Harvard Radcliffe Institute
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, and professions.[1] It came into being in 1999 as the successor institution to the former Radcliffe College, originally a women's college connected with Harvard.
The institute comprises three programs:
The Radcliffe Institute often hosts public events, many of which can be watched online. It is a member of the Some Institutes for Advanced Study consortium. Prof. Tomiko Brown-Nagin is the institute's current dean.[2]
History[edit]
20th century[edit]
The Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study was founded in 1961 by the then-president of Radcliffe College, Mary Ingraham Bunting, who sought to stem the exodus of highly trained and educated women from promising careers. The institute provided stipends as well as access to all of the resources of Harvard University to take up their chosen creative intellectual studies.[3][4] The initial funding for the institute came from the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations.[3][4] The institute was renamed the Bunting Institute in 1978; its grants expanded to support women wishing to pursue advanced degrees on a part-time basis.
The current institute came into being by the agreement of October 1, 1999, under which Radcliffe College merged with Harvard University.[5][6] Long before this date, the focus of Radcliffe had already begun to shift: undergraduate women had attended classes with Harvard men since 1943, received Harvard degrees signed by both Harvard and Radcliffe presidents since 1963, and lived in integrated dormitories with Harvard men since 1971.
21st century[edit]
In 2001, the first professorship at the institute was established with the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professorship at Radcliffe. The professorship was endowed by the Pforzheimer family, who also endowed the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Directorship and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Student Fellowships at the institute's Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, which, with the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program, both of which date back to Radcliffe College days, are among the institute's best-known features.[5]
As the college became an institute, Mary Maples Dunn served as acting president of Radcliffe College and acting dean of the Radcliffe Institute. On January 1, 2001, Drew Gilpin Faust became the institute's first permanent dean; she stepped down in July 2007 to become president of Harvard University. Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, served as interim dean after Faust's departure and was named dean on April 28, 2008;[7] she stepped down in June 2011. After serving as interim dean from 2011 to 2012, Lizabeth Cohen became dean. A historian, Cohen stepped down on June 30, 2018, to return to research, writing, and teaching.[8]