Thirty-eight women poets, biologists, activists and historians will come to Cambridge this fall to accept fellowships with the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe in what may be the last single-sex group of Bunting fellows, the Institute's director announced last week.

When they begin their yearlong appointments in September, the women will work on independent projects and present their work through the Bunting's colloquia series.

"We always bring an outstanding group of fellows every year," said Rita Nakashima Brock, director of the Bunting Institute. "We have so many highly talented women who apply."

Next year's group may include highly talented men as well. In February, Brock announced that applications for the 2000-01 year will be made gender-neutral, allowing men to apply to what has been called "America's think tank for women."

Anthropology Fellow Patricia A. McAnany said she is happy to have the year to concentrate solely on her research.

"I'm very excited to get have the time to concentrate and focus and put this thing together. When you're teaching... it's really hard to get the time to devote to a project," she said.

McAnany, a professor of archaeology at Boston University, will spend her year studying archaeological evidence from ongoing studies of pre-Mayan life in South America.

"I'm really looking forward to it," she said.

This year's fellows are an eclectic group, coming from as far as Oberlin College in Ohio and the University of Texas and pursuing studies in subjects ranging from astronomy to poetry.