Interview with Susan Davis

Abstract

Interview in three sessions with Susan Davis, division administrator for Caltech Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) from 1981 to 2012. Ms. Davis briefly recaps her youth and education in New England, her work with economists at the University of Rochester, and her marriage to Caltech economist Lance Davis before moving into a discussion of her thirty-five years with Caltech’s Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), including more than three decades as division administrator. She talks about the growth of the division’s undergraduate and graduate programs in the social sciences, the reactions this inspired within the division and across the Caltech campus, and discusses the relationship between social scientists and humanists within the division and with Caltech’s physical scientists. She recounts her years working with division chairs R. Huttenback, R. Noll, D. Grether, J. Ledyard, J. Ensminger, and J. Katz and with numerous HSS personalities, and discusses the evolution and growth of HSS’s academic programs over nearly four decades. She also talks about her service on Caltech staff committees and offers her personal perspective on changes in the campus environment and working conditions for staff, particularly staff women, over her years at Caltech.