Cambridge, Mass.
For the first time in its 371-year history, Harvard University this week named a woman, Drew Gilpin Faust, as its president. Faust, a 59-year-old historian of the South and the Civil War, succeeds Lawrence Summers, whose presidency began to unravel in 2005, after he suggested that women might lack an “intrinsic aptitude” for the hard sciences. Faust heads the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, a small Harvard think tank. Some colleagues questioned her ability to manage a large organization, but she seems to possess the necessary tact. Referring to her predecessor’s tumultuous tenure, she said Summers’ “powerful thinking and impatience for results cleared the way for important new initiatives.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacyFeature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
