Joan Valerie Bondurant (December 18, 1918 – September 12, 2006) was an American political scientist and former spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II.
[1] When World War II broke out, she learned Japanese, and was sent to work for the OSS in India, arriving in New Delhi in May, 1944.
[3]: 189 While in India, she met Mahatma Gandhi, and became interested in his nonviolent approach to politics.
Returning to the US, Bondurant obtained a doctoral degree in political science at the University of California, Berkeley (1952).
[1] Her collection of personal and research papers was given to the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation of River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester in 2012 and was opened to researchers in 2015.