Pembroke Center Archives

Established in 2003, the Feminist Theory Archive documents the work and lives of influential scholars who place sex and gender at the center of their theoretical study. The archive is a research collection that is open to the public and housed at Brown University's John Hay Library.

We use the following definition of feminist theory as our collecting guide:

Feminist theory is discourse that attempts to explain the systemic causes and effects of inequality among the sexes including how factors such as race, class and sexuality affect these inequalities. Feminist theory arises from many domains of knowledge including the humanities, social and natural sciences. Key areas of focus within feminist theory include discrimination and exclusion, objectification, power and oppression, and the social construction of identity.

The Feminist Theory Archive comprises personal and professional papers from pioneering scholars based in the United States and internationally. Notable scholars whose papers are available for research include Ann duCille, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Silvia Federici, Inderpal Grewal, and Hortense J. Spillers. Materials of interest include diaries, correspondence, draft writings, research files, lectures, photographs, and audiovisual recordings, among many other items.

Current collecting places a particular emphasis on Black feminist theory and thinking, as part of the Pembroke Center’s Black Feminist Theory Project.

View the list of all available collections below or search the Brown University Library catalog using the term, "Feminist Theory Archive." Researchers can visit the John Hay Library to access materials. 

Inquiries from donors of collections and researchers should be directed to pembroke_archives@brown.edu.

The following scholars have donated papers to the Feminist Theory Archive or have made a commitment to donate their papers in the future. Finding aids for processed collections can be viewed by clicking the links below.

• Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, Georgetown University
• Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University
• Linda Martin Alcoff, Hunter College - City University of New York (available for research)
• Amanda Anderson, Brown University 
• Emily Apter, New York University
• Nancy Armstrong, Duke University
• Ariella Azoulay, Brown University
• Mieke Bal, Universiteit van Amsterdam (available for research)
• Anne Balsamo, University of Texas at Dallas
• Tani Barlow, Rice University (available for research)
• Frances Bartkowski, Rutgers University - Newark
• Sandra Lee Bartky, University of Illinois-Chicago (available for research)
• Seyla Benhabib, Yale University (available for research)
• Jessica Benjamin, New York University (available for research)
• Anne-Emmanuelle Berger, Cornell University
• Lauren Berlant (deceased), University of Chicago (available for research)
• Jacqueline Bhabha, Harvard University (available for research) 
• Susan Bordo, University of Kentucky
• Leslie Bostrom, Brown University
• Rachel Bowlby, University College London 
• Teresa Brennan (deceased), Florida Atlantic University (available for research)
• Deborah Bright, Pratt Institute
• Karen Brodkin, University of California-Los Angeles (available for research) 
• Daphne A. Brooks, Yale University
• Kimberly Juanita Brown, Dartmouth College
• Wendy L. Brown, University of California-Berkeley
• Judith Butler, University of California-Berkeley
• Camera Obscura, University of California-Santa Barbara
• Hazel V. Carby, Yale University (available for research)
• Elizabeth A. Castelli, Barnard College, Columbia University
• Anne Anlin Cheng, Princeton University
• Ellen Chesler, Roosevelt Institute (available for research)
• Miriam Cooke, Duke University (available for research) 
• Joan Copjec, Brown University
• Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
• Elizabeth Cowie, Rutherford College, University of Kent
• Christina Crosby (deceased), Wesleyan University (available for research)
• Joan E. DeJean (deceased), University of Pennsylvania (available for research)
• Penelope L. Deutscher, Northwestern University
• Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University
• Janice L. Doane (deceased), Saint Mary’s College-California (available for research)
• Mary Ann Doane, University of California-Berkeley (available for research)
• Ann duCille, Wesleyan University (available for research) 
• Zillah Eisenstein, Ithaca College (available for research) 
• Jean Bethke Elshtain (deceased), University of Chicago (available for research)
• Yasmine Ergas, Columbia University
• Anne Fausto-Sterling, Brown University (available for research) 
• Silvia Federici, Hofstra University (available for research)
• Frances Ferguson, University of Chicago
• Margaret W. Ferguson, University of California-Davis (available for research)
• Mary Anne Ferguson, University of Massachusetts-Boston (deceased) (available for research)
• Jane Flax, American University (available for research)
• Leopoldina Fortunati, University of Udine, Italy
• Susan Stanford Friedman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Jane Gallop, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Paula J. Giddings, Smith College (available for research)
• Judith Kegan Gardiner, University of Illinois-Chicago 
• Inderpal Grewal, Yale University (available for research)
• Shahla Haeri, Boston University
• Sandra G. Harding, University of California-Los Angeles (available for research) 
• Nancy C.M. Hartsock, University of Washington (deceased) (available for research) 
• Virginia Held, City University of New York (available for research)
• Mae G. Henderson, University of North Carolina
• Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University (available for research)
• Maryanne Cline Horowitz, Occidental College
• Jean E. Howard, Columbia University (available for research)
• Lynne R. Huffer, Emory University
• Alison M. Jaggar, University of Colorado-Boulder (available for research)
• Alice A. Jardine, Harvard University
• Barbara Johnson (deceased), Harvard University (available for research)
• Lynne Joyrich, Brown University
• Claire Kahane, SUNY-Buffalo (available for research) 
• Coppélia Kahn, Brown University (available for research) 
• Peggy Kamuf, University of South California (available for research)
• Caren Kaplan, University of California at Davis (available for research)
• Cora Kaplan, Queen Mary College, University of London
• Ranjana Khanna, Duke University
• Vicki Kirby, University of New South Wales
• Dorothy Ko, Barnard College, Columbia University (available for research) 
• Carolyn Korsmeyer, University of Buffalo (available for research)
• Kay Dian Kriz, Brown University
• Louise Lamphere, University of New Mexico (available for research) 
• Joan B. Landes, Pennsylvania State University
• Marnia Lazreg, Hunter College
• Heather Love, University of Pennsylvania (available for research)
• Catherine Lutz, Brown University (available for research)
• Saba Mahmood (deceased), University of California-Berkeley 
• Sharon Marcus, Columbia University (available for research)
• Elissa Marder, Emory University
• Elaine Marks (deceased), University of Wisconsin-Madison (available for research) 
• Anne McClintock, Princeton University
• Deborah E. McDowell, University of Virginia
• Diane Middlebrook (deceased), Stanford University (available for research)
• Nancy K. Miller, City University of New York (available for research) 
• Mireille Miller-Young, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Tania Modleski, University of Southern California
• Henrietta L. Moore, University of Cambridge
• Helen Morales, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Ourida Mostefai, Brown University
• Chantal Mouffe, University of Westminster
• Karen Newman, Brown University (available for research)
• Mimi Thi Nguyen, University of Illinois 
• Linda Nicholson, Washington University (available for research) 
• Miglena Nikolchina, Sofia University
• Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania
• Felicity Nussbaum, University of California-Los Angeles (available for research)
• Kelly Oliver, Vanderbilt University (available for research)
• Carole Pateman, University of California-Los Angeles (available for research) 
• Constance Penley, University of California-Santa Barbara
• Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, University of Pennsylvania (available for research)
• Griselda Pollock, University of Leeds
• Mary Poovey, New York University (available for research) 
• Denise Riley, University of East Anglia (available for research)
• Mary Louise Roberts, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Avital Ronell, New York University
• Ellen Rooney, Brown University
• Jacqueline Rose, Queen Mary University of London
• Kristin Ross, New York University
• Gayle M. Salamon, Princeton University
• Renata Salecl, Central European University
• Chela Sandoval, University of California-Santa Barbara
• Sylvia Schafer, University of Connecticut
• Mira Schor, Parsons School of Design
• Naomi Schor (deceased), Yale University (available for research)
• Joan Wallach Scott, Institute for Advanced Study (available for research)
• Christina Sharpe, York University (available for research)
• Jenny Sharpe, University of California-Los Angeles
• Elaine Showalter, Princeton University, emerita (available for research)
• Christina Simmons, University of Windsor, emerita (available for research)
• Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Brown University and Duke University (available for research) 
• C. Riley Snorton, University of Chicago
• Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) (available for research) 
• Barbara Spackman, University of California-Berkeley
• Hortense J. Spillers, Vanderbilt University (available for research)
• Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, Brown University (available for research) 
• Ann Laura Stoler, New School for Social Research
• Lyndsey Stonebridge, University of East Anglia
• Judith Surkis, Rutgers University
• Jennifer Terry, University of California-Irvine (available for research)
• Charis Thompson, University of California-Berkeley
• Barrie Thorne, University of California-Berkeley
• Louise A. Tilly, New School for Social Research (available for research)
• Leti Volpp, Berkeley Law University of California
• Judith R. Walkowitz, The Johns Hopkins University (available for research)
• Cheryl A. Wall (deceased), Rutgers University (available for research)
• Kay B. Warren, Brown University
• Elizabeth Weed, Brown University (subject files available for research)
• Kari Weil, Wesleyan University
• Laura Wexler, Yale University
• Mimi White, Northwestern University
• Faith Wilding, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (available for research) 
• Linda Williams, University of California-Berkeley (available for research) 
• Elizabeth A. Wilson, Emory University
• Alison Wylie, University of Washington (available for research)
• Patricia Smith Yaeger (deceased), University of Michigan (available for research)
• Froma Zeitlin, Princeton University
• Linda M.G. Zerilli, University of Chicago
• Ewa Plonowska Ziarek, SUNY - Buffalo (available for research)

Inquiries from donors and researchers should be directed to: pembroke_archives@brown.edu.