Radcliffe Names Bunting Fellows

Radcliffe has appointed 38 women scholars, writers and artists to year-long fellowships at the Bunting Institute. The recipients of the prestigious prize, who were named in June, will begin their terms in the fall.

The Bunting Institute provides office space and access to University resources to "women in fields in which they continue to be undervalued and underrepresented," according to Radcliffe's statement.

This year's Bunting Fellows are spread among a variety of disciplines, from music composition to biomedical research. Rita N. Brock, director of the Bunting Institute, said all of the Bunting Fellows have something in common in that they are all "on the cutting edge" of their fields.

Past Bunting Fellows have included playwright Anna Deavere Smith and former Vermont governor and ambassador Madeleine Kunin. The fellowships were first offered in 1962.

Bunting Fellows typically use their year at Radcliffe to work on projects or complete books, Brock said.

Fellows are chosen from a pool of about 500 applicants after several rounds of review. The number of fellowships, usually between 35 to 40, varies depending on fundraising.

"We look for people for whom the Bunting year would make the most difference," Brock said.

Throughout the year, fellows share their research during weekly colloquia. Professor Beatrice Hanssen, who completes a term at the Bunting Institute in August, said the colloquia give fellows a chance to gain an interdisciplinary perspective on their studies.

"The informal colloquia...Provided important occasions to learn more about other fellows' project [and] also to carry on conversations and debates across disciplines," she said in an e-mail message.

Sean Burgess, a post-doctoral student in genetics at Harvard and current Bunting fellow, said the colloquia help fellows gauge the importance of their work from a broader perspective.

"[The colloquia] make you step back and look at work from another perspective, and see how your work contributes to society," Burgess said.

Brock said the colloquia, along with gallery openings and concerts by fellows in the arts, "encourage works of excellence by women."

Assistant Professor of History and History and Literature Ann M. Blair '84, who will use her fellowship studying the evolution of the encyclopedia in Europe, says she eagerly awaits the interdisciplinary environment of the Bunting Institute.

"I look forward to a lot of conceptualizing. The whole point of interdisciplinary groups is you can bounce ideas off each other," she said.

Blair is also the recipient of the Radcliffe Junior Faculty Fellowship, awarded to a Bunting Fellow who is also a junior faculty member at Harvard.

Hanssen praised the Bunting Fellowships as a welcome opportunity for women at Harvard, where she said the fraction of female tenured professors is "disappointing."

"There aren't a lot of places that make this collective effort for a whole group of women," said Ellen P. Herman, a current fellow.

In the selection process, candidates are evaluated by a committee of scholars in that field, who send their recommendations on to a general committee. This committee then makes its final recommendations to Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson, who makes the final decision.

Brock said Radcliffe cannot fund every fellow at the same level--some just receive office space. But she estimated each unfunded fellow costs Radcliffe about $20,000 in office and other expenses.

Eight current Harvard affiliate are among next year's Bunting fellows: Blair; Patricia Blake; Associate Professor of Epidemiology Marlene Gold-man; Diane Hoffman-Kim; Loretta Mickley; Assistant Professor of Surgery Marsha Moses; Suzanne Romaine, and Research Associate in Medicine Ellen Weinberg.