Jean Hardisty, Ph.D.

Senior Scholar

Jean Hardisty is the founder and president emerita of Political Research Associates (PRA), a Boston-based research center that analyzes right wing, authoritarian, and anti-democratic trends and publishes educational materials for the general public. A political scientist with a B.A. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University, she left academia after eight years of teaching and researching conservative political thought to establish PRA in response to the emergence of the New Right in 1981. After 23 years, she retired from PRA in 2004 and is now a senior scholar with the Wellesley Centers for Women.

Dr. Hardisty is a widely published author and has been an activist for social justice issues, especially women's rights and civil rights, for over 30 years. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Center for Community Change, the Highlander Education and Research Center, and the Women's Community Cancer Project. Her book, Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers, first published by Beacon Press in October 1999, is now available in paperback.