At the time she said that one possible explanation was that more women Faculty members are being promoted to senior Faculty positions from within departments.

A lack of female senior Faculty members within a department can pose problems when recruiting women to fill junior Faculty positions, Nancy Tobin ’49, research chair for the Committee for the Equality of Women at Harvard (CEWH), told The Crimson in February. CEWH was founded by Radcliffe alums in 1988.

BRIDGING DIVIDES

Continuing a recent trend, many of this year’s faculty hires are interdisciplinary researchers.

David N. Rodowick, who helped develop film studies programs at three other universities, including Yale and King’s College, London, will become the second full professor of film studies in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) this fall.

Rodowick has big plans for Harvard’s film studies program, including a new course which would combine film and philosophy.

Next year, he will be teaching VES 170a, “Introduction to Visual Studies and Film Analysis;” VES 191, “From Cinematic to Digital Culture;” and VES 192r, “Philosophy and Film.”

The “Philosophy and Film” class is particularly in line with Rodowick’s research interests.

Having trained as a philosopher, Rodowick said he studies “the history of film theory and aesthetic thought about film in relationship to philosophies about art.”

Formerly a practicing artist, Rodowick said he is particularly excited about working in the studio arts environment of VES. He said he believes that he can help to bridge the divide between studio work and theory in the study of art.

“Film studies is going to be a way of branching out in a broad and deep way to the undergraduate community and bringing new people into VES,” he said. “I love preaching to the church of cinema.”

Wendy B. Mendes, the former Miss California who will be joining the psychology department from the University of California at San Francisco, also has a dual focus.

Mendes’s research combines social psychology with psychophysiology. For instance, she has examined how people’s bodies react when they encounter people of other ethnicities or during particularly stressful interactions.

Mendes said that her particular interdisciplinary approach may be unique among the members of Harvard’s psychology department.

“There is a lot of emphasis on more interdisciplinary training...because it really brings a unique perspective to our research questions,” she said. “I think I might be one of the first who bridges the specific areas that I do.”