I would like at least that my own intellectual activity should not make things worse or more dangerous, and, preferably, that it would make things by a tiny margin a little bit better, a little bit clearer, a little bit…
Blog Archives
My Year at the Center
Gabrielle M. Spiegel, Class of 1989-90
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…
How CASBS Became Responsible for Promoting School Vouchers: The Inside Story
Paul E. Peterson, Class of 1996-97
My plans for my (1996-97) year at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) were firm: I was definitely doing nothing—other than a final edit of a book and tidying up a textbook manuscript. I had…
My Year at the Center
Richard M. Lerner, Class of 1980-81
Like almost every other day at a few minutes after noon, I walked into the bright sun carrying my tray from the lunchroom. Squinting (I wore no glasses of any kind in 1980 and 1981), I looked to see if…
Like a True Thrill, Both Delicious and Terrifying
Cecilia L. Ridgeway, Class of 2005-06, 2012-13
I was first a CASBS fellow in 2005-06. As a Stanford faculty member since 1991, I had long viewed the Center as a kind of academic nirvana that I was determined to eventually inhabit for a year. From the valley…
Generational Continuity at CASBS
Janet Mann, Class of 1994-95 & 2005-06
CASBS helped shape my research and career in so many ways, that I cannot imagine what would have happened had I not spent my early years as an Assistant Professor at CASBS (1994-1995). The resulting volume, Cetacean Societies, was the…
An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse
Jeffrey Alexander, Class of 1998-99
In the mid-1990s, then Director Neil Smelser made me an offer I couldn’t refuse – the opportunity to work as his colleague on three-year project funded by the Hewlett Foundation, which would culminate in my organizing a year of collective…
My Year at CASBS
L. Alan Sroufe, Class of 1984-85
I was fortunate to spend the 1984-1985 year at the center. I was just 43 years old and at a very important point in my career. At Minnesota we had started one of the most ambitious longitudinal studies of development…
Serendipity at CASBS in 1971-72 That Stimulated a Career Change
Frederick L. Newman, Class of 1971-72
I was five years beyond graduating with a Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology) and was in awe of being one of the Fellows at the Center, interacting with psychologists I held in very high regard (Lee Cronbach, Gardner Lindsey, Henry Riecken, Roger…
My Year at CASBS
Daniel C. Dennett, Class of 1979-80
My year at CASBS was 1979-80, as a member of the group assembled by Stanford Professor John McCarthy, founding father of Artificial Intelligence (and coiner of the term), to spend the year working on Artificial Intelligence and philosophy. That year…