In celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the Radcliffe Institute, this year’s Radcliffe Day festivities will include an expanded program of panels and speakers, including former Harvard president Neil L. Rudenstine, who was instrumental in the institute’s formation. He will honor its first dean, Drew Faust—now the University’s president—with the Radcliffe Medal “to celebrate her transformative leadership,” according to a Radcliffe spokesperson. Rudenstine is to speak after an introduction by current Radcliffe dean Lizabeth Cohen; he will discuss the vision for the institute, the ideal qualities of its first leader, and how Faust first came to Radcliffe.
The day will also include several panels, including “From Civil War to Civil Rights: The Unending Battle to Vote,” in honor of Faust, who is also Lincoln professor of history and focuses on the Civil War era; “Gender and the Business of Fiction”; and “What is Life? The Science and Ethics of Making New Life in the Laboratory.”
More information and a full listing of events appear here. For coverage of these events, visit harvardmagazine.com on May 30.