CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES

BARBARA BRANDEN is a writer and lecturer. She earned her M.A. in philosophy, and authored a thesis on free will, under the direction of Sidney Hook at New York University. She was Ayn Rand's intimate friend and colleague for eighteen years, and a close friend of the members of the "Rand Circle." She was Managing Editor of The Objectivist, a philosophical journal, and Executive Vice-President of Nathaniel Branden Institute in New York. At NBI, she conceived and presented a popular course on the nature of efficient thinking. In 1986, Doubleday published her best- selling and critically acclaimed biography, The Passion of Ayn Rand. This biography has spawned two adaptations: a SHOWTIME television movie, written by Howard Korder; and a stage version, written by Julian Barry, and presented by Sir Peter Hall, former head of the British National Theatre, at the Old Vic in London.   Back to Table of Contents.

NATHANIEL BRANDEN is a graduate of New York University (M.A.), the California Graduate Institute (Ph.D.), and a pioneer in the field of self-esteem. He is a psychologist in private practice, and a corporate consultant. He was Ayn Rand's closest associate for eighteen years, until their break in 1968. His books include The Psychology of Self- Esteem (Nash, 1969), The Psychology of Romantic Love (Bantam, 1980), Judgment Day: My Years with Ayn Rand (Houghton-Mifflin, 1989), The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem (Bantam, 1994), Taking Responsibility (Simon & Schuster, 1996), The Art of Living Consciously (Simon & Schuster, 1997), A Woman's Self-Esteem: Struggles and Triumphs in the Search for Identity (Jossey-Bass, 1998), and Self-Esteem at Work:  How Confident People Make Powerful Companies (Jossey-Bass, 1998).  Back to Table of Contents.

DIANA MERTZ BRICKELL has a B.A. (magna cum laude) in philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis. In 1997, she received the Nishi Luthra Prize in Philosophy from Washington University. Diana currently resides in Los Angeles, where she works as a computer programmer and continues to write on philosophy and feminist issues. Back to Table of Contents.

SUSAN LOVE BROWN is a political and psychological anthropologist who received her bachelor's degree from Regents College, State University of New York, in 1984. She subsequently earned her master's degree in anthropology from San Diego State University in 1987, followed by her doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of California, San Diego in 1992. Currently an associate professor of anthropology at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, she teaches a course in gender and culture, and serves as a member of the women's studies faculty. She has done fieldwork in the Bahamas and the United States, and is currently working on her book Solidarity and Individualism in an Archipelago State and an edited volume, tentatively titled Communalism and Community. Back to Table of Contents.

SUSAN BROWNMILLER is the author of many books and essays, including Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape (Bantam Books, 1975), Femininity (Linden Press, 1984), Waverly Place (Grove Press, 1989), and Seeing Vietnam: Encounters of the Road and Heart (HarperCollins, 1994).  Back to Table of Contents.

MIMI REISEL GLADSTEIN, co-editor of Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand, is a Professor of English and Theatre Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso, where she is currently Associate Dean of Liberal Arts. She was the first Director of the Women's Studies Program at her university. She has chaired the English Department twice, was the Executive Director for the University's Diamond Jubilee Celebration, and Director of the Western Cultural Heritage Program. She is the author of The Ayn Rand Companion (1984), The Indestructible Woman in Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck (1986), The New Ayn Rand Companion, Revised and Expanded Edition (1999), and a volume on Atlas Shrugged for Twayne's Masterwork Studies series, Atlas Shrugged:  Manifesto of the Mind (2000).  She has won international recognition for her work on John Steinbeck: the John J. and Angeline Pruis Award for Steinbeck Teacher of the Decade (1978-1987) and the Burkhardt Award for Outstanding Contributions to Steinbeck Studies in 1996. She also received her university's College of Liberal Arts' Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award in 2003  She has been a Fulbright Professor in Venezuela (1990-91) and Spain (1995).  For a 31 May 2004 interview with Mimi Reisel Gladstein, conducted by Craig Ceely for The Atlasphere, click here. Back to Table of Contents.

THOMAS GRAMSTAD is a "digital nomad": a freelance writer, teacher and conference organizer with a primary focus on interactive cyber- and multimedia, virtual communities and computer art. His work focuses on the intersection of feminism, gender liberation and multiculturalism. He is the creator of more than thirty interactive group forums on the Internet, including alt.feminism.individualism, alt.tv.xena, and the Amazons International Newsletter. He is the author of "The Edison Galaxy: Text Beyond the Oral/Literary Dichotomy," in T. Julsrud & J. W. Bakke's The Digital Nomad (Spartacus, Oslo), and of numerous articles and essays. Back to Table of Contents.

MELISSA JANE HARDIE teaches English, cultural studies, and women's studies in the English Department, University of Sydney. Her Ph.D. was awarded at the University of Sydney in 1994. She is currently completing her book Camp Quality: Women, Popular Culture, Queer Aesthetics. Her recent publications include "'I Embrace The Difference': Elizabeth Taylor and the Closet" in Grosz & Probyn, eds., Sexy Bodies: The Strange Carnalities of Feminism (Routledge, 1995), and "Restless: Paglia v. Sontag" in American Feminist Studies (1997). Future projects include work on liberation and nostalgia. Back to Table of Contents.

