Exploratory Seminars

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study is committed to advancing knowledge across disciplinary boundaries and to creating an intellectual community that inspires new perspectives, thereby transforming research and scholarship. One of our goals is to foster cooperation and collaboration among faculty from different Harvard schools and units, enabling intellectual paths to merge that may not otherwise have intersected.

Through our program of Exploratory Seminars, the Radcliffe Institute fosters such new intellectual ventures in the arts and humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Harvard ladder faculty and former Radcliffe Institute fellows are eligible to submit proposals to the program.

See descriptions of 2011–2012 Exploratory Seminars.

Program Description and Guidelines

Exploratory Seminars convene scholars, researchers, and artists for short-term collaborations of one to three days during both the academic year and the summer months. Participants come from all academic fields, the arts, and the professions. These seminars encourage and enable scholars and researchers to take intellectual risks while working in a congenial environment with colleagues from their own or other fields to define new questions, test hypotheses, and advance knowledge. The seminars frequently jumpstart collaborations and initiate future research.

Proposals for these seminars are not expected to provide polished, complete visions for the research. On the contrary, we seek explicitly to provide maximum freedom for intellectual exploration and innovative thinking. There is no restriction as to subject matter or disciplinary concentration. Proposals may involve single disciplines or multidisciplinary groups. We encourage the submission of proposals that cross departmental, divisional, or school boundaries. Moreover, we look with special favor upon proposals that provide opportunities for junior faculty to participate alongside senior faculty, thereby enhancing their intellectual development and visibility. Seminars usually involve 10 to 18 scholars, with at least three or four of them being Harvard faculty and the balance coming from other universities in the US and around the world.

Radcliffe does not fund larger, more formal meetings like conferences under this program, and the Exploratory Seminars are not meant to be public events in any way.

If a proposal is accepted, Radcliffe provides meeting space and administrative support prior to and throughout the seminar. The Institute organizes meals and will cover costs of up to $18,000 for food, travel, and lodging for seminar participants.

A seminar leader is expected to submit a brief report on the outcomes of the seminar within a month of the seminar’s completion.

Read more about this Radcliffe program in “Seminars Convene Harvard Faculty Members and Colleagues from Other Universities.”

Submission of Proposals

The deadline to submit proposals for 2012–2013 has passed. Only in extraordinary circumstances can a proposal be reviewed outside the normal timeline. The deadline to submit proposals for 2013–2014 is November 2012.

For more information, please contact:
Phyllis Strimling, Program Director, 617-495-8277

For substantive questions related to:

Science proposals:
Please contact Professor Joanna Aizenberg, jaiz@seas.harvard.edu (physical sciences), or Professor Joan Ruderman, ruderman@hms.harvard.edu (life sciences).

Social Science proposals:
Please contact Professor Robert Sampson, rsampson@wjh.harvard.edu.

History and Humanities proposals:
Please contact Professor Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, burchart@fas.harvard.edu, Professor Leah Price, lprice@fas.harvard.edu, or Professor Ann Blair, amblair@fas.harvard.edu.

Questions on cross-disciplinary proposals are welcomed by any of the above.

Previous Seminars

For descriptions of past seminars see:

2011–2012 Exploratory Seminars2010–2011 Exploratory Seminars2009–2010 Exploratory SeminarsSeminars Convene Harvard Faculty Members and Colleagues from Other Universities2008–2009 Advanced and Exploratory Seminars2003–2004 Advanced and Exploratory Seminars2004–2005 Advanced and Exploratory Seminars2005–2006 Advanced and Exploratory Seminars2006–2007 Advanced and Exploratory Seminars2007–2008 Exploratory and Advanced Seminars
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