In March 1968, the Fordham community learned that famous anthropologist Margaret Mead would come to the liberal arts college that was newly established at the Lincoln Center campus.
Mead could have gone anywhere, but came to Fordham because she would have latitude in developing the academic program, said Arthur A. Clarke, S.J., dean of the college, in the March 26 edition of The Ram.
“There has never been a completely Margaret Mead program anywhere,” he said, adding that she would serve as a consultant until coming to Fordham full time in September 1969.
Mead served as a professor of anthropology at the Lincoln Center campus until 1971. She founded the urban studies program and also helped found the University’s Division of Social Sciences, which she chaired.
A prolific author who popularized anthropology, Mead wrote many influential works including Coming of Age in Samoa (William Morrow and Co., 1928), which described the importance of culture in the development of adolescents.
