Joan Kelly, also known as Joan Kelly-Gadol (March 29, 1928 – August 15, 1982) was a prominent American historian who wrote on the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

, specifically on

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

. Among her best known works is the essay "Did Women Have a Renaissance?" which was first published in 1976. The article challenged the contemporary historiography of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

, arguing that women's power and agency declined during the early modern period.

Personal life

Kelly was born in Brooklyn in 1928 to George V. and Ruth (Jacobsen) Kelly. She received a BA from St John's University in 1953 and then went on to earn a PhD in history from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1963, where she was supervised by Garret Mattingley. Kelly was a member of the history faculty of the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...

from 1956 until her death from cancer in 1982. Kelly was married to Eugene Gadol until 1972 and to Martin Fleischer from 1979 until her death.

Career

While still a graduate student at Columbia, Kelly was employed as a lecturer for City College from 1956 onwards. Once she received her doctorate in 1963, she was promoted to assistant professor, and again promoted to associate professor in 1972. Kelly was appointed a full professor in 1972. Her growing political involvement in the 1960s, particularly with Marxist theory and the civil rights movement, led to Kelly becoming more interested in women's history. Together with

Gerda Lerner Gerda Hedwig Lerner (née Kronstein; April 30, 1920 – January 2, 2013) was an Austrian-born American historian and woman's history author. In addition to her numerous scholarly publications, she wrote poetry, fiction, theatre pieces, screenp ...

, Kelly founded the first master's program in women's history at

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sarah Lawrence scholarship, particularly ...

. She was also the chair of the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

's Committee on Women Historians, 1975–77. From 1973 to 1974, she served as co-chair on the Coordinating Committee for Women in the Historical Profession, as part of the committee's New York City chapter. In addition to these positions, she also sat on the advisory boards for City University of New York's Center for the Study of Women and Sex Roles and their publisher, the Feminist Press. She received a number of awards, including a Woodrow Wilson fellowship, 1953–54 and a junior fellowship from the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities, 1967–68. A collection of Kelly's essays, titled ''Women, History and Theory'', was published posthumously in 1984.

Did Women Have a Renaissance?

In the highly influential essay �
Did Women Have a Renaissance?
(1976),” Kelly explored women's roles in Renaissance society. She challenged traditional periodization, saying that women's historical experience was different to that of men's, and that while men's options may have expanded during the Renaissance period that the opposite was true for women. Drawing on contemporary literature, Kelly argued that concepts of courtly love led to an increased emphasis on women's passivity and virginity. Kelly's argument broke with traditional historiography and encouraged other historians of women and gender to reassess historical periodization through the lens of women's experiences.

Tribute

The Joan Kelly Memorial Prize, founded in 1984, is awarded annually by the

"for the book in women’s history and/or feminist theory that best reflects the high intellectual and scholarly ideals exemplified by the life and work of Joan Kelly."

Bibliography

Did Women Have a Renaissance?
(1977) *''Leon Battista Alberti: Universal Man of the Early Renaissance'' (1969) *''Households and Kin: Families in Flux'' (1989) *''Women, History and Theory: The Essays of Joan Kelly'' (1984)

References

External links

"Did Women Have a Renaissance?"
by Joan Kelly (1977)
Papers, 1973-1984.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Joan 1928 births 1982 deaths Columbia University alumni American women historians Women's historians 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers American feminists City University of New York faculty