Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

Radcliffe Magazine Winter 2012

At the end of World War II, the United States recruited Wernher von Braun and more than a hundred other Germans who had worked on the V-2 missile, which the Third Reich used against London and Antwerp.At the end of World War II, the United States recruited Wernher von Braun and more than a hundred other Germans who had worked on the V-2 missile, which the Third Reich used against London and Antwerp.

Featured Magazine Article

American Might: Where "the Good and the Bad Are All Mixed Up"

Diane McWhorter RI ’12 is renowned for the Pulitzer Prize–winning Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. Focused on her hometown of Birmingham in 1963, the book is about history, class, race, the steel industry, and the McWhorter family itself. But its scope is narrow, when compared with her new project.

Teaching Science with Food

We realized “we could actually teach science” with food, said Michael P. Brenner RI ’12 of the megahit Harvard class he helped develop, Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter.

Exploring the Outcomes of Economic Loss: Out of a “lost decade” and straight into economic malaise—how is  the country’s financial condition affecting Americans’ mobility?Exploring the Outcomes of Economic Loss: Out of a “lost decade” and straight into economic malaise—how is the country’s financial condition affecting Americans’ mobility?

Exploring the Outcomes of Economic Loss

Out of a “lost decade” and straight into economic malaise—how is the country’s financial condition affecting Americans’ mobility?

Winter 2012

Radcliffe Magazine Winter 2012
Ellen Willis, circa 1970, peruses issue number 3 of No More Fun and Games, A Journal of Female Liberation, published by Cell 16 in Boston, 1968-1973Ellen Willis, circa 1970, peruses issue number 3 of No More Fun and Games, A Journal of Female Liberation, published by Cell 16 in Boston, 1968-1973

Sex, Hope, and Rock and Roll

The papers of cultural critic Ellen Willis, 1941-2006, are now at the Schlesinger Library. In 1968, after Ellen Willis had published a single article about music—the story of Bob Dylan’s early career—the New Yorker hired her to be its first rock critic. Willis had worked on her Dylan piece, “Before the Flood,” published in the countercultural magazine Cheetah, for five months, and it showed. Her views were complicated, ambiguous, and illuminating. She was already writing as a cultural critic and not limiting herself to music.

Are Women the New Majority in the Workplace? - A secretarial pool at the Mattel offices in New York City in 1956Are Women the New Majority in the Workplace? - A secretarial pool at the Mattel offices in New York City in 1956

Are Women the New Majority in the Workplace?

A symposium looks at the gains women have made in the workplace and considers the challenges that lie ahead. It was a day Clara Goldberg Schiffer ’32 would have enjoyed. From start to finish, the message of speakers at the September 9 symposium titled “The New Majority? The Past, Present, and Future of Women in the Workplace” was about the gains women have made by working together and the fight that still lies ahead to achieve equity with men. In her long career in the federal government, Schiffer dedicated herself to working in behalf of women and children.

Institute Exploration: Drowsy DrivingInstitute Exploration: Drowsy Driving

Drowsy Driving

If you haven’t slept in 24 hours, you’re just as impaired as if you were legally drunk. American drivers, medical researchers at Harvard have a message for you: Wake up. Drowsy driving, these researchers say, is an understudied, underappreciated, and underfunded public health and safety concern. Consider a few facts about the act of operating a motor vehicle while sleep-deprived: Every week, 2 million Americans nod off at the wheel; drowsy drivers get into 1.9 million crashes a year; and 20 percent of all serious motor vehicle accidents—one out of every five—involve sleepy drivers.

Sidney R. Knafel, Diane McWhorter, and Stephen Mann. Photo by Kathleen DooherSidney R. Knafel, Diane McWhorter, and Stephen Mann. Photo by Kathleen Dooher

Honoring and Supporting Two

“I’m delighted that my gift supports two talented Radcliffe fellows during their year at the Institute,” says Sidney R.

Newsmakers Winter 2012

Radcliffe Affiliates Making their Mark