Hill Selected as Radcliffe Institute Fellow

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has selected Professor Nancy Hill to be a Radcliffe Institute fellow for the 2014–2015 academic year. Hill joins 50 women and men who will have one year at Harvard’s institute for advanced study to pursue ambitious individual projects while part of a vibrant multidisciplinary community.

Many scientists, scholars, and artists dream of dedicating a year to the pursuit of innovative and independent work in an intellectually rich and supportive environment. Most of them wake from that reverie to teach classes, meet pressing deadlines, attend committee meetings, and fulfill other obligations. But Professor Hill will actually have one year to dedicate to developing new work and ideas. As a Radcliffe Fellow, Hill will have access to the university’s libraries, the stimulation of other fellows, and the help of dedicated undergraduates hired through the Radcliffe Research Partners program.

“A decade before I became dean, I was a fellow at the Institute, where I finished a book I had been working on for a number of years,” said Dean Lizabeth Cohen RI ’02, who is the Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies at Harvard. “I know firsthand how crucial the time and space of a Radcliffe fellowship year are for deep imaginative thinking and intensive writing.”

Hill will join scholars, scientists, and artists from around the world in the Radcliffe Fellowship Program, which has an acceptance rate of just 4 percent, an admission rate more competitive than that of Harvard College.

Nancy Hill is a developmental psychologist and professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. During her fellowship year, she will focus on demographic gaps in achievement among adolescents and examine and identify the bridges among families, schools, and communities that promote and mitigate them.

Throughout the year, the 50 Radcliffe fellows will share their ideas with one another and the public through presentations, lectures, concerts, and exhibitions.

The Radcliffe Institute has awarded more than 700 fellowships since its founding in 1999. The complete list of 2014–2015 fellows is online: www.radcliffe.harvard.edu.

About the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University is dedicated to creating and sharing transformative ideas across the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The Fellowship Program annually supports the work of 50 leading artists and scholars. Academic Ventures fosters collaborative research projects and sponsors lectures and conferences that engage scholars with the public. The Schlesinger Library documents the lives of American women of the past and present for the future, furthering the Institute’s commitment to women, gender, and society. Learn more about the people and programs of the Radcliffe Institute at www.radcliffe.harvard.edu.