Being part of the Center for more than two decades was a genuine privilege. I made friendships and acquaintanceships with fellows and their families, attended hundreds of seminars on topics spanning a wide range of research topics in the social and behavioral sciences and related fields. I shared luncheons and social occasions with Fellows and listened with fascination to their conversations about developing ideas. I was privileged to work daily with a series of Center Directors, all of them distinguished scholars and admirable human beings. (I also played several hundred volleyball games, where my quickness on the court earned me the apt nickname “adagio”). It would be difficult to think of a richer assortment of stimulating, enjoyable and energizing experiences, ones that rendered me uninterested in employment elsewhere in academia – and quite possibly unfit for it.
Attempting to describe the essence of these experiences in a single statement is futile. About the best I can hope to do is glimpse it by describing qualities of the Center’s culture than make it such a magical place. The qualities I most admire are the ways that the Center operates as a community to foster, support, and nourish Fellows, thereby contributing to the excellence of the scholarship they produce.
Spending a sabbatical leave working in isolation in a library or as a visitor at another institution is just not the same as spending it in a community like the Center. Fellows find themselves in the company of 40 or more intelligent scholars, all of whom are on leave at the same time, each energetically engaged in creating knowledge. They also find a supportive staff at their disposal, one that values scholarship and is devoted to doing whatever it can to help advance each Fellow’s work. This culture is evident from the way daily life at the Center is organized. It affords large blocks of uninterrupted time, interspersed with opportunities for unplanned, serendipitous conversations, always without compelling them. It encourages and values relaxation and regular exercise as important to the creative process, and offers opportunities for casual socializing in which close and enduring friendships naturally develop.
It took me a bit of time before I fully appreciated how these qualities blended together to facilitate the hard work of creating new knowledge. Once I grasped this insight I came to understand how fundamental a supportive, nourishing community is for achieving excellence in scholarship. A setting that offers respite from departmental and university politics and duties, one in which the only real resource to fight over is ideas, providing a sure recipe for unleashing creative productivity and offering optimal conditions for investing in long term intellectual capital.
Making this happen is no simple matter. Here the Center owes a special debt to Gardner and subsequent Directors who were absolute masters at bringing this vibrant sense of community into existence and creating the culture that nurtured it. To an outsider it might seem to happen effortlessly, but for the Director and staff whose job it was to make it happen, it was anything but effortless. My colleagues were enormously skilled at knowing how to surreptitiously arrange occasions and events that would bring Fellows together to talk with one another without anyone especially noticing or feeling in any way required or compelled to participate. It demanded of staff an attitude of helpful responsiveness; a sense that they should do whatever was in their power to facilitate the scholarly work of Fellows. It required coordinated efforts by everyone on the staff: receptionists, handy people, administrative assistants, librarians, program managers, expert editors, computer and technical support people, those who arranged for Fellows to be paid, those who helped them with housing and who organized picnics, outings and social hours for them and their families, the kitchen staff who fed them (if you feed them they will come), and on up the line. Each made important contributions both large and small, miraculously bringing into existence each year a culture and ethos of communal egalitarianism that helped foster creativity and promote seriousness of purpose among Fellows.
(The deft yet gentle touch the staff evidenced is exemplified by an exchange I once had with a cherished colleague, the late Frances Duignan. One Fellow, prior to his arrival, was proving extremely unreasonable, demanding, irrational and wildly erratic about details of housing and travel, requiring Frances to consult with me on a daily basis about how to respond to his latest ever-changing requests and instructions. When at last all was settled and arranged, she said to me “Once he gets here I will get even. I’ll kill him with kindness”.)
By their actions, large and small, staff communicated the unmistakable message that they valued and expected civility, admired scholarship and respected those creating it. Though they never said as much, it was clearly implied that in exchange for their services they expected, nay demanded that Fellows use their time at the Center wisely and well.
Fellows would often say to me that the Center appeared to run itself. Nothing could be further from the truth, but at the same time this impression was something I always considered to be the highest form of compliment one could pay to me and my colleagues. It bespoke a staff that understood to a person that they were meant to be seen but seldom heard, ready to help but never intrusive, working quietly behind the scenes to make sure Fellows were being looked after and dealt with thoughtfully.
Achieving this, while hard work, was in truth great fun and deeply rewarding. More than a few Fellows have described their time at the Center as the best year of their life. Reflecting on my nearly two decades as Associate Director I can make an even bolder claim: it was the twenty best years of my life!
Leave a Reply