PHILADELPHIA –- The American Political Science Association has elected University of Pennsylvania Political Science Professor Nancy Hirschmann as a vice president for 2012-2013.

Hirschmann is one of three new vice presidents who serve one-year terms on the association’s council.  She is joined by Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton University and Hanes Walton Jr. of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as APSA vice presidents.

Hirschmann chairs Penn’s political science department's graduate division.  She works in the history of political thought, analytical philosophy, feminist theory and the intersection of political theory and public policy. Her recent books include Gender Class and Freedom in Modern Political Theory and The Subject of Liberty: Toward a Feminist Theory of Freedom, which won APSA’s Victoria Schuck Award for the best book on women and politics.

Hirschmann has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the American Council of Learned Societies, which oversees APSA programming and speaks out on issues affecting political science scholarship and teaching.

APSA, the largest professional organization for the study of politics, serves more than 15,000 members in more than 80 countries.  APSA publishes Perspectives on Politics, The American Political Science Review and PS: Political Science & Politics.