox O'Barr is an American feminist teacher, scholar, and administrator whose pioneering work helped establish women’s studies as a program of academic study and support for women in higher education.
O'Barr received her undergraduate degree from Indiana University in 1964 and her Master’s and PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University. She also earned a certificate in African Studies from Northwestern in 1970 based on her graduate work in Tanzania.
Change magazine named her among One Hundred Outstanding Young Leaders in Education in 1978, and O'Barr was selected for the Ford and Exxon Education Foundation’s study of 25 influential female leaders of the women’s movement.
O’Barr is the founding director of Duke University Women’s Studies Program and led the program for almost 20 years. In 2000, she was named Distinguished University Service Professor at Duke University, the first woman to be named in school history. O'Barr has won numerous awards for teaching and mentoring. In 2010, she was awarded with one of Duke's highest awards, the University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service.
O'Barr has written nearly 100 articles and books, including Transforming Knowledge: Public Talks on Women’s Studies 1976-2011, Feminism in Action: Building Community and Institutions through Women’s Studies, Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Women's Resistance from 600 B.C.E. to Present, and Africa in the Disciplines: Contributions of the Study of Africa to the Humanities and Social Sciences. She also served as editor-in-chief of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, the leading international journal in women's studies, and co-founded the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, part of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. Her papers are housed at the Bingham Center.

Selected works

Articles
Books