The Near Eastern Languages and Literatures Department will gain Professor James Russel, a specialist in the history and culture of Mesopotamia.

In an exciting acceptance for the Music Department, Professor Robert D. Levin '68 joins the Faculty this fall. Levin, a world-renowned concert pianist, has specialized in completing many of Mozart's unfinished compositions.

Harvard played hardball with fellow Cambridge economic powerhouse MIT this year, snagging economic theorists Oliver Hart and Drew Fudenberg '78, while Professor of Economics Eric S. Maskin refused an MIT offer to join their faculty. Robert Bates, an expert in political economy of development, will join the Government Department.

But the loss of Dillon Professor of International Affairs Joseph S. Nye to the Clinton administration and Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France Stanley H. Hoffmann, who continues his sabbatical next year, means the government department will face a dearth of senior professors.

The University will also feel the loss of the History Department's Mellon Professor of the Social Sciences Simon M. Schama, who will assume a professorship of the humanities at Columbia University.

With senior professor Bernard Bailyn retiring this year, the History Department will also need to find new professors to fill gaps in the areas of modern European and American history. But Oxford professor Edward R. Owen arrives this fall to teach Middle Eastern political and economic history, and two senior searches have been in progress since last fall.

"We won't get anybody who will be able to do what [Schama] was able to do," said acting History Department Chair John Womack Jr. "But it won't be very long until we hire another professor in European history, and from the point of view of the department, we'll be fine."