CLOSING THE YEAR, OPENING THE GATES In its 36th year, The Program in Modern Thought and Literature is still the top interdisciplinary program in the country, and the number of applicants has remained very high. Faithful to its mission, the program attracts and retains each year the best students with a variety of interests manifest in intellectual projects and initiatives. During my tenure, the Program will seek to assert an intellectual presence and encourage students' initiative for collective projects, such as workshops, symposia or conferences. In 2005-6 the former Director Professor David Palumbo-Liu organized a conference on Rational Choice Theory and the Humanities. Also during 2005-6, with the French and Italian Department, the Program, the current Director and a MTL Committee member, Dan Edelstein from the French department, organized an international and interdisciplinary conference "Lost Empire: France and Its Other Worlds" in which literary scholars were brought together with anthropologists, historians and other social scientists. Next academic year, on their own initiative MTL students will a organize symposium to reflect on interdisciplinary. Another major event is the projected conference on Human Rights. MTL can only support these projects that cross the barriers between the disciplines in order to promote collaboration and fruitful exchanges. The present Newsletter represents another kind of students' initiatives that will allow collaboration and interaction between MTL students, as well as a circulation of news regarding the program and the different cohorts of MTL graduates. It is a welcome event both to reflect on the past academic year and to herald the new one. Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi Director, Program in Modern Thought and Literature
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