Word: riesmans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Ford Professor of Social Science emeritus David Riesman '31 calls academic departments: "Efforts to draw lines which are unrealistic, and only in the mind." But the professor is quick to point out that those imaginary lines are also the very real parameters which shape intellectual disciplines...
Members of the Anthropology Department--those Riesman, a one-time member of Social Relations, calls the "Non-stone and bone men"--and social psychologists merged with the Sociology Department to form "Soc Rel." The intellectual disciplines which had clashed with the egos, political allegiances and perceived interests of Harvard's well-established departments then had free play...
Professor Robert F. Bales, who retired from teaching this semester, was a member of Soc Rel and says the new department was a "great success," luring the best minds in human behavior to Cambridge. Riesman, who also served in Soc Rel, agrees it was a "national magnet." "It brought a great faculty, superb graduate students and it was very attractive to undergraduates," he says. According to Bales, Soc Rel's undergraduate concentrators had interests similar to those who currently pursue degrees in Social Studies...
Ford Professor of Social Science David Riesman'31 also sees the name change as a recognition ofHarvard's altered emphases. "What they're nowsaying to the world is that what we now are is astraight psychology department. The name changewould say to an outsider, `We don't want to dealwith the dreams, the murky, the unclear anymore,"'explains Riesman, whose book "The Lonely Crowd" isa social science classic and who is noted for hisstudies of higher education...
With its broad conception of human behavior,Bales, a former member, says the department was a"huge success." According to another formerdepartment member, Riesman, the department was a"national magnet," attracting, "a great faculty,superb graduate students, and it was veryattractive to undergraduates...