The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, and professions. It is the successor institution to the former
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
, originally a women's college connected with Harvard.
The institute comprises three programs:
* The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program is a highly selective fellowship that supports the work of 50 artists and scholars each year.
* The Academic Ventures program is for collaborative research projects and hosts lectures and conferences.
* The
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, ...
documents the lives of American women of the past and present for the future.
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
The Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS) consortium organizes ten "institutes for advanced study" founded on the same principles as the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. The members are:
* Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, ...
consortium. Prof.
Tomiko Brown-Nagin
Tomiko Brown-Nagin (born c. 1970) is an American law professor, historian, author, and university leader. She is dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, one of the world’s leading centers for interdisciplinary research across the humanities, scien ...
is the institute's current dean.
History
The Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study was founded in 1961 by the then-president of Radcliffe College,
Mary Ingraham Bunting
Mary Ingraham Bunting (July 10, 1910 – January 21, 1998) was an influential American college president; ''Time'' profiled her as the magazine's November 3, 1961, cover story.
. Following Bunting's vision to stem the exodus of highly trained 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. The initial funding for the institute came from the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations. The institute was renamed the Bunting Institute in 1978 in honor of Dr. Bunting and also supported 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 formally with Harvard University.Radcliffe Institute: "Reading Room Named in Honor of Carol K. Pforzheimer '31" However, 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.
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.
During the period of transition from college to institute,
Mary Maples Dunn
Mary Maples Dunn (April 6, 1931 – March 19, 2017) was an American historian. Born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Dunn graduated from The College of William & Mary in 1954 and received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in 1959, where she taught and ...
served as interim leader, as both 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
The president of Harvard University is the chief academic administration, administrator of Harvard University and the ''Ex officio member, ex officio'' president of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard Corporation. Each is appoi ...
. Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at the
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is the engineering school within Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, offering degrees in engineering and applied sciences to graduate students admitted ...
, served as interim dean following Faust's departure and was named dean on April 28, 2008; 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.
Schlesinger Library
The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America exists to document women's lives and endeavors. Its wealth of resources reveals the wide range of women's activities at home in the United States and abroad from the early 19th century to the present day. The library's holdings include manuscripts; books and periodicals; and photographic and audiovisual material.
There are more than 2,500 unique manuscript collections from individuals, families, and organizations. Women's rights movements past and present, feminism, health and sexuality, social reform, and the
education of women and girls
Female education is a catch-all term of a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, and health education in particular) for girls and women. It is frequently called girl ...
are manuscript holdings. Ordinary lives of women and families and the struggles and triumphs of women of accomplishment are richly documented in diaries and other personal records. Many collections, such as the papers of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Pauli Murray, and the records of the National Organization for Women, feature political, organizational, and economic questions. In addition to these collections, the library also houses the personal papers of Susan B. Anthony,
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...
, Betty Friedan, Adrienne Rich, and many others.
Books and Periodicals: More than 80,000 printed volumes include scholarly monographs as well as popular works. These cover topics including women's rights; women and work; women's health; women of color; comparative material about women in other cultures; works on women in the arts and in music; women and family; feminist and anti-feminist theory; and lesbian writings. Hundreds of periodical titles, including popular magazines such as ''
Ladies' Home Journal
''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...
Seventeen
Seventeen or 17 may refer to:
*17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18
* one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017
Literature
Magazines
* ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine
* ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...
'', highlight domestic concerns, leisure pursuits, etiquette, fashion, and food.
Photographic and Audiovisual Material: More than 90,000 photographs, ranging from casual snapshots to the works of professional photographers, create an unparalleled visual record of private and public life. Audiotapes, videotapes and oral history tapes, and transcripts add the soundtrack to the story of women's lives.
The library has two distinguished special collections. A culinary collection of more than 15,000 books—spanning five centuries and
global cuisines
A global cuisine is a cuisine that is practiced around the world. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific region, country or culture. To become a global cuisine, a local, regional ...
—is one of the world's most significant. This collection also includes the papers of several famous chefs and food writers, such as
M. F. K. Fisher
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992) was an American food writer. She was a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. Over her lifetime she wrote 27 books, including a translation of ''The Physiology of Taste'' by Brillat-S ...
,
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...
, and Elizabeth David. The Radcliffe College Archives, 1879–1999—including papers of college officers, students, and alumnae—record the history of women in higher education.
While its focus for collecting is American women, the library has an abundance of print and manuscript materials bearing on issues around the globe as a result of American women's extensive travel and foreign residence. Some examples are letters of early missionaries in China, activists' accounts of the
Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice
The Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice was a women-only peace camp formed to protest the scheduled deployment of Cruise and Pershing II missiles before their suspected shipment from the Seneca Army Depot to Europe in the f ...
, and the speeches and writings of
Shirley Graham Du Bois
Shirley Graham Du Bois (born Lola Shirley Graham Jr.; November 11, 1896 – March 27, 1977) was an American writer, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American causes, among others. She won the Messner and the Anisfield-Wolf prizes f ...
.
Detailed records for the library's manuscript collections as well as books and periodicals can be found in HOLLIS. The catalog record gives a description of the item or collection and provides other important information such as offsite location or access restrictions.
Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program
Radcliffe Institute fellowships are designed to support scholars, scientists, artists, and writers of exceptional promise and demonstrated accomplishments who wish to pursue work in academic and professional fields and in the creative arts.
The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program was founded at Radcliffe College in 1961 as the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study. In 1978, the institute was renamed the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute to honor Radcliffe College President
Mary Bunting
Mary Ingraham Bunting (July 10, 1910 – January 21, 1998) was an influential United States, American College#United States, college president; ''Time (magazine), Time'' profiled her as the magazine's November 3, 1961, cover story.The New York Times'' in the fall of 1960, more than 2,000 women inquired about the "experiment". The outpouring of interest confirmed President Bunting's hunch—that a growing number of educated women were ready to resume intellectual or artistic work after raising families.
From 1960 to 2000, more than 1,300 scholars, scientists, artists, writers, and musicians have been named fellows. '' The Boston Globe Magazine'' called the Bunting Institute "America's Think Tank for Women", and the ''Chronicle of Higher Education'' described the institute as a place where "lives get turned around, books get written, and discoveries are made, all the result of time spent among intellectual peers."
Including the 2017–2018 academic year, the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program has hosted around 900 women and men of exceptional promise working on projects across the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. For the 2017–2018 fellowship class, the acceptance rate was only 4 percent.
In addition, research clusters at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study use the Radcliffe Fellowship Program to draw together scholars to focus on particular themes. Previous cluster topics include unconscious prejudice and the law, immigration, randomness and computation, and cosmology and theoretical astrophysics.
The program is currently run out of Byerly Hall, one of the historic buildings in Radcliffe Yard.