International Studies Gets Funding Lift

The MacArthur Foundation announced yesterday that it will award three Harvard graduate programs in international and area studies $750,000 over the next three years.

The philanthropic agency will divide the Harvard grant three ways, giving $300,000 to fund graduate research, $150,000 to the journal International Affairs and $300,000 to the fledgling Society of Fellows. All three projects deal with research in the fields of international security and area studies.

Coming on the heels of two other major grants to Harvard in international affairs, this donation may signal a revival in philanthropic giving in the field.

Geyser University Professor Henry Rosovsky said yesterday that research sponsorship in this discipline is "about to experience a renaissance." Rosovsky, former dean of the Faculty, launched the Society of Fellows program last fall to encourage scholarship in international studies.

$25 Million in Grants

The Harvard gift is part of the first round of the MacArthur Foundation's $25 million International Security Program, said Ruth S. Adams, the program's director.

Adams said the grant to International Affairs was unique in that very few of the awards went to publications. She called the journal "the most important in the field."

The money will allow the Center for Science and International Affairs, which publishes the review, to sustain quality in the publication without draining its endowment, according to Stephen J. Flanagan, assistant director.

President Bok's office is currently considering how to distribute the $300,000 awarded to provide fellowships to graduate students, Flanagan added.

Society News

The goal of the Society of Fellows is "to educate a new generation of area specialists and people in international studies and provide in international studies and provide a peer group for them," Rosovsky said.

Aside from the MacArthur grant, the Society received start-up funding of $10 million from Dr. Ira Kukin last November.

In spite of the two donations, Rosovsky, who is orchestrating the program's fundraising effort, said that it is "really in the planning stage" still.

Twenty-four other American institutions have just received MacArthur money. Among these are MIT, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, and the University of California at Berkeley.

This year's MacArthur Foundation awards "double the private funds for academic institutions" in international and area studies, Adams said.