Currier House Masters Richard W. Wrangham and Elizabeth A. Ross will be taking a sabbatical next year. A Harvard Law School professor and a research coordinator at the Harvard School of Public Health will be taking their place while they are gone.

Unlike a number of other House Masters who have said their good-byes this year, Wrangham and Ross won't be leaving for good, but still...what's going on?

Ross sent the following e-mail to the Currier House community about half an hour ago.

Dear Currier

It is with decidedly mixed feelings that we are sending you this email to announce that for the next year, we will be taking a sabbatical in Europe and Africa.

On the one hand we are thrilled by the new opportunities that 2010-2011 will offer us. We will be based in Cambridge UK. Our expected highlights for the year will include two months spent living with Hadza hunter-gatherers in the savanna of northern Tanzania, an extended conference in Japan, touring in central Tanzania, and of course time in Uganda with Elizabeth’s Kasiisi schools project and Richard’s chimpanzee studies. Richard also hopes to edit a book on chimpanzee behavioral ecology, and make headway on a book about violence.

But on the other hand we are very sad not to be spending time next year here. In the last 18 months we have quickly come to regard Currier as our home. The extraordinary good will and wonderful sens of welcome that you have extended ever since our arrival makes us totally appreciate this warm-hearted house. We greatly regret that we will not be seeing the current Junior and Sophomore classes throughout your Senior and Junior years.

To make up for our disappointment at missing the 2010-2011 year we are delighted to say that we will return here for Commencement in May 2011, so that we can at least see the 2011 Seniors in your final Currier week!

We are very grateful to James L. Cavallaro and Nadejda Marques, who have been appointed as interim housemasters during our year away, for welcoming us to share Commencement 2011 with them. Currier is indeed fortunate to have Jim and Nadejda spending a year here. Associate Dean Suzy Nelson will announce their appointment tomorrow. Briefly, Jim Cavallaro has served as a clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School and executive director of the School’s Human Rights Program. Nadejda Marques is a research coordinator for the Cost of Inaction Project at the Harvard School of Public Health’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. We feel very confident that Currier will be in terrific hands.

All best wishes

Richard and Elizabeth

For continued updates, check TheCrimson.com.