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Ratings & reviews

5.04/23/2026

Patient, kind, and always approachable.

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About Nancy

Nancy J. Hirschmann is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought and Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the faculty in 2002 after serving for 12 years as Professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University and previously at Swarthmore College. Hirschmann has held prominent leadership roles, including Vice-President of the American Political Science Association, Vice Chair of the Department of Political Science, Director of the Program on Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, and Director of the Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality, and Women. She earned her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on the history of political thought, particularly the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; feminist theory; analytical philosophy; disability theory; and the intersection of political theory and public policy issues related to gender, sexuality, and disability rights. She is an expert on the concept of freedom.