Putting Radcliffe on the Map

The monumental merger between Radcliffe College and Harvard University in October 1999 left many problems unsolved.

It was not until almost a year later that 11 of the biggest names in higher education assembled in Radcliffe’s administrative headquarters.

The mission of this committee was to place the newly-hatched Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study on the path to success.

Members of the committee included the directors of the three most prominent American institutes for advanced study—themselves relatively new additions to the scholarly spectrum.

The committee issued a report the following February, urging the Institute to streamline its programs around its preexisting fellowship program.

Now, two years after the committee released its final report, the first signs of Radcliffe’s redefinition are coming into focus.

And directors of the other institutes say it will not be long before they consider Radcliffe their peer.

“They still have to figure out exactly what their fellowship program is going to look like,” says Doug McAdam, director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) in Palo Alto, Calif.

“It’s hard to imagine a scenario,” he says, “in which the Radcliffe center doesn’t very quickly become one of the preeminent ones in the world.”

'ACADEMIC PARADISE'

Radcliffe Dean Drew Gilpin Faust, who is frequently asked to explain what Radcliffe has become, has a ready answer at the tip of her tongue.

“An institute for advanced study is an institution that pursues knowledge at its outermost limits,” Faust explains. “It redefines the way we think about knowledge.”

The concept of an institute for advanced study originated in 1930 with the founding of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, N.J., as a small, Ivory Tower refuge for leading scholars to study in an environment without formal courses or curriculum. The IAS is widely known as the oldest and most prestigious institute, boasting four schools, extensive resources and a cadre of famous former members—including Albert Einstein.

“The Institute for Advanced Study is the granddaddy of all of these,” says W. Robert Connor, director of the National Humanities Center (NHC) in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. “It’s in many ways the standard-setter as well.”

Along with IAS, CASBS and NHC—approaching their 50th and 25th anniversaries, respectively—are well-established and respected as the three major institutes for advanced study in the U.S.

There are many ways to compare these institutes—from numbers of applications (generally in the 400 to 600 range) to annual stipend (up to $45,000 for most institutes). The report from Radcliffe’s own committee concludes with charts comparing facilities and resources of various institutes. The Institute receives about 550 applicants and offers to pay them as much as $45,000.

But Connor says the accomplishments of an institute are not quantifiable. Even more important than the books produced after a year in residence, he says, are the “fresh insights” and “new paths of inquiry” that result.

The institutes are places for quiet retreat and scholarly work, but are designed as communities as well.

While the institutes all serve the same broad purpose, each has its own unique character and goals.

For Radcliffe, part of its new identity was rooted in its past.

Drawing on Radcliffe College’s strong legacy of women’s education, a commitment to “women, gender and society” was a distinct part of the new Institute’s mission statement from the outset.

But the Institute has broader goals as well.

Unlike the other institutes for advanced study, Radcliffe does not limit itself to one particular area of expertise. Creative arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences intersect within the Institute.

Faust says this degree of breadth will allow the fellows to get the most out of their time at the Institute.

According to Columbia University history professor Caroline W. Bynum ’62, Faust’s leadership has been an essential part of jump-starting Radcliffe’s new incarnation.

“The real challenge to move from the old Radcliffe to a real institute for advanced study was to put it on the map in a hurry,” Bynum says.

“They couldn’t afford to wait five or ten years to build up the program,” she says. “It needed character and identifiability right away, because there’s competition out there.”

APPLYING THEMSELVES

Though institutes for advanced study and other fellowship programs are becoming an increasingly common phenomenon, gaining a spot in one of the programs remains a coveted honor.

In Princeton, the majority of the nearly 200 member spots in the Institute for Advanced Study are open by invitation only, but other institutes undergo an extensive application process to track down the best candidates.

Selection at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences is based on a less exclusive nomination process.

And like Radcliffe, the National Humanities Center has an open application.

The fellows are selected to represent a range of backgrounds and scholarly achievement.

And there’s no standard formula for fellowship success, NHC’s Connor says. In fact, taking risks sometimes pays off.

“You’ve got to take people who you think might be a little quirky, a little out of the mainstream sometimes, because that’s where a lot of innovation takes place,” Connor says.

GOOD NEIGHBORS

Radcliffe touts its direct affiliation with Harvard as one of its biggest draws. But even though all the other institutes for advanced study are administratively separate from the nearby universities, they often collaborate, sharing resources, students and faculty.

“It’s a very, very cordial relationship and absolutely vital to us,” says Connor, whose NHC is closely tied to the University of North Carolina, Duke University and other institutions.

And McAdam says Stanford “benefits enormously” from the nearby CASBS.

“It sort of thickens the intellectual community on a campus that is already very impressive,” he says.

Radcliffe’s relationship with Harvard, Faust says, is “hugely different.” In contrast to other institutes for advanced study, Radcliffe plays a role within the University. Faust says Radcliffe’s relation to Harvard will facilitate interdisciplinary interaction between the University’s often-disparate faculties.

And some say Radcliffe’s greatest potential for innovation lies in relationships with Harvard’s schools and programs that combine the interests of FAS professors and Radcliffe fellows.

In addition, Faust says, the short-term, flexible nature of Radcliffe’s fellowship program allows it to serve as a testing ground for ventures that could later move to other parts of Harvard.

But Bynum, the Columbia history professor, cautions that Radcliffe’s connection with Harvard is a risk as well as an asset.

“It’s quite possible that Harvard will start to think of the Institute as a place for sabbaticals for their faculty or as a means of recruitment,” she says. “It’s important that Radcliffe not become only the tail that’s wagged by Harvard.”

Faust, too, stresses the importance of maintaining Radcliffe’s mission.

“We do have to be wary,” Faust says. “We want to be very careful not to become the servants of the needs of these departments.”

THE CHALLENGE AHEAD

When Faust arrived at Radcliffe, the Institute was teetering on the edge of an identity crisis, struggling to find its footing within the University and the academy at large.

But this has been a landmark year for Radcliffe, with the implementation of major changes in the fellowship program’s structure, a dramatic increase in applications, the addition of Barbara Grosz and Katherine Newman as academic deans and the hiring of acclaimed women’s history scholar Nancy Cott to head the Schlesinger Library.

“It gives them a kind of a permanent faculty, so that they have some people with vision putting a larger stamp on things,” Bynum says.

And Faust credits her new academic deans with increasing the profile and understanding of Radcliffe at Harvard.

Within the University, Radcliffe has made its way onto the map,” she says.

In addition to increased advertising, a more targeted part of the publicity process will begin this summer with a letter-writing campaign to prospective fellows, which explained the Institute and encouraged scholars to apply.

This is only the beginning of the changes on Radcliffe’s to-do list.

Unlike the other institutes for advanced study, which have had the leeway to develop space that meets the needs of their programs, Radcliffe remains entangled in space constraints. Many Radcliffe-owned buildings are rented out, providing the Institute with considerable income but also limiting its ability to develop a central place for fellows to convene and work, which Faust views as essential to the fellowship program’s growth and success. FAS currently holds leases to three major buildings in Radcliffe Yard—Byerly Hall, Agassiz Theatre and the Rieman Center.

Faust is optimistic, however, that the Institute’s efforts to raise its public profile will pay off and that, before long, everyone will know about the Institute.

“It’s going to be terrible when they do,” she jokes. “I don’t know what we’ll do with all the applications.”

—Portions of this article appeared in the 2002 Commencement edition of The Crimson.