I was a fellow at CASBS in 1989-90. At that time, one could not apply to be a fellow and when the letter inviting me to come arrived, I was somewhat perplexed, having never heard of the Center, and almost threw it out. Happily, I decided to investigate and, of course, accepted. I am sure I am not the only fellow to profess that it was the best, and probably most productive, year of my academic life. I wrote a 400 page book (Romancing the Past: The Rise of Vernacular Prose Historiography in Thirteenth-Century France) and several articles, benefiting from the editorial help that the Center provided. One of the truly useful traits of the Center then was that no one could have a phone, so we could work undisturbed throughout the day. I remember that a few people spoke about doing something called “email,” completely unknown to most of us at the time, since the Internet was not yet really on our horizon, a fact that doubtless promoted the extraordinary productivity of most fellows while there. The list of famous books written at the Center is too long and too well-known to require rehearsal here, but it is impressive to say the least.
One of the marvelous things about the Center was its combination of intellectual work and sociability. Although I did not participate in Bob Scott’s after-lunch volleyball game, I did join a group who walked in the hills instead. I also made numerous friends both at the Center and Stanford, played tennis with another Fellow at least twice a week, gave and went to numerous dinners , all the while expanding the range of my intellectual interests. In that sense, the Center came to define for me what I like to think of as a socio-intellectual community. Although as a medieval historian, one might think I was somewhat out of place, in fact, there was that year also an important classical historian, who proved enormously helpful when I was writing the chapter of my book that dealt with the first Old French translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia. The fact that medievalists and classicists were included among the invited Fellows was a significant aspect of the extraordinary diversity of those who participated in its programs, something that one can hope the Center will continue to encourage, despite its changing nature. Present also was a group of sociobiologists who claimed that a calculation of cost-benefit was an ingrained structure in the brain that governed all human behavior. Needless to say, there were many of us, including Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, also fellows that year, who objected strenuously to this proposition, so we organized our own seminar, which met once a week to debate the issues raised by such a claim. Although none of us were convinced, we did learn a fair amount of neuroscience along the way, something that has proven to be useful as neurological foci begin to enter into consideration in humanistic study in fields like affect theory.
Given the wonderful experience I had a Fellow, I was delighted when asked to join the Board of Directors at the Center, on which I sat from 2009 until 2014. Although the Center is changing, allowing people now to apply and promoting larger numbers of groups to come even for relatively short periods of time, my experience on the Board demonstrated that it remains a wonderful, and for many people, defining intellectual experience for the Fellows lucky enough to be selected.
Gabrielle M. Spiegel, Krieger -Eisenhower Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
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