Princeton launches Society of Fellows
The Princeton Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts will
bring young scholars to campus to enhance their teaching and
research while providing an infusion of fresh ideas and
approaches to education and scholarship.
The society will ultimately number as many as 24
postdoctoral scholars in the humanities, social sciences and
natural sciences.
The society, which was made possible by a lead gift from
charter trustee Lloyd Cotsen '50, includes the Cotsen
Fellows in the Humanities, named in his honor. A longtime
supporter of humanities programs and teaching innovation at
Princeton, Cotsen established a library of rare children's
books at the University in 1997. Former CEO of Neutrogena
Corp., he now heads Cotsen Management Corporation of Los
Angeles.
"The Princeton Society of Fellows represents a profoundly
important initiative for the liberal arts at Princeton,"
said President Shapiro. "I am most grateful to my colleague
and friend Lloyd Cotsen for his vision and generosity in
helping us establish a program that, year after year, will
bring new excitement and vigor to the intellectual life of
the University."
Based in Henry House
Each year the University will appoint as many as eight
new postdoctoral scholars from a wide range of academic
departments and specialties who will serve three-year terms
as Princeton Fellows, under the aegis of the Humanities
Council. Based in Joseph Henry House, the society also will
include distinguished University faculty as senior fellows,
who will choose the postdoctoral fellows in consultation
with academic departments. Both groups of fellows will meet
regularly for discussion, participate in seminars and
conferences, and collaborate on new teaching projects.
Together they will be a center for interdisciplinary
research and scholarship on the Princeton campus.
The postdoctoral fellows, who will also have advisers in
the departments of their individual disciplines, will teach
a broad array of courses offered by the Humanities Council
and by other academic departments at levels ranging from
Freshman Seminars to advanced courses. They will increase
opportunities at the University for cross-disciplinary
learning, contribute to an atmosphere of intellectual
curiosity, and foster a closer interchange among
undergraduates, graduate students and faculty.
The Society of Fellows will be chaired by Alexander
Nehamas, Edmund N. Carpenter II Professor in the Humanities,
who also chairs the Council of the Humanities.
"The society will add to every aspect of teaching and
research throughout the University," Nehamas said, "and with
the Cotsen Fellows at its core, it will be of particular
importance to the humanities. It will provide us with a
permanent, but constantly renewed, group of young, talented
and imaginative scholars. All of us -- students, faculty and
the fellows themselves -- will learn new things."
Senior fellows appointed
The Humanities Council recently appointed the first group
of senior fellows: Harold Foster, professor of art and
archaeology; Anthony Grafton, Dodge Professor of History;
Jennifer Hochschild, professor of politics and public
affairs; Simon Levin, George M. Moffett Professor of
Biology; Joyce Carol Oates, Roger S. Berlind Professor in
the Humanities; Josiah Ober, David Magie Class of 1897
Professor of Classics; and Michael Wood, Charles Barnwell
Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English.
This fall a search will begin for seven postdoctoral
fellows to arrive in September 2000. In addition to three
Cotsen Fellows in the Humanities, there will be two fellows
in the social sciences and two in the natural sciences. They
will join two scholars already at Princeton as fellows in
the Council of the Humanities: classicist David Chamberlain
and intellectual historian Peter Gordon.
Cotsen's gift establishing the Princeton Society of
Fellows in the Liberal Arts is part of the Anniversary
Campaign for Princeton, launched in 1995 to celebrate the
250th anniversary of the signing of the University's
charter. The campaign, which has raised more than $740
million, is seeking to raise a total of $900 million to
strengthen Princeton's programs of teaching, scholarship and
research.
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