Although she is probably one of the most well-versed scholars of film studies at Harvard, Rachel E. Whitaker ’08 started off her college career on the crew team.

This fact might seem odd for a woman of considerable power within the arts scene at Harvard. As president of the Cinematic, Whitaker helped Harvard’s only film-centric publication grow into a thriving organization. As president of the Signet, an exclusive arts and letters society and 138-year-old Harvard institution, Whitaker helped shape the tone of Harvard’s artistic community as a whole. But before all this, Whitaker left an unsatisfying freshman rowing experience to pursue her love of movies.

Whitaker, who is also and inactive Arts editor, has followed a passion for film studies from her kitchen table to the classroom and beyond at Harvard. The silver screen was an integral part of Whitaker’s childhood. The New York City native fondly recounts memories of her high school days, when going to the movies every weekend—and analytically “dissecting” each one over the dinner table the next day—was a family tradition.

When Whitaker arrived in Cambridge, she originally chose to concentrate in History and Literature before realizing that the “literature” she found most intellectually compelling was not the written word but the moving image.

“I thought it could be fun to take what I had thought of as a hobby and make it the meat of my academic work,” she says.

Two years later, Whitaker has successfully made the history of cinema the centerpiece of her academic life at Harvard as a Visual and Environmental Studies concentrator. She just finished writing her senior thesis on the Grove Press, a publishing house and film production company that published such then-controversial works as “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.”

“I wanted to use film as a way to consider the historical context of the 60s and the history of independent distribution in general,” she says.

Whitaker’s interest in independent filmmaking influenced her work with the Cinematic. Founded in 2002, the magazine features movie reviews, interviews with directors and actors, critical essays, and other features on cinema. Its subject matter ranges from independent, art-house films—Whitaker’s personal preference—to Oscar contenders and other blockbusters.

“The idea is to produce a scholarly account of film, to offer a platform where students, professors, and professionals can all contribute,” Whitaker says.

During her tenure as president, Whitaker articulated that vision and used it to substantially strengthen the content and staff of a magazine that Bruce Jenkins, former curator of the Harvard Film Archive, has called “one of the finest student film publications in this country.” Under Whitaker’s leadership, the Cinematic began publishing bianually instead of once a year and established a stronger working relationship with the Harvard Film Archive. She started a comp process for the group, established weekly film screenings, and made the magazine a more visible—and accessible—presence on campus.

While Whitaker played a crucial role in the development of the relatively young Cinematic, it is her work as president of the Signet Society that has further distinguished her as a leader within Harvard’s arts community. The organization provides a space for undergraduates, graduate students, and professors to meet and exchange ideas.

“There are tons of people here who have their fingers in all sorts of pies,” Whitaker says, suggesting that the typical society member has multiple artistic interests. “It’s founded on the idea that one can be very immersed in one craft and have a general interest in the arts.”

When Whitaker assumed control of the Signet, she faced the challenge of continuing the society’s strong tradition of fostering creativity in the arts at Harvard.

“Here, you feel like you’re in the shadows of all these great people,” she says of the society, whose former members include T.S. Eliot, class of 1909, and Norman K. Mailer ’43. “It’s a very humbling experience.”

Under Whitaker’s leadership, the Signet Society and its stately house on Dunster Street have provided a home for students who undertake every kind of creative endeavor, from poetry to filmmaking, becoming what shee calls an artistic “safe haven.”

Whitaker’s efforts to encourage the artistic collaboration and social exchange that have characterized the Signet in the past make it a unique forum for the arts at Harvard, one that stands above any given discipline.

Perhaps the most important role that Whitaker has played as a campus leader is her position as a facilitator of this community. It is in this way that she has most contributed to—and helped galvanize—the artistic life of the College in both the Signet and the Cinematic. “What ties together the Cinematic and the Signet,” she says, “is collaboration, in different senses of the word.”

– Mary A. Brazelton