Radcliffe Dean discusses her priorities for the institute
Tomiko Brown-Nagin’s intellectual interests and pursuits are varied, connected, and run deep. So leading an institution devoted to interdisciplinary work and research seems the perfect fit for the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Brown-Nagin said her years growing up in South Carolina after the passage of the Civil Rights Act inspired her interest in law, and her exposure to “the life of the mind” in college drove her love of history. The joy in exploring both, she said, “explains why I am here.” A historian, lawyer, and authority on constitutional law, she is the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School and a history professor in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Brown-Nagin, who was a Radcliffe fellow in 2016‒2017, recently spoke with the Gazette about her vision for the institute and the concept of Radcliffe Engaged, her new strategic initiative to connect with Harvard and...