Jean H. Quataert is a professor of women's history, German history, and social and labor history at Binghamton University, SUNY. She is the author of several books, including, Staging Philanthropy: Patriotic Women and the National Imagination in Dynastic Germany, 1813-1916 (2001); Reluctant Feminists in German Social Democracy, 1885-1917 (1979); Gendering Modern German History: Themes, Debates, Revisions, editor with Karen Hagemann (2007); and Connecting Spheres: Women in the Western World from 1500 to the Present, co-author and editor with Marilyn J. Boxer (2nd edition, 1999). She is also is the recipient of the Chancellor's and University's Distinguished Teaching Award (1999), the Central European History Prize for the best article in a two year period (1987) and the Berkshire Prize for the best article in the field of History written by a woman (1986), for: The Shaping of Women's Work in Manufacturing: Guilds, Household and the State in Central Europe, 1648-1870.She is currently working on the book Advocating Dignity: Historical Perspectives on Human Rights Struggles and Global Politics, 1945-2005.