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Sharon Presley (born 1943) is a libertarian and individualist anarchist feminist writer and activist and a psychology professor.

She was one of the co-founders of the first national libertarian organization of the new libertarian movement, the Alliance of Libertarian Activists, in 1966 in Berkeley, California. In 1972, she was the co-founder, with John Muller, of Laissez Faire Books, the largest and most influential libertarian bookstore. She was one of the founding members of the Association of Libertarian Feminists in 1976 and served as its National Coordinator from 1976 to 1985 and then again from 2004 to the present. In 1992, she founded Resources for Independent Thinking, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization promoting educational tools for independent and critical thinking. She serves as its Executive Director.

Over the years, she has spoken at many libertarian and anarchist conferences and events but has never been a member of the Libertarian Party.

Academic career

Presley received her B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and her M.A. in psychology from San Francisco State. Her Ph. D. in social psychology was awarded from City University of New York Graduate Center in 1981. Her mentor, Dr. Stanley Milgram, author of the classic book Obedience to Authority, was the chair for her dissertation, "Attitudes and Moral Judgment of Political Resisters to Authority." She now teaches at California State University, East Bay in Hayward. Her courses include Social, Developmental, Psychology of Women and Critical Thinking. Her research also includes work on women resisters to authority and Mormon feminists. Her current research is on personality variables related to attitudes toward authority.

Writing

Presley is the co-editor of Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre, published by SUNY Press in 2005.

She is currently working on a book tentatively entitled "Standing Up to Experts and Authorities: How to Avoid being Intimidated, Manipulated and Abused" to be published by Solomon Press in 2008. She is also working on an anthology of American women resisters to authority in the 19th century.

External links

• Sharon Presley's professional/academic web site
• Sharon Presley's political activist web site
• Association of Libertarian Feminists
• Resources for Independent Thinking
• Voltairine de Cleyre: The Exquisite Rebel
• Autonomy in the Family

• 1943 births
• Anarcho-capitalists
• Anarchist academics
• American anarchists
• American book editors
• American feminist writers
• American libertarians
• American women writers
• Feminist scholars
• Feminist writers
• Living people