Sharon M. Harris is a feminist literary scholar and cultural historian, and she was the founder and first president of the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. From 1996 to 2004, she edited the society's journal, Legacy, widely considered the premier journal in the field.[1][2] Harris was also one of the three founders of the Society of Early Americanists.[3] An elected member of the American Antiquarian Society, Harris is the author and editor of numerous books, including Executing Race: Early American Women's Narratives of Race, Society, and the Law (2005) and Dr. Mary Walker, An American Radical (2009).[4] As a key figure in the so-called "recovery" period of the 1980s and 1990s, Harris was initially known for her study of Rebecca Harding Davis, published in 1991.[5] Harris is currently professor emerita at the University of Connecticut.[6]