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Charting a New Course for Harvard's Women Faculty

OLWEN HUFTON, WOMEN'S STUDIES CHAIRMAN:

Awarded an honors degree in history from the University of London in 1959, Hufton remained at the university to pursue postgraduate studies on French history in the 18th century.

Hufton published her first book, "The Bayeux in the Late 18th Century," in 1967, five years after receiving her Ph.D. in history. She has written two other books, one of which, "The Poor of Eighteenth Century France," won the presitigous Wolfson Award in 1975. The Wolfson Award is the only outstanding history award given annually in England, Hufton said.

She is finishing a fourth book, "Women in Early Modern Europe," which will be published at the end of the year by Knopf publishers.

"The book is about women and the family, crime, prostitution, and many other areas," Hufton said about the upcoming 300-plus page work.

Hufton will leave "a personal chair" at England's University of Reading where she taught courses on early modern European history, the history of women, and the history of the 18th century, she said.

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A personal chair is a position more presitigious than a tenured one because it only endows the salary of a specific faculty member, Hufton said. "When I leave, the chair will disappear."

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