Joan Wallach Scott - Personal Life

Personal Life

Joan Scott was born Joan Wallach in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Lottie (née Tannenbaum) and Sam Wallach, high school teachers. She is also the niece of actor Eli Wallach (her father's brother). Her family was Jewish, and her father was born in Dolina, Poland. She graduated from Brandeis in 1962 and received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1969. Before coming to the Institute for Advanced Study, Scott taught in history departments at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rutgers University, the Johns Hopkins University. At Brown University she was founding director of the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, and the Nancy Duke Lewis University Professor and professor of history. She serves on the editorial boards of Signs, Differences, History and Theory and, since January 2006, the Journal of Modern History. In 2010, she helped to found: The History of the Present: A Journal of Critical Theory.

Scott has also played a major role in the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) as the chair of its Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure.