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= Jo Ann McNamara = Jo Ann Kay McNamara was a leading American historian of gender, the family, and the religious life in the Early Middle Ages and an equal rights activist inside and outside Higher Education.

Early Life
Jo Ann Kay McNamara was born in Janesville, Wisconsin on May 7, 1931. Her father travelled for work, and she moved various times during her youth.

Academic Career
McNamara completed her BA studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. After a break to earn money, she followed this with an MA at Columbia, where she was a contemporary of Suzanne Wemple and Phyllis B. Roberts and worked part-time as a secretary in the Geology department. In 1967, she received her PhD in Medieval History from Syracuse University. Supervised by John H. Mundy, her doctoral thesis was later published as her first monograph, Gilles Aycelin: A Servant of Two Masters.

McNamara then took up a faculty role at Hunter College. During this period, she contributed widely to the scholarly community of the New York area. In the 1970s, she was involved in the foundation of a New York branch of the Coordinating Council on Women in the Historical Profession (a sub-group of the American Historical Association), and the introduction of a Women's Studies degree at Hunter College. In addition, she was also part of the move to establish an Institute for Research in History in New York City to serve scholars without an academic affiliation.

She later assumed leadership positions in national scholarly associations. In 1991 and 1992, McNamara served as a member then co-chair of the Program Committee of the American Historical Association. In 1996, she chaired the Program Committee of the American Catholic Historical Association. In addition, she served on the editorial board of multiple academic journals including the Journal of Women’s History and Parergon.

Accolades
In 1998, McNamara was presented a Distinguished Historian Award by the Network for the History of Women Religious. A decade later, she was invited to write an autobiographical essay about her life, which was published in 2005 as part of an edited volume on influential female medievalists. Although McNamara did not receive a formal festschrift, in 2010 she was the dedicatee of an edited volume in which many established scholars note their personal debt to her work.

Activism
In 1970, McNamara participated in a sit-in at McSorley's Old Ale House led by the National Organization for Women as part of a campaign against the establishment's men-only policy. She was also involved in the civil rights and nuclear disarmament movements and, during the Vietnam War, anti-war movements.

Personal Life
McNamara was the mother of Edmund Clingan, a historian at Queensborough Community College.

As an author

 * McNamara, Jo Ann and Suzanne Wemple (1973), "The Power of Women through the Family in Medieval Europe: 500-1100", Feminist Studies, 1:3/4, 126-141.
 * McNamara, Jo Ann and Suzanne Wemple (1977), "Sanctity and power: the Dual Pursuit of medieval Women", in Claudia Koonz and Renate Bridenthal (eds.), Becoming Visible: Women in European History, Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, 90-118.
 * McNamara, Jo Ann, John E. Halborg, and E. Gordon Whatley (eds., trans.) (1992), Sainted women of the Dark Ages, Duke University Press, Durham NC.
 * McNamara, Jo Ann (1994), "The Herrenfrage: The Restructuring of the Gender System, 1050-1150", in Clare S. Lees (ed.), Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 3-29.
 * McNamara, Jo Ann Kay (1996), Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.

As a translator

 * Riché, Pierre; Jo Ann McNamara (trans.) (1988), Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia PA.
 * Roux, Simone; Jo Ann McNamara (trans.) (2009), Daily Life in Medieval Paris, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia PA.