By Debra Bradley Ruder

Gazette Staff

Three faculty members will join the Faculty of Arts and Sciences next month as full professors in anthropology, history, and English.

The promotion of biological anthropologist Maryellen Ruvolo, and the tenure appointments of American historian Lizabeth Cohen of New York University and literary theorist John Guillory of Johns Hopkins University, were approved by the Governing Boards last week.

Ruvolo, who has been associated with different parts of Harvard for more than 25 years, is an expert on molecular genetics who studies the evolution of primates. She is probably best known for her work demonstrating that humans are most closely related to chimpanzees, with gorillas as more distant-related cousins, despite the deceptively similar appearance of chimps and gorillas. She has also been involved with the search for the African Eve, the ancestor of modern women.

"We are delighted to have Professor Ruvolo join the permanent ranks of the department," said Department Chair Peter Ellison. "Her research is at the very forefront of the study of human and primate evolution, and she and her group have already made important contributions to our understanding of our place in the primate family tree."

Ruvolo's laboratory is "a hub of activity and excitement, especially since her acquisition of an automated DNA sequence analyzer with the help of the National Science Foundation," Ellison continued. "She is now working on the design of a facility that will allow the analysis of DNA extracted from fossil material, which promises to transform our understanding of human genetic continuity and change through time." Her research involves undergraduate, graduate, and postdoc students.

Ruvolo earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1974 and her Ph.D. in anthropology in 1983, both from Harvard. She was a research fellow in biological chemistry at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and a postdoctoral fellow in population genetics with Richard Lewontin, in the 1980s.

In 1990, she joined the Anthropology Department as an assistant professor. Among her colleagues is anthropologist David Pilbeam, the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences and Ruvolo's husband.

"This is an exciting time to be working in the fields of anthropology and molecular evolution," she said. "DNA sequence data allow us to reconstruct the past -- who's related to whom among the primates and when they last shared a common ancestor. The fusion of anthropology with molecular biology has opened up new ways of addressing old questions, and it has created many provocative novel questions as well."

Lizabeth Cohen

Cohen is a leading scholar of 20th-century American history whose cutting-edge work brings the insights and methods of social history to the study of politics and to the broader relationship of citizens to the state.

Her first book, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939 (1990), captured a number of awards, including the Bancroft Prize for Distinguished Works in American History and Diplomacy. The book was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize in history.

Cohen's current research focuses on the political consequences of mass consumption in postwar America, including the retail shift from town centers to shopping centers. "I'm asking whether the democracy, egalitarianism, and widespread prosperity that were promised came to be," she explained. "I argue that the transformations accompanying the rise of a mass consumption society has led to increased segmentation of society and the privatization of public space."

Her works are esteemed by scholars yet accessible to a broader public, according to History Department Chair William Kirby.

"She is a marvelously innovative scholar and a gifted teacher," he said. "We are very excited about her coming, and students should be, too. After all, for the first time in a generation we will have a senior scholar teaching the most popular field in U.S. history. It is a major appointment."

After graduating from Princeton in 1973, Cohen taught and worked in museums for a number of years before earning a Ph.D. in American history from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986. She taught at Carnegie Mellon University for six years and has been at NYU since 1992.

Cohen is excited about being part of an effort to reinvigorate the American wing of the History Department. She also looks forward to teaching Harvard's exceptional undergraduate and graduate students and to taking advantage of the Widener, Schlesinger, and other libraries.

Her husband, Herrick Chapman, is a modern French historian who plans to remain at NYU while being affiliated with Harvard's Center for European Studies.

John Guillory

Guillory's appointment is expected to augment the English Department's diversity and strength in literary and cultural theory, and to expand its offerings in Renaissance literature.

"John Guillory is a highly intelligent scholar who is exceptionally good at literary argumentation, is well grounded in the texts, and is working on topics of great contemporary concern," said Department Chair Leo Damrosch. "His scholarship on the construction of a literary canon is perhaps the best on the subject, and his writing on a wide range of topics, although dense, is erudite, accessible, and impressive.

"He is regarded as a first-rate teacher and graduate mentor who brings to the Department a range of theoretical perspectives which are not currently represented," Damrosch added.

Guillory's 1993 book, Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation, analyzed and critiqued the debate in the 1970s and 1980s over the literary canon. It captured the René Wellek Award of the American Comparative Literature Association in 1994.

Today Guillory is working on two books, one exploring the emergence of philosophical prose in early modern England, and the other probing sociological aspects of the study of literature, especially in the University setting. He noted that Harvard led the way, under President Eliot in the late 19th century, from the old Classical curriculum to one that included elective courses.

Guillory earned a bachelor's degree from Tulane University in 1974 and a Ph.D. from Yale in 1979. He taught at Yale for 10 years and has been a professor at Johns Hopkins since 1989.

When asked "Why Harvard?," Guillory said he was particularly attracted to the quality of the student body.

"One of the things I'm looking forward to is teaching undergraduates who are very diverse in their interests," he said. "I also look forward to working with my colleagues in English for whom I have great admiration."