< Back to Front Page Text size +

Albright institute coming to Wellesley

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor June 12, 2009 12:01 AM

By Joseph Williams, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is in discussions to donate her papers to Wellesley College, inspiring the school to create an international studies school in her honor to train a new generation of women for the world stage.

Wellesley officials confirmed this week that the Madeleine K. Albright Institute for Global Affairs will begin classes in January, and Albright, the nation's first female chief diplomat, will be the school's first visiting professor. The program, which will admit between 40 and 50 undergraduates this year, will teach students to think broadly about complex international issues such as war, famine, and climate change.

Along with traditional political science and international affairs classes, students will also take courses in religion, sociology, anthropology, and other academic fields that can help them better understand the root causes of global problems.

"The Albright Institute will be a place where scholars and practitioners can gather to research, to reflect on, and discuss and debate global issues," Wellesley College President H. Kim Bottomly said in a statement. "It will be a place that brings a focused international perspective to our liberal arts curriculum. It will be a place that will play a critical role in Wellesley’s education of future women leaders across the world."

Albright -- a 1959 Wellesley graduate and the commencement speaker two years ago -- told the Globe that she is "over the moon" with the honor, which she will announce in a keynote speech this weekend at her 50th class reunion. "They actually came to me because they were interested in trying to figure out how to really expand what they already do so well: training young women for leadership in a variety of fields," she said in an interview.

Wellesley spokeswoman Elizabeth Gildersleeve said yesterday that the idea for the institute emerged from discussions between Albright and the college over the working papers Albright accumulated during her career. Because some of Albright's papers contain classified material, the donation is still in the works, Gildersleeve said. Officials are determining which papers can be released immediately, and which cannot be donated because they are secret.

The institute will be established regardless of when or whether the papers are donated. Gildersleeve said Wellesley is establishing a $6 million endowment for the institute, "and, conservatively speaking, we are more than halfway there." Despite the rocky economy, she added, "Our fundraising efforts have been gratifying."

The institute's interdisciplinary approach reflects her own philosophy about the complex dimensions of world affairs, Albright said, but it also is a significant departure from the traditional approach most colleges take on international studies.

As an undergraduate, Albright said, her curriculum was heavy on history and political science, and "it was a really big deal to take economics."

But as a diplomat, Albright said she quickly realized the world's problems are multi-dimensional, and what she learned studying economics, for instance, helped her understand forces at work behind various conflicts. "I have had to understand science," said Albright, who served as secretary of state from 1997 to 2001 under President Clinton. "I just came back from the Arctic. I now understand global warming."

  • CommentComment
  • EmailEmail
add your comment *(If you put a URL in your comment, it must be relevant )
Required
Required (will not be published)

This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.

About Political Intelligence

Reports from Boston Globe reporters and editors about the Obama administration, the Massachusetts congressional delegation, and other national political happenings.

@GlobePolitical on Twitter

    waiting for twitterWaiting for twitter.com to feed in the latest...

News from the Washington Bureau

Kerry says he always intended to pay tax

Senator John F. Kerry yesterday acknowledged for the first time that he mishandled the political fallout from questions about taxes on his new $7 million yacht berthed in Rhode Island, but insisted that he always intended to make the $500,000 payment once he had registered the boat in Massachusetts. (Globe Staff, 12:53 a.m.)

Sharp dissent as $37b OK’d for Afghan war

A bitterly divided House approved $37 billion in new spending yesterday for the war in Afghanistan after a heated floor debate about whether the conflict is unnecessary and diverting resources from the larger fight against terrorism. (Globe Staff, 7/27/10)

Kerry under pressure as leak energizes war critics

WASHINGTON — The leak of classified documents that suggest the American-backed Pakistani government has been secretly helping the Taliban has intensified scrutiny of the policy of Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry, who has pushed for billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan as part of the Afghanistan war strategy. (Globe Staff, 7/27/10)

Senator Kerry’s evolving views

■ February 2008: Senator Kerry traveled to Pakistan with Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican. They returned with a plan to triple US aid to Pakistani civilians, who were demanding that then-leader Pervez Musharraf step aside to make way for elections, which took place later that year. “We could sense ... (Globe Staff, 7/27/10)

Pentagon workers tied to child porn

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have identified several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances who allegedly purchased and downloaded child pornography, including an undisclosed number who used their government computers to obtain the illegal material, according to investigative reports. (Globe Staff, 7/23/10)

Push on to have professor head consumer agency

WASHINGTON — Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, whose rise to prominence has been fueled partly by her proposal for a federal consumer protection bureau, now is at the center of a political fight over whether President Obama should nominate her to run the powerful regulatory body. (Globe Staff, 7/21/10)

Calculus for primary is all new in N.H.

CONCORD, N.H. — Kelly Ayotte’s pitch to New Hampshire conservatives is right out of the Republican playbook and exactly what many small-government Granite Staters want to hear: Deport illegal immigrants, repeal the new health care law, cut taxes. (Globe Staff, 7/19/10)

Brown’s jobless bill wins little support

Scott Brown, with some justification, makes frequent claims to bipartisanship. But as the Republican senator from Massachusetts prepared to cast another vote next week against an extension of benefits for jobless Americans, he expressed frustration. Democrats, he said, never gave his alternative plan to extend benefits a serious look. (Globe Staff, 7/16/10)

Financial rules overhaul OK’d

The US Senate yesterday passed a sweeping overhaul of financial regulations, getting crucial support from three New England Republicans in a vote that hands President Obama a major legislative victory as his party heads into midterm elections. (Globe Staff, 7/15/10)

Fund-raising lifts Romney’s 2012 prospects

Mitt Romney has raised nearly $3.5 million for his political action committee in the first half of the year, a sum that dwarfs that of other possible 2012 Republican presidential candidates and establishes the former Massachusetts governor as a potent political force. (Globe Correspondent, 7/20/10)
archives