BARBARA GRIZZUTI HARRISON is the author of many books and essays, including Unlearning the Lie: Sexism in School (Liveright, 1973), Visions of Glory: A History and a Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses (Simon and Schuster, 1978), Off Center: Essays (Dial Press, 1980), The Astonishing World: Essays (Ticknor & Fields, 1992), and An Accidental Autobiography (Houghton Mifflin, 1996).  Back to Table of Contents.

VALERIE LOIRET-PRUNET is Agregee Professor of Linguistics and Literature. She earned her degree at the University of Paris, and teaches courses in text analysis, grammar and philosophy. Her current project is "Rediscovering the 'I' in Discourse and Grammar: Modern Enunciative Linguistics and Objectivism." She serves as Vice President of the French Ayn Rand Society. Back to Table of Contents.

WENDY McELROY is the author of XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography (St. Martin's Press, 1995) and Sexual Correctness: The Gender-Feminist Attack on Women (McFarland, 1996). She is the editor of the anthology, Freedom, Feminism, and the State (Cato Institute, 1982), now in its third edition. She is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in publications as diverse as National Review and Marie Claire. She is a feminist lecturer, most recently at the International Congress on Prostitution sponsored by the California State University, Northridge, and at the Wisconsin Scholars' Society, University of Madison.  McElroy also maintains the ifeminism site. Back to Table of Contents.

KAREN MICHALSON holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is a full-time writer and musician. She is the author of several novels, book reviews, scholarly articles, and one scholarly book, Victorian Fantasy Literature: Literary Battles with Church and Empire. She has taught at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Connecticut at Storrs. She is also the President of Arula Records and the bassist-vocalist of her rock band, Point of Ares, whose debut CD, "Enemy Glory," is based on her dark fantasy, libertarian series.  Books One and Two of "Enemy Glory" have been published by Tor.  She also blogs. Back to Table of Contents.

CAMILLE PAGLIA is Professor of Humanities at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Her books include Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (Yale University Press, 1992), Sex, Art, and American Culture (Vintage Books, 1992), and Vamps & Tramps: New Essays (Vintage Books, 1994).  Back to Table of Contents.

SHARON PRESLEY received her Ph.D. in social psychology from the City University of New York. She has taught psychology of women and other gender-related courses at California State University, Iowa State University, the College of Wooster, and Weber State College. Her published research includes a study of political resisters to authority, historical papers on women resisters, and a study of Mormon feminists. She is Executive Director of Resources for Independent Thinking, a nonprofit educational organization, and is working on two books: an edited collection of essays by nineteenth-century individualist feminist Voltairine de Cleyre, and Is Gender in Our Genes?, a research-based critique of popular concepts of gender. Back to Table of Contents.

CHRIS MATTHEW SCIABARRA, co-editor of Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand, is Visiting Scholar in the Department of Politics at New York University. At N.Y.U., he earned a B.A. in history (with honors), economics, and politics, an M.A. in politics, and a Ph.D., with distinction, in political theory, philosophy, and methodology. He is the author of the forthcoming, Total Freedom:  Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism (Penn State Press, 2000), his third book in the trilogy that began with Marx, Hayek, and Utopia (State University of New York Press, 1995) and continued with Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical (Penn State Press, 1995). In his exploration of the nature of political radicalism, he integrates libertarian social theory and dialectical method.  His website features many of the debates that his work has provoked. Back to Table of Contents.

ROBERT SHEAFFER is the author of Resentment Against Achievement (Prometheus Books, 1988), and The Making of the Messiah (Prometheus, 1991). He received B.A. and M.A.T. degrees from Northwestern University. He has contributed articles and reviews to Reason, Liberty, The Humanist, Scientific American, Free Inquiry, and other publications. He works in California's Silicon Valley as a data communications engineer.  He also maintains a Skeptical website, "The Debunker's Domain." Back to Table of Contents.

JOAN KENNEDY TAYLOR is the author of Reclaiming the Mainstream: Individualist Feminism Rediscovered (Prometheus Books, 1992), What to Do When You Don't Want to Call the Cops:  A Non-Adversarial Approach to Sexual Harassment (New York University Press, 1999), and has contributed numerous articles to periodicals and books. She has been senior editor of the Libertarian Review, publications director for the Manhattan Institute, and a radio commentator for the Cato Institute's syndicated, "Byline." Currently, she is the national coordinator of the Association of Libertarian Feminists, and is also active in the anti-censorship organization, Feminists for Free Expression. Her article, "Protecting Minors from Free Speech," appeared in the Fall 1997 issue of The Journal of Information Ethics.   Back to Table of Contents.

BARRY VACKER is an assistant professor in the Center for Communication Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He earned his doctorate in philosophy, law, and communication at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of several scholarly articles, including the lead essay on "pursing beauty" for a special edition of the journal, Psychology and Marketing. His forthcoming book, Chaos at the Edge of Utopia, is an extension of his dissertation, and it explores how utopian visions emerge from the reciprocal relation of science, aesthetics, politics, and media technology. He has presented papers before the American Society for Aesthetics, and has taught courses on "media and society," "aesthetics and culture," and "the cyber age."  Back to Table of Contents.

JUDITH WILT is professor of English, former chair of the department, and founding director of the Women's Studies Program at Boston College. She teaches and writes in the fields of British and American fiction, popular culture, women's studies, and religion and literature. She has written books on George Meredith, Sir Walter Scott, and the Gothic novel and English fiction. Her most recent book is Abortion, Choice and Contemporary Fiction: The Armageddon of the Maternal Instinct (1991). Her current work is on English novelist Mary Arnold Ward. Back to Table of Contents.