Gretchen Ritter

Ritter grew up in Upstate New York.[3] A "third-generation Cornellian", she graduated from Cornell University with a BS in government in 1983.[3] She later earned a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3]

Ritter is a leading expert in the history of women's constitutional rights and contemporary issues concerning democracy and citizenship in American politics.[4] Prior to becoming an academic administrator, Ritter taught at MIT, Princeton University, Harvard University, and the University of Texas at Austin.[5][6]

From 2009 to 2013, she was the vice provost for undergraduate education and faculty governance at the University of Texas at Austin.[3] In 2013, she became the first woman to serve as the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University, a position she held until 2018.[7]

In 2014, Ritter interviewed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the New-York Historical Society.[8][9]

From 2019 to 2021, she served as the executive dean and vice provost of Ohio State University's College of Arts and Sciences.[2] Ritter officially left her positions at Ohio State in August 2021 and became the vice chancellor, provost, and chief academic officer of Syracuse University in October 2021.[1][10]

Ritter is the author of two books, The Constitution as Social Design: Gender and Civic Membership in the American Constitutional Order and Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonology Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America, 1865–1896.[11] She is a co-editor of Democratization in America: A Comparative and Historical Perspective.[11]

Ritter is the recipient of several fellowships and awards, including the National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship, the Radcliffe Research Partnership Award, and a Liberal Arts Fellowship at Harvard Law School.[4] She is also a member of the American Political Science Association and the Council on Foreign Relations.[4]

• Ritter, Gretchen (1997). Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America, 1865–1896. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521653923. OCLC 181692643.
• Ritter, Gretchen (2006). The Constitution as Social Design: Gender and Civic Membership in the American Constitutional Order. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804754385. OCLC 654816215.