Government Star Benhabib To Take Post at Yale

Professor of Government Seyla Benhabib, one of Harvard's top political philosophers, said yesterday that Harvard's government department is "no longer an intellectual home" for her and that she will leave her post for one at Yale.

Benhabib, who is currently on sabbatical, said she will join the Yale faculty as a senior professor in the philosophy and political science departments and might teach at Yale's law school in the future. But she said a return to Harvard is possible before she moves to Yale.

Benhabib said she was leaving as a result of a confluence of problems with Harvard and new opportunities at Yale.

She described the Committee on Social Studies, which she chairs, as "a great program," but said she was frustrated by its non-departmental status at Harvard. Social Studies has no faculty of its own; its professors are appointed from other departments. It also has no graduate component.

"I want to take to the graduate and degree-granting level work in social studies," Benhabib said.

She said the structural changes to the social studies or government programs that might have encouraged her to stay probably would have met "a lot of resistance."

Although she said there had been talk of appointing senior faculty in social studies alone on a provisional five-year basis, she said doing so would "require an enormous amount of work."

"We are coming up against very entrenched institutional issues," she said.

Benhabib said she hoped her departure might spur debate over her concerns at Harvard.

"Maybe there will be conversation after I leave," she said.

Benhabib said a new political science department program at Yale is a primary reason for her interest in relocating.

She described the program, dubbed "Rethinking Political Order: The Nation-State in the Emerging World," as "redefining the field in thematic, not area-specific ways. It's a bold new step and a bold new initiative...It's the way to reconfigure the field and reach across boundaries."

Benhabib's colleagues said they regretted the loss of one of their most eminent social theoreticians.

Benhabib is widely recognized as an expert on modern democratic theory, feminist theory and political philosophy.

She taught continental philosophy for the government department, whose primary emphasis is on Anglo-American analytical philosophy.

"This is a loss for the University as well as Social Studies," said Charles S. Maier, Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies and Benhabib's predecessor as chair of the committee.

"It's good for Yale, and we'll have to scramble to fill that hole," Maier said.

Williams Professor and Government chair Roderick L. MacFarquhar said he felt "great regret [at her sentiments] because she's a very great thinker...I'm very, very sorry that she's going."

"It certainly does hurt [the government department]," added Harvey C. Mansfield, Kenan professor of government. Despite "harbingers from sources at Yale [of her departure], they were hoping to have her stay," he said.

Benhabib said she has been negotiating with Yale for some time over the prospect of her relocation.

"Any serious offer at an Ivy League school takes one to one and a half years," she said. "This started well before this past week."

Wesley T.W. Shih '01, who took a lecture course and a seminar with Benhabib, said she had mentioned her disagreements with the University in the past.

"She had problems with the institution," Shih said. "It was just a general feeling that she gave out."

Maier said that Benhabib's eventual replacement as Social Studies chair might already hold the post.

"People are very happy with the job that [Professor of Government and acting chair] Grzegorz Ekiert has done this year," Maier said.

Benhabib received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale and taught there between 1977 and 1979. She is currently on sabbatical at the Russell Sage Foundation, a social science research institute in New York.

Yale Political Science Chair Ian Shapiro, who could not be reached for comment last night, told the Yale Daily News he was thrilled by Benhabib's decision.

"It's not every day you get somebody to jump ship from Harvard," he said. "It will, among other things, make Yale the top place in political philosophy."