Welcome, Professor Park!

We are pleased to welcome Katharine S. Park '72 as the Stone Radcliffe Professor of History of Science and Women's Studies. The joint tenure is extremely appropriate for a scholar who, according to Professor of History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn, "very nicely crosses disciplines in her work." We are sure Park will greatly enhance both departments.

Park is a leading scholar in the history of medieval and Renaissance science. Her works include Doctors and Medicine in Renaissance Florence and Wonders and the Order of Nature. "She can find a story in an old coin or engraving as well as in a traditional archive, says Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Phillips professor of early American history and women's studies. Park will bring several new courses to Harvard in Renaissance history as well as modern science and medicine.

Park's special interests include the history of gender and sexuality. As the second tenured professor in Women's Studies, Parks appointment not only brings her expertise into the department but also adds stability. Through her appointment, Harvard can begin to build up its Women's Studies department to attract other leading scholars in the field, following in the footsteps of its Afro-American Studies department, which, after Henry Louis Gates Jr. joined it, became the nation's top program of its kind.

"She's both broad and specialized," says C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and former chair of the committee on degrees in Women's Studies Susan R. Suleiman. In an age of specialization, Harvard is lucky to welcome a leading scholar in so many diverse fields.