Books clutter the Cabot House room of Cara W. Robertson '90. There are texts on history, literature, women's studies. There are tomes both new and old, small and large, fat and thin.

"It is incredible how many books she has here, and she has even more at home," confides roommate Amanda J. Toole '90. "When she was writing her thesis, books were even piled high on the floor."

It is the varied selection, the multiplicity of subjects and titles, that presents a clearer picture of Robertson. Her academic world has combined a new Harvard discipline, women's studies, with the traditional fields of history and literature in a combined concentration. She has placed the Emersons and Whitmans alongside feminist theorists like Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir under the rubric of her field.

The world that Robertson has created for herself finds expression in the written and spoken word, in the continual application of analysis and, in many cases, re-analysis. As a member of Harvard's first graduating Women's Studies class, Robertson, fittingly, brings both a trademark skepticism and strong sense of intellectual independence to her studies.

Though an avid reader--Robertson says she enjoys the unabridged version of Clarissa, Samuel Richardson's 1500-page novel-her friends and professors note that she is far from conventionally bookish. Rather, she combines an academic bent with social activism and a piercing, ironic wit.

"I am convinced that everyone hates Clarissa because the abridged version cuts out the best parts, the sense that Clarissa is a witty person," Robertson says.

And wit is important to Robertson, who applies her own to all aspects of her world. It can be seen in her academic endeavors--her senior thesis on Lizzie Borden earned her a Hoopes prize, as well as the History and Literature award--as well as in her approach to personal, cultural and philosophical issues.

"She has the most dazzling sardonic wit. Shecan see the irony in almost anything," saysProfessor of History OIwen Hufton, chair of theCommittee on Degrees in Women's Studies andRobertson's thesis advisor.

Humor can also be a balm for disappointment, asRobertson's short story "The Rhodes Not Taken"illustrates. In this tale, Robertson satirizes herencounter with the Rhodes application process andthe interview committee.

Her story describes an "informal reception"where she meets her fellow Rhodescompetitors--whom she quickly and humorouslydivides into three categories: those aspiring toslickness, the slick, and the truly slick.

It is the actual interview, however, thatallows Robertson to parody the hostility that she,like most Women's Studies concentrators, hasencountered when forced to justify theconcentration.

When an interview in the tale asks Robertson,"What's the future of Women's Studies/WorldDomination?" she writes, "I began to explainfeminist film theory and the male gaze--perhapsbecause I felt I was under it. The return of therepressed from Women's Studies 10d: The Curse ofAlice Jardine. As you might imagine, this did notgo over as well as it would have in a blackleather-jacketed crowd."

Robertson's decision to spice her study oftraditional disciplines with a focus on women'sissues reflects her attitude not only toacademics, but the real world as well. Herextracurricular activities--she was co-presidentof both the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) andResponse, a peer counseling group that handlesissues of sexual harassment--blend smoothly withher intellectual aims. In a sense, the classroomand the real world were destined to merge for thiswoman who has developed such a strong sense of theways in which the intellectual and the personalinteract.

"I was studying these issues in the classroomand that led me to translate my concerns to therealm of social activism," Robertson says abouther involvement with RUS and Response.

"The beauty of Women's Studies is once youstart to see it, you see it everywhere," she adds.