Du Bois, Cora Alice, 1903-1991

Cora Du Bois is listed among the first tenured women professors at Harvard.

Cora Du Bois was the first woman to have tenure in the School of Arts and Sciences when she became the Zemurray professor of Anthropology at Harvard and Radcliffe in 1954. Du Bois had previous experience with working in a predominantly male environment from her work for the Office of Strategic Services as a Southeast Asia expert during World War II, and for the State Department’s office of intelligence research after the war. Her Harvard students considered her "formidable" due to her outspoken nature, but she was also known by them to be compassionate and principled.

Cora Alice Du Bois; October 26, 1903 – April 7, 1991. Du Bois was an American cultural anthropologist known for her involvement in culture and personality studies and in psychological anthropology. In addition to her anthropological career she was Chief of the Indonesia section of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II and worked as Chief of the Southeast Asia Branch in the State Department's Office of Intelligence Research.

Cora Du Bois; October 26, 1903 - April 7, 1991. Cora Du Bois became the Zemurray professor of Anthropology at Harvard and Radcliffe in 1954 and was the first woman to have tenure in the School of Arts and Sciences. Previously Du Bois worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as chief of Research and Analysis for the Southeast Asia Command during World War II. During the course of her anthropology career she conducted fieldwork among the Wintu in California, in the community of Atimelang on the Island of Alor in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and in Bhubaneswar, India.